Toronto's 401: Busiest Freeway in North America

[tamias6]

The Stretch I-70 running next to the airport on the southwest side of Indianapolis, looks very much like the 401, only made of concrete instead of asphalt. Its freaking seeing row upon row of vehicles on both side of ther family car.

[Trae_1]

That is one big freeway. Maybe rail would have done good to it. Take up four center lanes, or two outer lanes on each side.

[Snowguy716]

Concrete doesn't last longer here in Canada the main problem is due to the winters. The ground freezing and thawing causes holes under the concrete to form just like anything else and you get the infamous pothole.

Although many people don

[Rican427]

Puerto Rico's freeway 18 has an Annual Average Daily Traffic of over 320,000 daily which is pretty good.

[lammius]

I've driven the 401 before, and it is indeed a big road. The exchanges between express and local lanes seem to occur more frequently than those on interstates in NJ.

I haven't seen many of the freeways in Houston or Atlanta, but the NJ Turnpike has a 20-ish mile section of 14 through lanes, between exits 9 and 14. There are two sections but instead of local/express, the separation creates lanes for cars exclusively on the interior roadway, cars, trucks, and buses together on the exterior roadway.

Here's a pic near Rahway, NJ (note there is a tractor-trailer in the Cars Only lanes).

More NJ Turnpike Photos

[bigboyz05]

That is one big a$$ freeway! Just imagine how the traffic would be jammed if it was just a regular 8-10 lane road.

[dimebag1980]

Holy WOW that's in-friggin-sane!

[BrandonTO416]

About the only thing in the states close to the 401 is Atlanta's Downtown Connector, or (when it's finished), I-10 in Houston from 610 to Katy. For a roadgeek like me, the 401 is a wet dream

It looks like most of the road is asphalt judging from the photos. My question is why it wasn't built with concrete as opposed to asphalt, due to the harsh winters and concrete lasting longer and weathering the cold much better.

[johnathan]

'Couple of Interesting Facts About Toronto To Provide Perspective regarding the high volume of 'The 401':

- #16 in World (#3 in North America) list of cities in terms of # of cars per sq. km (68,723)

- Toronto has about 2.6 Million people in 2006 (2.5 Million in 2001 Census) in its core, with 5.8 Million people in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) in 2006 4.6 Million 2001 Census).

-Toronto essentially has a box-form ring around the main part of the city, with the 401 forming the major east-west link to other cities in the north end of the city (12-16 lanes within Toronto itself (more at major interchanges)), the Gardiner Expressway (east-west) going Downtown, the 427 (north-south, 12-20 lanes) on the outer western edge of the city and the Don Valley Parkway (colloquially DVP, 6 lanes) going North-South to Downtown and extending as the 404 (8-10 lanes, HOV under construction) north of the 401.

-Other important highways in the city is the north-south 400 (8-12 lanes) in the western-central area of the city starting just south of the 401 and extending northward, and a small intra-city 6-lane highway extending approx. 8km roughly centred around the 401 and in the central area of the city.

- Toronto has the largest (1st) freeway capacity in North America (5th in World) within the city itself (2.7 Lane Miles per Mile)

- Toronto is relatively dense with a land area of 629.91 sq. km and an average of 4127.6 people per sq. km. For example, Los Angeles (city proper) with approximately 4.0 Million people has a land area of 1214.71 sq.km and therefore a lower population density of 3251.7 people per sq.km!

- Toronto is what I call a city torn by different attitudes: The result is a city with a ton of cars but also decent (but not great ) transit. FYI: Toronto's transit system is 2nd in volume in North America only to New York City.

Why all this data: Gives you perspective. It is for these reasons (huge suburban area of 3.2 Million people vs. 2.6 Million in city proper), few support highways within the city and surrounding the city core, large public transit system, large overall population density, and additional through traffic from the Detroit to Quebec City corridor that the 401 has its claim to fame as the busiest and longest 12+lane highway in North America.

Footnote: The collector/express system throughout Toronto proper is very elegant and easy to follow. Lanes and exits are very well signed even when under construction, and overhead electronic boards inform the driver of upcoming exit closures or heavy traffic so that you can better plan and adjust your drive. Electronic sign example: "Collectors Moving Slowly Beyond Next Transfer, Express Moving Well" . 'Transfer' refers to the point where the collectors and express lanes exchange traffic. In addition, all three major interchanges (to other highways/freeways) have ramps from both the express and collector lanes, though not necessarily from both directions. With the addition of the HOV lane trial on the 404, they added an additional, dedicated HOV lane to 401 Westbound traffic in addition to the separate 401 Westbound Express and 401 Westbound Collectors ramps.

[Spartan]

Don't worry America, we will regain the title of the widest freeway in North America if Atlanta gets its way... it wants to widen I-75 through the NW suburbs to 23 lanes.

This 401 in Toronto is a cool concept. Sort of like a freeway within a freeway. It doesn't help Canada's supposedly "more urban" reputation, IMO.

[95-Souf]

Yeah that project in Atlanta is going to be ridiculous.

This makes me wonder where is L.A. would fit in this discussion. i would have at least thought the Santa Anna freeway would have been the widest in the US.

Also another thing, the NJ Turnpike seriously bottle necks about halfway downstate when those Truck Only lanes merge with the rest of traffic. Its funny to see people cut thru the gard rails when they see traffic comming to a halt in the Cars Only lane just before the merge.

But I never understood why I-95 in Miami-Dade County is completely concrete and the rest of the metro asphalt?

[Lady Celeste]

Don't worry America, we will regain the title of the widest freeway in North America if Atlanta gets its way... it wants to widen I-75 through the NW suburbs to 23 lanes.

This 401 in Toronto is a cool concept. Sort of like a freeway within a freeway. It doesn't help Canada's supposedly "more urban" reputation, IMO.

[Spartan]

Yeah i know... BRT down the center is a horrid idea anyway. Mass transit needs to go where the people are, not in a river of cars.

[Copper]

[johnathan]

Awesome. For reference the field to the left of the highway is part of Pearson International, and this is in northern Mississauga.

Just west of here (another 100 metres or so) the highway expands to 25 lanes (with street on-ramps) or 21 lanes (expressway and expressway on-ramps).

Believe it or not even with all these lanes the expressway it is converging with (410 heading North, 403 heading South), there are no lanes FROM the 410 South and 403 North to the 401 West! These are still in the planning stages and will likely open once the highway expands its collector/express sytem further into Mississauga (it doesn't continue much past the 410/403 at present. If you look at google maps, you can actually see the rough outlines of makeshift ramps that may hae once been started but abandoned, and how shortly after this interchange the 401 shifts to a mere 8 lanes!

[peaceloveunderstanding]

[nowensone]

About the only thing in the states close to the 401 is Atlanta's Downtown Connector, or (when it's finished), I-10 in Houston from 610 to Katy. For a roadgeek like me, the 401 is a wet dream

[GRDadof3]

I was going to argue that certain stretches of interstate in ATL and LA would seem to rival 401, until you posted this shot, I'm convinced now it is the "winner". Incidentally, was panning around via google maps (posted earlier), looks like the sprawl off of 401 is more dense and has better connectedness than you see in the States.

[johnathan]

It's interesting too that Toronto's suburbs just "end", with rural beyond. Not a lot of exurban development. You can really notice it here along 407 on Google maps. And in THIS shot too just North of the previous area. I wonder if Toronto has an urban growth boundary?

Toronto's suburban density is unbelievable, with high-rise apartments/condos dotting the skyline everywhere you look.

Stupid question: When you're coming into Toronto on 401 from Michigan, off to the East is almost a mountainous area with a large shelf/cliff of what looks like sandstone or something. Anyone know what that is?

[waccamatt]

About the only thing in the states close to the 401 is Atlanta's Downtown Connector, or (when it's finished), I-10 in Houston from 610 to Katy. For a roadgeek like me, the 401 is a wet dream

It looks like most of the road is asphalt judging from the photos. My question is why it wasn't built with concrete as opposed to asphalt, due to the harsh winters and concrete lasting longer and weathering the cold much better.

[GRDadof3]

Mountains:

The mountainous area is a world heritage site, called the "Niagara Escarpment." It runs roughly from Niagara Falls to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula. The BP is the land that separates Georgian Bay from Lake Huron. It's an ancient limestone coral reef when the area was covered by the great sea that covered this area of North America. A great area to view is from the 401 as it splits a bit in that area, or from Hamilton and along the QEW.

Suburban Density:

It's neat to hear different ideas about density. I haven't been to many cities but I never considered Toronto to be particularly dense except in clustered areas, either by highways, the downtown core, and suburb cores like in North York (401/Yonge), Scarborough (401/McCowan), Missisauga (403/10(Hurontario)) and others. In places like Mississauga (the outer area of which you specified in your first link to google maps) and Brampton (the second link) its mostly single low or medium density houses and townhouses. From what I can tell most building is done within the road grid system: So if a housing development goes up, then all 5 sq. kms ---- 'square' ---- are taken up. The other reason, I suspect, has to do with infrastructure... development tends to occur in areas that follow 400-series highways. There is a recently inacted no-development area in most part called the Oak Ridges Moraine which encircles the GTA to which you can best see on Yonge St. in northern Richmond Hill (south of Aurora).

Commercialism:

There are however a TON of malls and outlet plazas (not really outlets in my understanding and/or experience of the American sense) which is something I found hard to find when I visited places like Boston or New York state cities. Fast food outlets also seem to be prolific.

[bigboyz05]

Does anyone know what is the busiest freeway in the world?

[johnathan]

Does anyone know what is the busiest freeway in the world?

[ScottydaViking]

I will be moving from Montreal to Toronto this summer, and am wondering if anyone knows which days are the 'truck days' where the heavy truck traffic is highest along the 401. I'd like to work my moving date around that!

Thanks!

~S.

[paholler]

How did this come about? Was the 401 planned to be this wide? or did the provincial government acquire lots of property to add lanes upon lanes as they deemed necessary?