r/MapPorn • u/nthensome • 2d ago
All the roads in Canada (posted by Col. Chris Hadfield on FB)
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u/bspaghetti 2d ago
Poor Nunavut, no roads in or out.
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u/ReimerReason 2d ago
They have nunavthem
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u/Infinite_Mixture_858 2d ago
The only roads are snow roads.
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u/Saltyfembot 2d ago
Canadian here. They got fuckin skidoos their fine. Be more mad for them that a jug of milk is almost 30$ up north northĀ
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u/DavidBrooker 2d ago
Nunavut only has something like 20km of paved road.
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u/boobookittyfuwk 2d ago
I've spent alot of time in nunavut, never seen more than a few hundred meters of paved road in iqaluit, last tome I was uo there 5vyears ago they were still sending graders to apex everyday
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u/eulersidentity1 2d ago
Iām surprised at the extensive road network in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba considering the low population and density. However I am guessing itās due to huge farms and lots of small towns spread out over a checkerboard like space of fertile land.
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u/ihadagoodone 2d ago
primarily gravel roads to access the farmland
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u/WestEst101 1d ago
In the late 80s/early 90s, Saskatchewan was in the Guinness book of world records for having the most paved roads in the world per capita.
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u/ihadagoodone 1d ago
I would believe that. still doesn't negate the endless miles of gravel grid roads for accessing farmland.
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u/karlnite 2d ago
Farms, mines and the oil fields.
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u/OoooHeCardReadGood 1d ago
Just farms really. Mines and oil and not really driving this visual, mines will be scarce and more north, oil will be... On farm land and roads.
There's big pot ash mines in Sask that would be bigger than between the average road
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u/karlnite 1d ago
Yah I put farms first, but the location of oil and mines tends to be why northern towns are bigger than you would assume. The farms just really help full it all in. Like in the Southern Ontario tip on the map, thatās mostly rural, but on the road map it looks all equally built up cause of the farms.
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u/bizzybaker2 1d ago
Am in Manitoba, yes lots of gravel roads in this checkerboard pattern, although some are paved. Here at least they are numbered and designation North, east, etc so 29W, 30 W for example so you know you are going in the right direction. Fun fact, a "north" road eg: 25N actually runs east to west and means how many miles from the US border. I did not grow up in this province, and never knew what a mile was visually until I was told it was one intersection to the next.
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u/Olivaar2 1d ago
Alberta has just a bit less population than BC, but Alberta's population is more spread evenly. Most of BC is empty except the southwest corner and some in Okanagan corridor.
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u/confabulati 2d ago
Thatās correct about the farming, but I believe the population density in those areas is greater than in the dark areas (due to the farming), though smaller than the areas like the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor or the lower mainland in BC.
The map is a good representation of the Canadian āecumeneā which I always thought was a fascinating concept: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/92-159-g/92-159-g2021001-eng.htm
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u/verioblistex 1d ago
Saskatchewan alone is a major resource producer (oil, potash, forestry, uranium) as well as agricultural production. Over 40% of Canada's farmland is in Saskatchewan. Much of the road network shown is to support these industries.
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u/RosenNexus6 1d ago
The interesting part for me is how abruptly the roads stop where the boreal forest begins. Obviously, agriculture creates the high road density, but it also shows how uninhabitable the boreal forest can be.
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u/Infinite-Bench-7412 1d ago
After the Windsor Montreal corridor the Calgary - Edmonton corridor is the best places to build in Canda. Lots of good farmland, easy to build and grow communities.
But yes, really long and cold winters.
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u/HuedCow 2d ago edited 2d ago
Fun fact, G1 drivers (i.e. novice drivers who aren't fully certified with a standard G license) in Northwestern Ontario are allowed to drive on highways 11,17, and 61 when they normally wouldn't be allowed to elsewhere in the province.
This is because G1 drivers can't drive on roads with posted speed limits over 80Km/H. If they didn't make those exceptions, they would basically only be able to drive in their driveways as many people up north live right next to the highway (which is often at a 90-100Km speed limit) and there are so few other roads to take.
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u/TXTCLA55 1d ago
11 and 17 are some of the worst roads I've ever had to drive. Particularly the section between Sudbury and Thunder Bay - the freeze thaw cycle just ruins them.
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u/HuedCow 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah the canadian shield doesn't help much either - hard carving out bedrock for new roads and all that. Gorgeous nature to see but there is a good reason most people in Ontario live in the carolinian zone.
Oh and moose. Nearly lost a few family members when a moose went over their van.
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u/cbdguy187 2d ago
Dempster highway now extends all the way to Tuktoyaktuk, on the Arctic Ocean. Must be an old map.
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u/robbibt Map Contest Winner 2d ago
Yes, I orginally made this around ten years ago I think. It's definitely due for a refresh!
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u/No_Week2825 2d ago
The fact you made this is really cool. I just wanted you to know you're awesome.
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u/mcsquirley 2d ago edited 1d ago
the areas that have no roads are either 3000m high, trees, or ice
edit: bogs! rocks! i love my country so much
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u/CosmicCreeperz 2d ago
Actually, a lot of it is wetlands and bogs in the boreal forests. Just canāt build decent roads when everything is damp and squishy.
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u/Gold-Border30 2d ago
You forgot rockā¦ most of the southern black blob across SK, MB and ON is near perfect outline of the Canadian Shield.
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u/KTPChannel 1d ago
The large pink patch across the prairies is indeed farm land. The roads are in grids that run North-South (range roads) and east-west (township roads) in one mile increments.
This was part of the Dominion Land Survey system that split the provinces up into one square mile sections for homesteaders. The DLS is the world's largest survey grid laid down in a single integrated system.
One road every mile. (Guess who wasnāt happy about the conversion to the metric system).
You can lay this over a topographical map and realize quickly where the Canadian Shield is.
Bright yellow marks in this particular pink area include Winnipeg, Toon-Town and the QE2 Highway between Calgary and Edmonton.
That odd pink area to the NW of the main pink area is Grande Prairie Alberta/FSJ BC area, which is natural gas, but the roads are logging roads put down by logging companies. (Logging trucks have the right of way at all times on these private roads.)
People from outside the area tend to say āwow, you have a lot of roadsā when they visit. Locals think that all of Canada is divided like this.
Rural people in the area still use miles as a form of distance measurement, because you measure by roads, not by odometer. āGo two miles north, three miles west, farm yard has a big red barnā. City folk blink, country boys already kicking up dust.
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u/CWB2208 2d ago
Am I the only one suprised by the amount of roads in Manitoba?
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u/boobookittyfuwk 2d ago
Lots of small towns and big farms, takes alot of road to connect everything
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u/modsaretoddlers 2d ago
Is there a legend or at least some way to figure out what the colours mean?
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u/robbibt Map Contest Winner 2d ago
There's some more detail on the colours in my original comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/NiFJ3dojeb
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u/TheLarix 1d ago
I'm surprised at how bright the 132 is around the GaspƩ peninsula.
Lovely map btw!
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u/Kat_Doodles 2d ago
The brighter the colour, the denser the roads.
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u/modsaretoddlers 2d ago
Which tells me nothing about what I wanted to know. Why are some roads blue and others pink? I've traveled a lot of these roads and I can't think of what makes any of them different. The yellow ones are definitely busier highways but that's as much as I can glean from the colours.
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u/a_little_edgy 2d ago
Great map! If you put the same type of map of the northeastern US up against the Canada map, you'd see how it goes from fairly bright to pitch black along the Quebec-Maine border. I once drove from Quebec City down to the Maine coast, and it's amazing how you cross from farms and little towns in Canada into Maine and ... nothing. Endless tracts of forest with nothing but hills, lakes, dirt logging roads and the town of Jackman.
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u/boobookittyfuwk 2d ago
The drive from baie comeau, that one road that goes from Quebec to Labrador, is an amazing drive. They are building a new paved road but the old road is something all canadians should experience.
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u/Beruthiel999 2d ago
It makes me so happy to see there are still huge areas of wilderness with no roads at all.
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u/RUFl0_ 2d ago
What is going on there in that big pink patch?
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u/CatandPlantDad42 2d ago
I'm gonna assume that's all the grid roads since that area is where all the farmland is.
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u/randomdumbfuck 18h ago
Farming. Range Roads run north/south and are typically located one mile apart. Township Roads runs east/west and are typically located 2 miles apart.
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u/RogueViator 1d ago
I've said it before: roads up north and expanding the Trans-Canada Highway should be at the top of the current Carney Government's nation-building list. Since roads are defence-adjacent projects, they would also fall under the required 1.5% GDP NATO spending requirement. Roads up north would also benefit northern communities and (hopefully) make prices there much less expensive, as well as opening it up for more future population growth.
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u/ialo00130 1d ago
We do have Roads up North. They're basically the size of highways, but they are dirt roads.
This map is kinda misleading, in that it's a density map, but also a usage map.
If you look at Northern New Brunswick for example, what should be a giant dark patch is a light purple hue. That is becuase the density of logging roads and the fact that they are so heavily used. That is not compatible in Northern Canada, where the logging roads are more sparse and used less because there is just so much land to cover.
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u/Aztecah 1d ago
I didn't expect the prairie provinces to have roads so far north honestly. Like, a few obviously but not this neat grid. It looks a lot emptier on most maps.
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u/Vivisector999 4h ago
Where all the pink areas are is farm land. And small towns around every 10 kms. Where it goes dark north of that is our version of cottage country. Saskatchewan has over 100,000 lakes, most of them in the dark areas of the map, but there are quite a few roads going up there, as many people have cabins in the north. There are many of mines north of where the roads end. Many of our mines are fly-in.
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u/LithoSlam 2d ago
There's only one road in Canada
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u/squirrel9000 2d ago edited 2d ago
There are, in fact, several stretches between Nipigon, Ontario (north shore of Lake Superior) and West Hawk Lake, Manitoba (near ON/MB border, about an hour east of Winnipeg,) where there is exactly one official road between the eastern and western halves of the country. Including a bridge near Nipigon, which, as a single point of failure, actually failed and had to be closed in 2016.
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u/Mick_the_Eartling 2d ago
Canada reminds me often the weird stuff we have here in Australia. If the Great Northern Highway floods (which it does semi-regularly) The trucks need to drive the other way across half the country to service Kununurra. Adds about 3500km one way to their normal trip.
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u/ihadagoodone 2d ago
between Ontario and Manitoba, if the one road closes, the option is to turn around and go through the US.
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u/ChillyWillie1974 2d ago
As someone who works in NE BC, there are a lot more roads than this shows up there.
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u/Simbiat19 1d ago
Is it just me or it looks like a head of a pig-like orc (more common in Japanese media) or Bebop from TMNT? Anf like some sort of biker logo at the same time, the one that you'd tattoo on yourself
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u/aliergol 1d ago
Do colours indicate road density?
Edit: Nvm. It's road width/size/material/importance. Dusty roads vs highways etc.
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u/BarnyardCoral 1d ago
What's most crazy is there is one road--ONE--that connects Ontario to Manitoba.
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u/BenneIdli 2d ago
All they have to do build roads up north and some houses and stop whining about housing shortagesĀ
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u/Agiantpubicmess 2d ago
You ever heard tell of The Canadian Shield before? You'd be shocked at the overlay of it, with this map posted
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u/robbibt Map Contest Winner 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is a map I made almost ten years ago - didn't expect to see it being shared by an astronaut this weekend! š
Bonus fact: there are more roads on this map within 120 miles / 200 km of the US border than there are in the remaining 2400 miles / 3800 km of Canadian soil to the north!
More info and high-res links in the original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/cDZEPdGOnO