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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

Juan_Lennon416 said:
or just use a different colour between the 400 series and highways (i.e. 7, 12, etc). Why are all the highway and expressway symbols in Ontario black and white?
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Actually, most US highways have black-and-white shields, including the US Routes. California's and Vermont's state highway shields are green, and a few other states, like Minnesota and Colorado, have some colour, but most are simple black-and-white rectangular signs with a simple circle, square, or diamond shape, or the outline of the state or other simple symbol (like New York's shield, Pennsylvania's keystone). You can see them all here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbered_highways_in_the_United_States

There's a little more variety in Canada: British Columbia's shield includes the provincial flag, Quebec has distinctive shields for both Autoroutes and Routes. Nova Scotia has attractive 100-series highway signs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbered_highways_in_Canada
 
I just wish the signage was consistent. Sometimes it just shows the crown, other times it shows the whole shield. Why is there no consistency in that?
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
Just because the inconsistencies are consistent it doesn't mean it's consistent :p
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The trailblazer signs are visually isolated, so the more "elaborate" design helps them stand out. The crowns are usually on signs where there's a lot of other information on the sign, so minimizing the elaborate nature of it is best. It draws attention more to the number than to the shield.

From a design perspective, it actually makes sense to do it the way they do it, although I do agree that 400-series signs should have a distinct colour, much like the QEW does, at least on trailblazers.
 
In addition, the provincial highway number signs should still be appearing on the roads in cities, even if the province no longer pays for their upkeep.
painted_hwy11_lg.jpg
porcelain_hwy5_lg.jpg
 
W. K. Lis said:
In addition, the provincial highway number signs should still be appearing on the roads in cities, even if the province no longer pays for their upkeep.
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I posted something about this a while ago, whereby basically the Province would create "Historic" route signs for old King's Highway routes that have been downloaded. I recommended that highways 2 (whole length), 5 (whole length), 7 (through the GTA and its western segment), 8 (through Hamilton and Niagara), 11 (through Toronto), and 17 (east of Ottawa) be included.

Basically, this would provide easier trailmarkers for anyone wishing to drive those old routes, without necessarily transferring ownership or maintenance responsibility. It would also help highlight their history, since many of them have historical significance.

My suggestion was to do a red shield with white lettering.
 
gweed123 said:
I posted something about this a while ago, whereby basically the Province would create "Historic" route signs for old King's Highway routes that have been downloaded. I recommended that highways 2 (whole length), 5 (whole length), 7 (through the GTA and its western segment), 8 (through Hamilton and Niagara), 11 (through Toronto), and 17 (east of Ottawa) be included.

Basically, this would provide easier trailmarkers for anyone wishing to drive those old routes, without necessarily transferring ownership or maintenance responsibility. It would also help highlight their history, since many of them have historical significance.

My suggestion was to do a red shield with white lettering.
Click to expand...

I'd use the triangular 1920s-era type signage; Highways 2 and 11 are especially appropriate. But instead of "Provincial Highway" I'd write "Historic Highway" and bilingual - "Historic Highway/Route Historique" where appropriate.

http://www.thekingshighway.ca/signs.htm

As for highways downloaded just within urban areas, such as Highway 3 through Port Colborne, or parts of Highway 7, the trailblazers should be put back up, with a simple "maintained by _________" tab underneath. There are some highways, like Highway 3, Highway 9, and Highway 86 that should be completely restored.
 
Some provinces have a consistent numbering system that applies to provincial highways and county roads. So highways and regional/county roads all fall under the same number scheme, regardless of ownership. I think it's one or two of the prairie provinces that do this. I think that with so much of our highways downloaded, it would make a lot of sense in Ontario. We have so many places where a highway disappears and then starts up again, regional road numbers duplicated again and again, some downloaded regional/county roads retaining their old highway numbers and other not, etc. It makes for a confusing mess. To fix it would take creating a whole new, comprehensive system from scratch and forcing every municipality to play ball, but it would be worth it IMO.
 
ShonTron said:
I'd use the triangular 1920s-era type signage; Highways 2 and 11 are especially appropriate. But instead of "Provincial Highway" I'd write "Historic Highway" and bilingual - "Historic Highway/Route Historique" where appropriate.

http://www.thekingshighway.ca/signs.htm

As for highways downloaded just within urban areas, such as Highway 3 through Port Colborne, or parts of Highway 7, the trailblazers should be put back up, with a simple "maintained by _________" tab underneath. There are some highways, like Highway 3, Highway 9, and Highway 86 that should be completely restored.
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I was thinking still using the current shape, since that's what most people are familiar with, but where the slightly older versions used to have "The King's Highway" put "Historic". The current version has a blank space where "The King's Highway" used to be, so that would be relatively easy to add from a design perspective.

And I like the "maintained by" idea for highways where the bulk of them are still Provincially-owned. I would add Highway 10 to that list as well.
 
To get a sense of the lunacy of our highway numbering, just look at Highway 7. It goes from Kanata to Markham. Then it's Regional Road 7 through York Region, then 107 though Peel Region, then Highway 7 again from Georgetown to a bit north of London, then County Road 7 to Sarnia. Why didn't Peel Region just call their section Regional Road 7? Because they already have one of course, Airport Road. Not to mention that Highway 7 intersects with at least one other County Road 7 and another 107. Speaking of Airport Road, not all of it is numbered 7. It goes from 7 to 18 to 42 before ending in Stayner, and on the way it intersects with yet another County Road 7. It's enough to make your head spin.

Under a more sensible system Highway 7 would be Highway 7 the whole way whether it's maintained by the province, a county or a region. And there would be no other 7s in the province.
 
Yes. If you look at some other countries (thinking of Ontario as a country), then the road numbering is nationwide - no matter if it's the national, regional, or local government that maintains the road.
 
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