How much of the Transcanada Highway is Freeway?

Question

On a drive from Ottawa to Vancouver, how much is actually Freeway (=Highway with at least 2 lanes for each direction)? And is there much traffic? Would it be faster to drive through the USA?

Answer 1

Just west of Ottawa you run out of freeway until basically the Manitoba border with the exception of a few kms around Thunder Bay and Kenora. Manitoba is 4 lane divided all the way to Saskatchewan, about a 6 1/2 hour drive. Saskatchewan is also freeway to Alberta border, about 4 1/2 hours, then 110km per hour through Alberta til the Rockies west of Calgary. In the summer the Trans -Canada west of calgary during daylight hours is wall to wall campers and tourists. Leave calgary about 7pm local time and you'll be in Vancouver by 9am the next morning, taking your time through the Rockies to Kamloops. Stretches thru the rockies are double lane divided but alot of single lane each direction until Kamloops where you take the Connecter to Hope , double lane divided all the way to Vancouver. Driving straight thru, it will take you 38-51 hours (90km thru northern Ontario). Just as easy a route is Yellowhead west of Winnepeg, thru Sakatoon and Edmonton, Jasper, Kamloops. 300km or so more single lane highway but nowhere near as many campers in summer.

Answer 2

From Ottawa to Van. it would definitely be better to remain in Canada the whole way. If you are headed from say, Halifax to Toronto, it can make sense to enter the US at Calais ME and then re-enter Canada at the Peace Bridge, etc.

I can't tell you exactly how much of the Transcanada is still two lanes, but it's getting to be less and less. Twinning projects continue every construction season. As for traffic, that depends on where you are on the Transcanada.

Answer 3

Many stretches, especially in Ontario, are still one-lane highway in each direction, and painfully slow. After you get into Manitoba, it feels like a breeze. From Ottawa, I took the Canadian route once, and the American side several times through Detroit, total mileage was about 2800 miles. It would be worthwhile for you to get a CAA membership, which allows you to get, on top of the normal road assistance benefits, detailed routing, maps and tourist information, all this for about $60 a year, which you would recuperate in CAA$ if you fill up in Husky gas stations on a single trans-canadian trip.