400-series highways
| 400-series highways | |
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Highway markers for Highway 403 and the Queen Elizabeth Way
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The current 400-series Highway network in Southern Ontario
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| System information | |
| Maintained by Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) | |
| Length: | 1,957.4 km (1,216.3 mi) |
| Formed: | July 1, 1952 |
| Highway names | |
| Provincial | Ontario Highway X |
| System links | |
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The 400-series highways are a network of controlled-access highways throughout the southern portion of the Canadian province of Ontario, forming a special subset of the provincial highway system. They are analogous to the Interstate Highway System in the United States or the Autoroute system of neighbouring Quebec, but under provincial jurisdiction and regulated by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO). Although Ontario had been constructing divided highways for two decades prior, 400-series designations were introduced in 1952. Initially only Highways 400, 401 and 402 were numbered; other designations followed in the subsequent decades.
Modern 400-series highways have high design standards, speed limits of 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph), and various collision avoidance and traffic management systems. The design of 400-series highways has set the precedent for a number of innovations used throughout North America, including the parclo interchange and a modified Jersey barrier design known as the Ontario Tall Wall. As a result, they currently experience the lowest accident and fatality rate comparative to traffic volume in North America.
When the 400-series designations were first applied to Ontario freeways in 1952, several divided highways were already opened in Southern Ontario. Originally inspired by German Autobahns, Thomas McQuesten planned a network of "Dual Highways" across the southern half of the province. The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) was first, an upgrade to the partially constructed Middle Road in 1934. McQuesten also sought out the economic opportunity that came with linking Toronto to Detroit and New York by divided roadways with interchanges at major crossroads, Although he no longer served as Minister of Highways by the onset of World War II, his ambitious plans would come to fruition in the following decades as Highways 400, 401, 402, 403 (between Woodstock and Hamilton) and 405.
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