Stuck in Ontario Traffic Trivia Quiz

Answer: Highway 402

Highway 402 runs in a near straight line from London to Sarnia so the construction of the highway would not disrupt any farm plots. The Blue Water Bridge was built in 1938, a divided highway link to London came in the years following the Second World War, but the connection to Highway 401 was not completed until 1982.

Originally a four lane highway, it has been expanded to six lanes in Sarnia due to traffic caused by the American border crossing. Across the bridge into Michigan, the highway intersects with Interstates 69 and 94.

Answer: Highway 17

Public sentiment was high in the 1920s for a trans-Canada highway, and planning was soon done to route it through northern Ontario. The federal government established highway camps as part of the Great Depression relief plan to construct these highways through these isolated areas.

The project lost funding due to conflict, and the outbreak of World War II moved attention elsewhere. A 500 kilometre gap in the highway, known as "The Gap" was filled in in the 1950s. In Arnprior, the route becomes Highway 417, a divided lane highway into Ottawa and then on towards the Quebec border and Montreal.

Answer: Highway 400

Highway 400 was designated on Canada Day, 1952 as a four-lane divided highway from Toronto to Barrie. From Barrie, further extensions were built along Highway 69 to Port Severn and then Parry Sound. Highway 400 is the major thoroughfare to "cottage country", where much of the residents of Toronto and its suburbs have summer cottages, trailers or campsites. On Friday afternoons of summer weekends, the 400 tends to be congested with "cottage country traffic".

Answer: Queen Elizabeth Way

The QEW as it is known, runs 139 km around the western and southern edge of Lake Ontario. When it opened in 1937, it was the first inter-city divided highway in North America. The road was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and was formerly done in 1939 when she toured Canada with her husband King George VI.

A trip down the highway includes trips over the large Burlington Skyway (over Hamilton Harbour) and Garden City Skyway (over the Welland Canal). One final bridge over the Niagara River from Fort Erie to Buffalo connects the southern terminus of the QEW to the United States.

Answer: Highway 409

Highway 409 serves as a spur route from Highway 401 through Etobicoke. Near Pearson Airport, the highway intersects with Highway 427. Original plans were for the Highway 409 to bypass the airport to the north and travel towards Brampton, but residents in Malton protested the move.

The Greater Toronto Airport Authority purchased the portion of the highway west of Highway 427 into the airport to adjust lanes into the airport. Despite the small length of the highway, the city crosses city boundaries, meaning it has two different speed limits and police forces patrolling the highway.

Answer: Gardiner Expressway

Unlike the other highways in this quiz, the Gardiner Expressway is municipally owned by the City of Toronto. Much of the Gardiner is elevated above ground, with Highway 2 running parallel underneath. The highway is named after Frederick Gardiner, the first chair of Metropolitan Toronto (before it was the City of Toronto), who campaigned for it among other highways to be built.

The highway was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and has been the cause of safety concern for infrequent falls of concrete from the elevated surface to the city streets below.

The highway runs along the lakeshore of Toronto from the QEW/427 junction in the west to the Don Valley Parkway in the East.

Answer: Highway 405

The highway is only 8.7 km long from the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge over the Niagara River back to the Queen Elizabeth Way. Only one interchange is available. The highway is named in commemoration of Sir Isaac Brock, who died in the Battle of Queenston Heights in the War of 1812. Both the bridge and the highway were built at the same time opening in 1962-63.

The bridge from Queenston, Ontario to Lewiston, New York is one of three bridges across the Niagara River along with the Fort Erie-Buffalo Peace Bridge and Niagara Falls-Niagara Falls Rainbow Bridge.

Answer: Highway 401

Highway 401 is the busiest highway corridor in North America. It runs 828 kilometers from the Ontario-Michigan border in Windsor to the Ontario-Quebec border just south of Montreal. At its largest point in Toronto, the highway has 18 lanes. The highway originated in Toronto and was constructed in stages, finalized in 1968.

The highway has been dedicated the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, after John A Macdonald and George-Etienne Cartier, two Canadian Fathers of Confederation. Along the highway, 19 service centres are open offering fast food restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations and a place to stretch your legs while on a long drive.

Answer: Highway 403

Highway 403 spans 125 kilometers from Mississauga to Woodstock, where it connects to the 401 at both ends. In Hamilton, the highway climbs the Niagara Escarpment. In 2016, the stretch of the highway from Burlington to Woodstock was dedicated in honour of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. Bell moved to Canada at the age of 23, and did much of the work in inventing the telephone from his own home in Brantford.

The highway also passes the Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga, which is Canada's second largest shopping mall.

Answer: Highway 417

The Queensway, as the 417 is also referred to, was part of the Grenier Plan for rearranging Ottawa's street and rail network after World War II. The road was constructed and opened in stages, with the final portion opening in 1966. In preparation of the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, the highways is extended to the east to the Quebec border. Ottawa is connected to the rest of the 400-series network by the 416, which runs south from Ottawa to the 401. Highway 417 has been extended along Highway 17 to the east in stages, prompting some discussion.

The Queensway is no longer used on any signage to describe the highway.