Ontario Highway 400 North - April 2021 - 2021/04/02

Drivelapse video of several highways in the Greater Toronto Area of Toronto starting from Highway 401 in Milton and progressing easterly along the recently widened section of Highway 407 through Mississauga and then progressing northerly along Highway 400 through Vaughan through to Barrie before eventually following Highway 11 en route to Orilla.

[@GreatAussieDrives]

Excellent video mate, very high quality as always! I thoroughly enjoy your videos, especially that of the Greater Toronto Area. 0:27 I love the idea of using orange markings to denote roadwork, it helps drivers concentrate and is something other countries should explore. I also love the "streetlights" in the middle of the expressways, compared to most cities where expressways are unlit and get dark at night. Gives them a futuristic feel when they light up. The roads are very wide and straight which makes watching the traffic very soothing, and I'm sure relaxing to drive on as well. If there's anything I had to critique its that some of the road signs could be clearer and gave an indication of what suburbs/neighbourhoods each exit serves instead of just the road name, to make it more useful for tourists navigating the network. For example the propped up sign at 1:38; instead of just saying "407 Express Toll Route" surely it would make more sense to list the locations you would use the 407 to get to? Similar idea with 3:01 and the 410. Just something for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to consider 😊 Anyways this is just me rambling as a roadgeek, once again excellent video! 👍

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I think Ontario was the first jurisdiction in North America to use orange lane markings to denote construction zones. I have seen it tried in a few other jurisdictions, such as Quebec and Wisconsin, but it has never really become as common place there as it is in Ontario. I'm not really sure why not, I think they are a great idea too. I quite like driving the freeways of Toronto. I have driven in most cities in North America, and Toronto is among my favourite locations to go for a drive. I find our freeways are generally pretty well designed, and I like how they are lit too. It's a fair point about how best to sign a freeway. I can say when it comes to the 407 itself, there was a conscious effort not to sign it with any real control cities when it was first constructed because the government of the day (rightly or wrongly) didn't want to indicate to drivers that they had to folllow the toll road to get a destination. That's why the 407 is effectively never signed with a destination that same way that the 401 East is signed as Toronto, for example. When the more recent phases of the 407 opened to the east of the GTA a few years ago, the government did choose to sign them with control city destinations. It's a fair point about the signs for the 410 and the 427 though. I think in the case of the 410, when the 407 first opened, it didn't really connect to anything outside of Brampton and Mississauga, so it probably made sense not to sign it with a control city. Now that the 410 links directly with Highway 10 north of Brampton, it could certainly be signed with Orangeville as a control city. Anyways, thanks much for your comment.

[@thevultrantransituniverse1487]

Do you know if the 407 will widen the section from 404 to Markham Road? That's the only section without LED high mast lighting.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I don't know when they will widen the 407 east of Markham. If it's going to be this year, they'll probably moving the barriers in right now, but I don't drive the 407 all that regularly so I can't comment.

[@thevultrantransituniverse1487]

@@AsphaltPlanet1 Usually they move the barriers around late April or May for these types of work. The highway for some reasons doesn't like to announce a widening project.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

When they widened the 407 between the 400 and 404 they started moving the barriers in in March.

[@thevultrantransituniverse1487]

@@AsphaltPlanet1 Back in 2011, I remember that it didn't start until May on the 10 lane widening.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I have photos from 2012 (the second year of construction) where the barriers had been moved in in March.

[@EuropeanRoads]

8:58 Autobahn transport :-)

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

lol, I didn't even notice that. Thanks for the comment.

[@MrSniperFromMars]

Great ride. Nice to see alot of improvements being made along the 400 corridor.

[@trulylondon1]

The 400 is for sure making hella good progress in almost 4 years after you made a video of heading to Barrie almost 3 years ago. It's about time this construction could be done before the end of 2021 cause traffic is getting way out of hand even if coronavirus traffic make the whole situation on how it's supposed to look like on every busy urban freeway. Hope you can make another vid of Ottawa and Quebec this year, and film some more of the States next year since after this pandemic is over, we still gotta be careful (even though I want you to film more of the South). Stay safe

[@trulylondon1]

Oh and your camera angle looks way better too.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Thanks for the comment. I am hopeful that the border will open later this summer. Canada is about a month or so behind the US in terms of vaccinations and there is a strong surge for the third wave, so it'll be a little while yet before the border can reopen. I'm sure I'll get around Ontario and Quebec this summer again, especially if the border doesn't reopen as quickly as I'd like.

[@SlowedByCinnamxn]

The Camera Angle is a little Different, but it's Way Better! Great Video

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Thanks. It's hard to mount the camera exactly the same every time I set it up.

[@SlowedByCinnamxn]

@@AsphaltPlanet1 Yeah, Please keep it this Way because it’s Great to Look at.

[@EpicThe112]

From what I can see the concrete pavement looks identical hwy 407 toll road equipment on the other side of Lake Erie the American interstates 90 and 87 New York State Thruway system. since the 407 etr 10 lane concrete pavement grooves are exactly the same as the 2009 Syracuse to Auburn project and Summer 2013 Albany metropolitan area exits 23-24. For post covid-19 400 series traffic why not have Ministry of Transportation province of Ontario Canada agreement with New York State apartment of Motor Vehicle so that green plates registered in province of Ontario can use Interstate 495 HOV lanes Nassau and Suffolk County while NYS Clean Pass vehicles are permitted to use the green plates single HOV on 400,403,417 & QEW

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

For a long time drivers from Ontario got a free ride with toll by plate on EZ Pass highways. I think it was only last year that drivers in Ontario started to be billed.

[@canadiandude24]

Great video! May I ask why is the Highway 407 stretch between 427 to 400 your favorite? My favorite freeway stretch is the Don Valley Parkway from Highway 401 to the Gardiner.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I just like the way that the 407 meanders through the Humber River Valley. The fact that it has twelve lanes of longitudinally tined concrete pavement probably doesn't hurt either.

[@canadiandude24]

@@AsphaltPlanet1 Nice! Thanks for sharing!

[@trulylondon1]

@@AsphaltPlanet1 Concrete roads is indeed one of my favorite type of roads to be exact. Sounds pretty quiet and chill.

[@northhaven2501]

My commute for 33 years. Only wished it were this quick 😊

[@mahajankeshav14]

Very nice

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Thanks

[@williamwang3363]

The music playing during the stretch through Milton and Brampton is particularly epic!

[@colaroga8036]

Awesome video!! Myself, I would never drive the 407 on a stat holiday with low traffic, unless someone paid me for it :P

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Thanks for the comment. While I love driving on the 407, I certainly do hate paying for it.

[@realdeal350]

Awesome video and excellent quality. I'd love to see your setup

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Thanks much for the comment.

[@TransCanadaPhil]

very soothing ride this one!

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Yeah, this was an escape the house kind of drive.

[@SyntaxOverflow]

Hmm, I do wonder if we will see a 10 lane 400 in the next decade.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

certainly not impossible.

[@petercrosby5775]

Very well produced and informative videos looking forward to seeing a lot more!

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Thank you.

[@CrystalClearWith8BE]

The 400 will take drivers from Toronto to the lakes of Ontario like Lake Simcoe, Lake Muskoka, Lake Rosseau, Lake Joseph, and even Lake Huron's biggest arm, the Georgian Bay. I mean, Canada have a lot of lakes than in any other country. I mean, most of the Canadian lakes are formed by glaciers thousands of years ago like Lake Winnipeg, Lake Athabasca, Great Slave Lake, and Great Bear Lake.

[@adamjohnson6715]

Thank you Asphalt Planet! I’ve been waiting for another Highway 400 video for a loooong time! Thanks again! Quick question, are you going to do a southbound video? A suggestion is to do the 400 past the 11 heading northbound. Thank you

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I actually filmed the northbound side of the 400 from north of Barrie last fall

[@adamjohnson6715]

Why didn’t you post it?

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Last weeks video was recorded three years ago, and I just uploaded it last week. I try to upload everything, but I record a lot more footage than I can reasonably hope to upload in a timely manner.

[@lauscho]

Some of those construction areas on 400 feel like they've been like that since I was a kid... and you might as well have said "they plan to replace all of the interchanges" 😂 Great video!

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

"They plan to replace the entire highway... and have been working on it for sometime". Lol.

[@sudhakaraithal5805]

Missing driving HWY 400 since last year. Used to drive every fortnight to go to Sudbury. Enjoyed my driving all the way to Sudbury & back.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

It’s a nice drive to Sudbury

[@RoadsOfAsiaBen]

Great video! Have you seen trucks-buses-cars only (outer) and cars only lane (inner) on New Jersey Turnpike in New Jersey? It has 3-3-3-3 setup so it has 12 lanes in total. This lane setup runs from exit 6 (Interstate 95 south to Interstate 276 west - Pennsylvania Turnpike/Philadelphia) to exits 14 - 14A - 14B -14C - 14D (Interstate 78/US 1-9 - Newark Airport/Holland Tunnel). Unlike the express and local lane setup on Highway 401 in Toronto, all of the 4 divided roadways has exit and entrance ramp.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I have driven the New Jersey Turnpike a couple of times (before I started filming my drives). I generally liked it, but I didn't like how you couldn't ever transition between the car and truck lanes the same way you can with the express and collector lanes in Toronto.

[@RoadsOfAsiaBen]

@@AsphaltPlanet1 You can actually transition car only lane to truck-buses-cars only lane and vice versa by exiting to service area and back to the entrance without paying the toll. There are 6 service areas (3 southbound and 3 northbound) along the route. The other 6 service areas are not included here since it is not on the trucks-buses-cars only lane and cars only lane.

[@schnuurtchke]

Can you do a drive from Guelph to Toronto on Highway 6 and Highway 401 this spring

[@kaveh496]

Wow. That's great. Both the clip and music. A real good sense. Thank you👌🏻

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Thank you

[@CrystalClearWith8BE]

Do you have plans for this year? Are you going to stay in Toronto most of the time in this year due to the pandemic?

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I'll do something this summer, but I haven't got any formal plans yet.

[@CrystalClearWith8BE]

Speaking of that, what about the restrictions of Covid-19 in the province of Ontario? Do they allow Canadians have vacations? I'm also thinking about the US Canada border too, and I guess Americans and Canadians can't have a vacation crossing the border, can they?

[@syedhussain343]

His catchphrase: Welcome to Ontario

[@JruGordon]

1:00 any idea what that blue building is to the left? I've been seeing it for years and always wondered what it was...

[@JruGordon]

@Troki TIME that's not an onroute stop. It's something industrial

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

It's part of the Halton Hills Natural Gas Generating Station complex. I'm not exactly sure what is housed in that building, but it's part of the power plant.

[@colaroga8036]

Natural gas power station - I had the chance to visit when it opened around 2012

[@alfred5674]

Broski i thought you'd start at highway 401 then straight to 400

[@cooldude13233]

Think he took the 407 to avoid the traffic the 401 has by the 400 who would blame that!

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I took the 407 as a treat. I hate paying for it, but it’s a nice drive every once in a while.

[@garrettrobinson5235]

Yeah, the 407 is always a nice drive! What I like about it is the sound of the highway when driving on it and the part where the 407/400 four level stack interchange is.