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revjohn said:
I'd take London to Ottawa over Thorold, ON to Edmunston, NB any day. Sure A-30 takes you around Montreal which is a big hassle saver. A-20 from St. Julie, PQ to Riviere Du Loup, PQ is a pretty boring drive made exciting by very narrow lanes through construction areas and Quebecois Dirvers who have no working knowledge of safe stopping distance.
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In 1993, I drove solo from Halifax to Hamilton, Ontario. Did it in 3 days with overnights in a town I forget near the Quebec-NB border and then in Cornwall. I was driving c. 12 hours a day, though, including lunch breaks and pit stops. Some nice areas, some not so nice ones, some boring ones. And, yeah, those Quebec drivers ... wow. Passing Montreal was particularly enlightening.

Sigh. I was 28 then. Probably spending that much time behind the wheel today would wreck my back for good. Fortunately, I generally have other drivers with me on long drives today, esp. now that Little M has his full class G and is always eager to put in some time behind the wheel. That was especially helpful on the trip to the Appalachians last month (there's a thread about it somewhere on here).
 
"in a town I forget"

St Louis de Haha? Like reality it slips by ... is there an alternate reality ... abstract ... as Black Velvet? What a place to lay a gem ... allegorically ... under the imagined tree of soul?
 
revjohn said:
Since I just moved my Daughter, her boyfriend and my Grandson into our place (Steven has a full-time job here in St. John's which he starts tomorrow),
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That's interesting news revjohn! Big change having 3 generations under your roof :-) Q-ball has no idea what he's in for!

As for the driving - I'm no longer interesting in such long days of driving if I can avoid it. I get way too stiff sitting in one position for long hours. So frequent stops and shorter overall driving days are our practice now.
 
Long term travels for stiff hajji? ... the ultimate internal journey to nowhere ... but self?

One should get to know the isolated self better ... a mental enigma?
 
Mendalla said:
When it is already a 6-7 hour drive, 7-8 with breaks, as it is for us Londoners, wandering off onto side highways isn't happening unless the trip is planned as a sightseeing excursion.
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Or you get stuck in the middle of one of those awful "this highway has turned into a parking lot" things, and you do whatever you can to just move... I hate weekends on the 401.
 
BetteTheRed said:
Or you get stuck in the middle of one of those awful "this highway has turned into a parking lot" things, and you do whatever you can to just move... I hate weekends on the 401.
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Weekends, weekdays, it doesn't seem to matter anymore. If you're anywhere between Oshawa and Milton, you may as well put the audiobook of Lord of the Rings on and kick back for a long ride. If 407 was cheaper, I would use it to go around the GTA and then use 7 to get to Ottawa but the admin fees, even without tolls, are positively usurious.
 
shucks, i use the 407 at least twice a week. Get routed onto it to jump off the 401 on the way to the 427. It seems odd, but, it saves time.

I have found if i head into the city by 5:30am on a Monday, I can get there in less than 1hr 15min, and if i come back after 6pm on a Wed, I can get home in about 1hr 20min.
Not bad compared to prime time.
 
Pinga said:
shucks, i use the 407 at least twice a week. Get routed onto it to jump off the 401 on the way to the 427. It seems odd, but, it saves time.

I have found if i head into the city by 5:30am on a Monday, I can get there in less than 1hr 15min, and if i come back after 6pm on a Wed, I can get home in about 1hr 20min.
Not bad compared to prime time.
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You've got a transponder? That makes a difference on the fees, I think. I don't do it often enough to justify the cost of the transponder right now but if I drove in the GTA as much as you do, I would look at it.
 
I don't do that corridor often.When I visit London, all back roads. When I visit Kingston and Montreal, couple of times a year, I use 12 and 7 and then wing it, staying off the 401 as I can. It's handy starting from a slightly northern point when it comes to excuses.
 
haven't got the transponder. Still use it.
Should have one, but, haven't gotten around to it.

The 407 is safer and faster. Worth the transition.
 
When I was coming back from the U.S., after an all day drive, 407 is faster, and you can be a bit more distracted, safely, when you're on that home stretch, and you're already tired, and it's getting late...
 
407 is definitely worth it to me. I hate driving the 401. We have two transponders (learned recently they are actually tied to your plate, so if your family has two vehicles, you should not transfer transponder between vehicles - they do random plate verifications & charge you additional video fee, also potential to lose the account - or so they say). It's only about $25/year for one, and $10 for each additional transponder on an account. I think the video fee is around $4/trip - so it doesn't really take many trips to make it worthwhile.
 
Tabitha said:
I certainly have sympathy for all you drivers in southern ONT. but it is a regional problem. I do appreciate living where the population density is less.
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Southwestern Ontario where I Iive (Kitchener to Windsor and Sarnia) still isn't that bad. It's the GTA (Milton to Oshawa, South to Hamilton, North to Barrie) that is the problem. And it sometimes extends all the way to Kitchener now.
 
In NB the density is concentrated in SJ ... Ire flinged ...

In semitic terms that's hadassah leader of the hagi ... as psyche she slipped off to Grease ... and danced with that scientist lightened as visible "c" ... Ge Hove a witness of that not apparent ...

Ad ark code?
 
We tried to avoid the GTA is much as possible. We've discovered that we can go station east of Toronto and take the train into the centre of town. That works fine provided that is your destination. The last time we did this was years ago when we went to a Blue Jays game.
To get to Elliot Lake from the Brockville area, we head north to North Bay and then turned west to Elliot Lake. Or we may drive through the Ontario countryside heading northwest to connect with Highway 69. Our GPS doesn't like this route; we have to keep reprogramming from one small town to another.
Coming and going between New Brunswick and Ontario we are thankful for number 30 S. of Montréal. My nerves will take the traffic on Montréal Island. I expect the time will come when major cities and private vehicles from the downtown streets and through highways. Cities will be surrounded by parking lots where people leave their cars take high-speed public transportation to major centres in the city.
 
Seeler said:
Cities will be surrounded by parking lots where people leave their cars take high-speed public transportation to major centres in the city.
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That's assuming self-driving cars don't come first. If a majority of cars were AIs programmed to maintain proper speed and spacing for conditions, a lot of traffic issues go away. Too many problems are caused by drivers in a hurry or trying to "get ahead" tailgating, cutting people off, failing to merge safely, and so on.
 
Seeler said:
We tried to avoid the GTA is much as possible. We've discovered that we can go station east of Toronto and take the train into the centre of town. That works fine provided that is your destination. The last time we did this was years ago when we went to a Blue Jays game.
To get to Elliot Lake from the Brockville area, we head north to North Bay and then turned west to Elliot Lake. Or we may drive through the Ontario countryside heading northwest to connect with Highway 69. Our GPS doesn't like this route; we have to keep reprogramming from one small town to another.
Coming and going between New Brunswick and Ontario we are thankful for number 30 S. of Montréal. My nerves will take the traffic on Montréal Island. I expect the time will come when major cities and private vehicles from the downtown streets and through highways. Cities will be surrounded by parking lots where people leave their cars take high-speed public transportation to major centres in the city.
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I find the GTA fairly easy to avoid. I think I've been there only once :)
 
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