Highway 401 in Ontario - busiest freeway in the world

[haljackey]

Drone footage of Highway 401 near the Don Valley Parkway / Highway 404 interchange.

[haljackey]

I have made an interchange in SimCity 4 inspired by the 400 / 401 junction in Toronto.

Click here for a full size image: https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/779/23269149944_398dc3de30_o.jpg

Location: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7169943,-79.5163695,16.63z

Smaller image below:

[haljackey]

Photos of the 401 extension in Windsor

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=7323856#post7323856

[haljackey]

401 lane doubling in Mississauga begins

http://www.mississauga.com/news-story/6405058-construction-set-to-begin-on-highway-401-widening/

[SignGeek101]

401 lane doubling in Mississauga begins

http://www.mississauga.com/news-story/6405058-construction-set-to-begin-on-highway-401-widening/

About time. I was wondering when they would start that. No date on the overpass demolition yet I guess, but it would have to happen soon I would think. Once they're done widening, the HOV lane will open east of there, right?

[haljackey]

Correct. It will only be about 5km long, but it will eventually be extended west to meet up with HOV lanes being built in Kitchener, Cambridge and Guelph.

[haljackey]

Vid of the 401 through part of Greater Toronto

[haljackey]

Video of the new extension in Windsor that opened last year

Put annotations on for info

[7/8]

I drove the 401 from Hespeler Rd (Cambridge) to Whitby today, and decided to take some pictures

401 Widening in Mississauga before Mavis Rd



The express-collectors currently splits at Hurontario St





Lighting between Mavis Rd and Hurontario looks temporary


Overpass rehabilitation at 401/427 past the Eglinton exit, looked cool to me



I tried to get a photo showing the immensity of the North York section of the 401, but I don't think it does it justice


Lake Ridge Road interchange is currently closed at the 412


412 exit on 401 EB


Construction around 412 and Lake Ridge Road

[AsphaltPlanet]

This is a neat capture.  The amount of work to rehabilitate that structure really is impressive.

I quite like Ontario's cast in place beam bridges such as this.  While this design is no longer as ubiquitous as it once was, I think these bridges are one of the factors that makes the GTA's freeway system as aesthetically pleasing as it is.  The GTA's highways tend to have an open airiness that not all highway systems have.  That's one of the things that I've always really liked about the areas highway system.

[7/8]

Happy Birthday to Toronto's portion of the 401! If you're lucky with traffic, it can be a fun road to drive

http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/08/22/celebrating-60-years-of-highway-401-in-toronto.html

Celebrating 60 years of Highway 401 in Toronto

Built to solve some of Toronto's traffic woes, the local section of Highway 401 has instead become one of the busiest roadways in the world.

Sixty years ago this week, Ontario Minister of Highways James Allen officially opened the Toronto section of Highway 401 between Islington Avenue and Markham Road. Built over more than six years, the four-lane "super highway," which would eventually cut across Southern Ontario, was supposed to bring an end to Toronto's post-war traffic problems. Six decades and countless expansions later, the promised driving utopia has, unfortunately, failed to materialize.

Here are five things to know about the origins of the 401 on its 60th birthday.

1. The 401 was supposed to be a Toronto bypass

In 1950, prior to construction of the 401 and Gardiner Expressway, all east-west motor traffic in Southern Ontario had to pass through downtown Toronto using regular city streets. The 401–originally billed as a "bypass"–was built in conjunction with Highway 400 to divert traffic over top of Toronto through what was then mostly fields and new housing subdivisions.

2. The interchanges were amazing

Most motorists in Toronto had never experienced a highway interchange until the 401 opened. The gigantic cloverleaf at the intersection of the 400 and 401–nicknamed the "Crossroads of Canada" for its sheer scale–was the most complex ever built in Ontario when it was finished. The province thought the interchanges so complex that it made charts available to schools "with a view to educating drivers to be."

3. The road was supposed be lined with trees and flowers

It was to be a "thing of beauty to behold." As part of Highway 401 construction, the province agreed to replace every tree it chopped down, making the Toronto portion of the highway a giant avenue of more than 300,000 maples, pines, and Douglas firs. The province also toyed with the idea of planting 2.5-metre rose bushes along the shoulder of the roadway; partly to beautify the road, and partly as a safety measure. The roses, the highways department thought, would slow motorists and act as snow fences in winter.

4. Construction didn't go as planned

The Toronto portion of the 401 contained one of the largest concentrations of highway bridges, overpasses, and underpasses in the province, and building all these gigantic structures at the same time was a significant engineering challenge. Hurricane Hazel heavily damaged the unfinished bridge over the Humber River in 1954 and the bridge at the Don River had to be redesigned when soil conditions proved challenging. A shortage of structural steel from the United States also delayed the project.

5. The 401 was never a driver's paradise

No sooner had it opened were drivers complaining of traffic tie-ups. Thousands of people living in the vicinity of the highway used the 401 for local trips, slowing down those using the road for its intended purpose: bypassing Toronto. The road, which was designed more than a decade before it opened, was already a target for expansion to six lanes in April, 1956. Sixty years later, the Toronto portion of the 401 is the busiest section of highway in the world.

[haljackey]

Widest part. Click for full size.



Via
https://www.flickr.com/photos/anotherangle/30136547891/

[jakeroot]

Widest part. Click for full size.

Via
https://www.flickr.com/photos/anotherangle/30136547891/

It's really amazing how many vehicles that freeway can handle. If you took all the vehicles in the centre carriageways, and stuck them in the outer carriageways, I'd guess that traffic would be horrible. But the extra carriageways adds an incredible amount of capacity.

[haljackey]

Increasing density along the highway

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wyliepoon/28992399318/



Full size
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1810/28992399318_2a138f215b_o.jpg

[haljackey]

The Toronto Region Board of Trade is calling for a vertical expansion of Highway 401 near Toronto Pearson International Airport to help alleviate gridlock.

https://www.680news.com/2018/06/26/highway-401-ease-gridlock-board-trade/

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At the 427 for instance, the 401 goes from 18 to 10 lanes (and just 8 under the 427) as the collector lanes end. If a new viaduct was built to extend the collector lanes between Highways 427 and 409, you would eliminate this bottleneck.

[cbeach40]

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the completion of the original stretch of Highway 401, Windsor to Québec.
Per thekingshighway.ca:

Weekly Ontario Historical Highway Trivia:


Did you know?

The final gap in Hwy 401 was completed and opened to traffic 50 years ago this week, on Friday, October 11, 1968.  The official opening took place near Mallorytown, between the Hwy 137 Interchange at Ivy Lea and the Hwy 2
Interchange in Brockville.  The dream of building a divided highway from Windsor all the way to the Quebec Boundary was 3 decades in the making.  The first construction contract for Hwy 401 was awarded for the Toronto-Oshawa section of the highway back in 1938.  This new 510-mile freeway revolutionized highway travel in Ontario, by allowing through traffic to bypass the congested sections of Hwy 2 which passed through the various towns and cities across the province.
     

[haljackey]

How the 401 got so busy

[haljackey]

A Typical Day on the 401

[haljackey]

Lane doubling west of Toronto now completed.

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/12/12/major-expansion-highway-401-gta-mississauga-milton-complete/

[haljackey]

Timelapse of the Milton-Mississauga widening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlTsYInOSYM

[haljackey]

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/03/28/401-north-america-busiest-highway


Data shows in 2019 the 401 had 450k vehicles using a stretch near the Toronto airport. Stats from other busy highways on the continent pale in comparison to the 401's traffic numbers.

[cbeach40]

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/03/28/401-north-america-busiest-highway


Data shows in 2019 the 401 had 450k vehicles using a stretch near the Toronto airport. Stats from other busy highways on the continent pale in comparison to the 401's traffic numbers.

What awful research saying A-40 was second. Maybe the busiest outside of Ontario, but for next busiest in the country Ontario's got plenty busier. With the following top sections for each:

QEW - 234K, Third Line to Dorval
400 - 250K, Finch to Steeles
403 - 236K, Eglington to 401 & 410
404 - 344K, 401 to Sheppard
410 - 234K, 401 to Courtney Park
417 - 189K, O'Connor to Kent
427 - 419K, Burnhamthorpe to Rathburn 

[webny99]

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/03/28/401-north-america-busiest-highway


Data shows in 2019 the 401 had 450k vehicles using a stretch near the Toronto airport. Stats from other busy highways on the continent pale in comparison to the 401's traffic numbers.

What awful research saying A-40 was second. Maybe the busiest outside of Ontario, but for next busiest in the country Ontario's got plenty busier. With the following top sections for each:

QEW - 234K, Third Line to Dorval
400 - 250K, Finch to Steeles
403 - 236K, Eglington to 401 & 410
404 - 344K, 401 to Sheppard
410 - 234K, 401 to Courtney Park
417 - 189K, O'Connor to Kent
427 - 419K, Burnhamthorpe to Rathburn 

Wow. 200k almost makes me giddy, nevermind over 400k!! It is worth noting that section of 427 is extremely busy and I'm not at all surprised it's in the same ballpark as the 401, but it is basically six carriageways, counting the main lanes, collector lanes, connectors, and exit ramps.

[Chris]

Even the Deerfoot Trail in Calgary is busier than the quoted AADT for A-40 in Montréal.

[Bickendan]

Quick look at CalTran's data for 2020 shows:
411k on I-5 in Santa Ana
370k on I-10 at Vermont Ave in LA
351k on CA 60 at Diamond Bar
310k on US 101 west of I-405
308k on I-110 at Florence Ave
355k on I-210 in Pasadena
413k on I-405 in Seal Beach
312k on I-605 in Norwalk
309k on I-880 in Hayward

Not sure where the article got its info for what it cited for California.