Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast. The main route spans across the country, one of the longest routes of its type in the world. The highway system is recognizable by its distinctive white-on-green maple leaf route markers, although there are small variations in the markers in some provinces.
While by definition the Trans-Canada Highway is a highway system that has several parallel routes throughout most of the country, the term "Trans-Canada Highway" often refers to the main route that consists of Highway 1, Highways 11, 17, and 417, Autoroutes 40, 25, 20, and 85 and Route 185, Highway 2, Highways 104 and 105, and Highway 1. This main route starts in Victoria, British Columbia and ends in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, passes through nine of the ten provinces, and connects most of the country's major cities, including Vancouver, British Columbia; Calgary, Alberta; Regina, Saskatchewan; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Ottawa, Ontario; Montreal and Quebec City, Quebec; and Fredericton, New Brunswick. One of the main route's eight other parallel routes connects to the tenth province, Prince Edward Island.
While the other parallel routes in the system are also technically part of the Trans-Canada Highway, they are usually considered either secondary routes or different highways altogether. For example, Highway 16 throughout Western Canada is part of the Trans-Canada Highway, but is almost exclusively referred to as the Yellowhead Highway and is often recognized as its own highway under that name. In comparison, Highway 1 in Western Canada is always referred to as the Trans-Canada Highway, and has a significantly higher traffic volume with a route passing through more major cities than the less important Highway 16 TCH route. Therefore Highway 1 is usually considered to be part of the main Trans-Canada Highway, while Highway 16 is not, although it may be considered a second mainline corridor as it serves a more northerly belt of major cities, as well as having its own Pacific terminus.
Although the TCH network is strictly a transcontinental highway system, and does not enter any of Canada's three northern territories or run to the Canada–United States border, it does form part of Canada's overall National Highway System, which provides connections to the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and the border, although the NHS is unsigned.
Jurisdiction and designation
Canada's National Highway System is not under federal jurisdiction or coordination, as highway construction and maintenance are entirely under the jurisdiction of the individual provinces, which also handle route numbering on the Trans-Canada Highway. The Western provinces have voluntarily coordinated their highway numbers so that the main Trans-Canada route is designated Highway 1 and the Yellowhead route is designated Highway 16 throughout. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador also designate Highway 1 as their section of the TCH, while New Brunswick uses Highway 2. East of Manitoba, the highway numbers change at each provincial boundary, or within a province as the TCH piggybacks along separate provincial highways en route. In addition, Ontario and Quebec use standard provincial highway shields to number the highway within their boundaries, but post numberless Trans-Canada Highway shields alongside them to identify it. As the Trans-Canada route was composed of sections from pre-existing provincial highways, it is unlikely that the Trans-Canada Highway will ever have a uniform designation across the whole country.Highway design and standards
Unlike the Interstate Highway System in the United States, the Trans-Canada Highway system has no national construction standard, and it was originally built mostly as a two-lane highway with few multi-lane freeway sections, similar to the older United States Numbered Highway System. As a result, highway construction standards vary considerably among provinces and cities. In much of British Columbia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, the Trans-Canada Highway system is still in its original two-lane state. British Columbia is actively working on converting its section of Highway 1 east of Kamloops to a four-lane divided highway. Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have widened most of their southern Trans-Canada Highway network to four lanes. In Quebec, most sections of the TCH network overlap with the province's Autoroute freeways. New Brunswick is the only province to have its whole length of the main Trans-Canada Highway route at a four-lane freeway standard.Like the former U.S. Route 66, the many non-expressway sections of the Trans-Canada Highway often form the main streets of communities, with homes and businesses directly adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway.
The Trans-Canada Highway is not always the preferred route between two cities, or even across the country. For example, the vast majority of traffic travelling between Hope and Kamloops, British Columbia, takes the Coquihalla Highway via Merritt, rather than the longer Trans-Canada Highway route. Another example is that much long-distance traffic between Western and Eastern Canada will drive south into the United States and use the Interstate Highway System, rather than the Trans-Canada Highway through Northern Ontario.
Main route
Western Canada
The main Trans-Canada Highway is uniformly designated as Highway 1 across the four western provinces. The British Columbia section of Highway 1 is long, beginning in Victoria at the intersection of Douglas Street and Dallas Road, and ending on the Alberta border at Kicking Horse Pass. The highway starts by passing northward along the east coast of Vancouver Island for to Nanaimo along a mostly-four-lane, heavily signalized highway. After passing through downtown Nanaimo on a small arterial road, the highway enters the Departure Bay ferry terminal and crosses the Strait of Georgia to Horseshoe Bay via BC Ferries. From there, it travels through Metro Vancouver on a four-to-eight-lane freeway before leaving the city and continuing as a four-lane freeway eastward up the Fraser Valley to Hope. There, the Trans-Canada Highway exits the freeway and turns north for through Fraser Canyon and Thompson Canyon toward Cache Creek, mostly as a two-lane rural highway with only occasional traffic lights, while the freeway continues on Highway 5. Approaching Kamloops, Highway 1 re-enters a short freeway alignment with Highways 5, before passing through Kamloops itself as a four-lane signalized highway. From Kamloops, the highway continues east as a mostly-two-lane rural highway through the Interior of British Columbia, with occasional passing lanes. It widens to a signalized, four-lane arterial road for short stretches in Salmon Arm, Revelstoke, and Golden, but has no signal lights on it for most of its length. The highway crosses two high passes along its route: Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park, and Kicking Horse Pass in Yoho National Park. At Kicking Horse Pass, the highest point on the whole Trans-Canada Highway system is reached, at. The high pass marks the boundary between British Columbia and Alberta, as well as the Continental Divide of the Americas.Speed limits on the Mainland segment of the Trans-Canada Highway in British Columbia range from, although in towns, it can be as low as. A combination of difficult terrain and growing urbanization limits posted speeds on the Vancouver Island section to in urban areas, over the Malahat and through suburban areas, and a maximum of in rural areas.
File:ManitobaHwy1Cberry.JPG|thumb|Highway 1 eastbound in Manitoba near Carberry.
The Trans-Canada Highway through the three Prairie Provinces is long. It starts at the border with British Columbia at Kicking Horse Pass near Lake Louise, Alberta, and runs all the way to the Ontario border at Whiteshell east of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The highway continues through Alberta, running east for as Alberta Highway 1 to Lake Louise, Banff, Canmore, and Calgary. This section of the highway passes through Banff National Park and has significant tourism. The section of Highway 1 through Banff National Park was also one of the first highways in North America to have wildlife crossing structures and fencing installed on it. After leaving the mountains, it enters Alberta's largest city, Calgary, where it becomes known as 16 Avenue N, a busy six-lane street with many signalized intersections. For the next after Calgary, the Trans-Canada Highway continues as a four-lane expressway, with few stops along its route. Medicine Hat is served by a series of six interchanges, after which the Trans-Canada crosses into Saskatchewan on the way to Swift Current and Moose Jaw. The highway mainly travels straight as a four-lane route for most of these sections. The expressway continues east to Saskatchewan's capital, Regina, and skirts around the city on the Regina Bypass, the most expensive infrastructure project in Saskatchewan to date. Beyond Regina, it continues east for, across the border with Manitoba, to the cities of Brandon and Portage la Prairie, and finally east to Manitoba's capital, Winnipeg. The southern portion of Winnipeg's Perimeter Highway is part of the Trans-Canada Highway, and bypasses the city with a mix of traffic lights and interchanges, while Highway 1 continues through central Winnipeg as a signalized arterial highway.
With the exception of a stretch of two-lane highway just west of the Ontario border, the entire length of Highway 1 through the Prairie Provinces is a four-lane highway. While the only true freeway sections of the route are along the Regina Bypass, in Medicine Hat, and between Calgary and Banff, the whole highway is largely stoplight-free, with "split" at-grade intersections forming the vast majority of the junctions.
The speed limit is restricted to through national parks in Canada, including Banff National Park. East of Banff, traffic on most of Highway 1 through Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba is limited to, but is east of Winnipeg.