Canada needs a world-class national highway system

Essay

November 14, 2009

By Wendell Cox
Senior Fellow
Frontier Centre for Public Policy

St. LOUIS, MO, Nov. 14, 2009/ — Canada is the largest high-income nation in the world without a comprehensive national system of freeways or expressways. A report by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy released Oct. 29 recommended a remedy – an upgraded Halifax-to-Vancouver transcontinental motorway and other key routes. Behind those widely publicized proposals are some compelling findings.

What we propose is a system of roadways that are entirely grade-separated (no cross traffic), with four or more lanes (two or more in each direction) allowing travel that is unimpeded by traffic signals or stop signs.

The economic advantages of motorways

Such motorways have been associated with positive economic and safety impacts. For example, a synthesis of research by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHT)) noted the positive impact of the United States motorway system: The Interstate Highway System represented an investment in a new, higher-speed, safer, lower-cost-per-mile technology that fundamentally altered relationships among time, cost and space in a manner which allowed new economic opportunities to emerge that would never have emerged under previous technologies.

In particular, the AASHTO synthesis indicated that motorway investments have lowered production and distribution costs in practically every industry sector.

Equally compelling, it is a well-known fact that motorways are by far the safest roads. It was estimated that 187,000 fatalities had been averted as a result of the transfer of traffic to motorways between 1956 and 1996.

Truckers in Japan, Europe (the EU-15) and the U.S. can travel among practically all major metropolitan areas on high quality motorways. Further, motorway systems have and are being built in developing nations. By far the most impressive is China, which now has approximately 65,000 kilometers of motorway, not including those administered at the municipal level (as in Shanghai and Beijing). Only the U.S. has more, at approximately 85,000 kilometers.

China’s plans call for the U.S. figure to be exceeded within a decade. These roads are being built not only throughout populous eastern and central China, but also to the Pamirs at the Kazakh border and to Lhasa, in Tibet – crossing some of the most desolate and sparsely populated territory in the world. Mexico, a partner with Canada and the U.S. in the North American Free Trade Agreement, also has an extensive motorway system.

Motorways in Canada

Canada, however, is an exception. Only a quarter of metropolitan areas are connected to one another by motorways. Edmonton and Calgary are among the few metropolitan areas in the developed world that are not connected to comprehensive motorway systems. Vancouver is connected to the U.S. system, but not to the rest of Canada.

For many trips between Canadian metropolitan areas, it takes less time to travel through the U.S. on its motorways than on the Canadian roads. This is the case between Winnipeg or Calgary and Toronto, for example. The principal problem is the long, crowded, slow, two-lane stretch of roadway through the northern Great Lakes region between the Manitoba-Ontario border and Sudbury and Parry Sound. Another candidate for upgrading is a long section of roadway in the British Columbia interior that a Calgary talk-show host calls a “stagecoach” trail. Canada pays an economic price for this lack of a world-class highway system, both in manufacturing and tourism.

However, parts of Canada are well-served by motorways. Much of central and eastern Canada is connected by motorways, with routes from Windsor, Ontario, through Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City to Halifax. Only a short segment of this route isn’t up to motorway standard (the road approaching the New Brunswick border in the province of Quebec).

Yet, the largest Canadian urban areas have world-class freeway systems. Few, if any urban areas in the U.S. or elsewhere in the developed world have more kilometers of motorway or motorway lanes in relation to their urban-area size than do Toronto and Montreal.

A Canadian autobahn

My report under the auspices of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy proposed a world-class highway system for Canada. In the report, entitled A Canadian Autobahn: Creating a World Class Highway System for the Nation, we proposed:

■ Upgrading the entire transcontinental route from Halifax through Toronto to Vancouver to motorway standards. These improvements should be completed within 10 years and would cost about $28 billion, at the currency’s present value.

■ Upgrading other principal routes to at least premotorway standard, which would require “twinning” (doubling to four lanes) and minimizing the number of grade crossings. The longest of these additional highways is the Yellowhead route; Edmonton and Calgary to the Canada-U.S. border; Ottawa to Sudbury; and across the island of Newfoundland. These improvements should be completed within 15 years and would cost about $33.5 billion.

The transcontinental route would provide a long-overdue economic stimulus to urban areas such as Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie. The improved Yellowhead route would provide far better access to the new deepwater superport at Prince Rupert, BC, which is the closest North American port with connections to major Asian markets. This could materially improve Prince Rupert’s competitiveness relative to larger ports on the U.S. West Coast, such as Los Angeles and Long Beach, which have become much less competitive themselves in the past decade. The improved roadway would make it possible to effectively serve the markets of the U.S. Midwest, South and East through a connection to Interstate 29 in North Dakota.

The issue of greenhouse-gas emissions

 A question was raised about the advisability of expanding highways at a time that the world is attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such a strategy would seem to be at odds with the popular perception that we shall all have to abandon our cars and move into flats in the central city. This perception presumes that people are prepared to return to the standards of living and lifestyles of 1980, 1950 or even 1750. In all of my presentations on similar issues, I’ve yet to uncover any groundswell of support for the lifestyles of yesterday.

It needs to be recognized that the international commitment to reducing GHGs is based upon an assumption of minimal impact on the economy. GHG reductions will be achieved only if they are acceptable to people, which requires acceptable costs (research by the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change suggests an upper bound of $50 a ton).

Cost effectiveness is necessary not only to prevent a huge increase in poverty, but also to allow continued progress toward poverty alleviation and upward mobility. In fact, recent U.S. research indicates real-world potential to reduce GHGs from reduced levels of driving is scant.

Because of the importance of tying the nation together, it would be appropriate to spend federal and provincial funds on the Canadian Autobahn. User fees — such as a dedicated gasoline tax (as in the U.S.) or tolls (as in France, China and Mexico) — could finance the expansions, using public-private partnerships or “arm’s length” government corporations.

A comprehensive national system of freeways or expressways is essential to Canada’s future prosperity.

Wendell Cox is principal of Demographia, a St. Louis public-policy firm, and a visiting professor, Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris. He was born in Los Angeles and was appointed to three terms on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission by Mayor Tom Bradley. He is the author of War on the Dream: How Anti-Sprawl Policy Threatens the Quality of Life.

Channels: The Yukon News, November 27, 2009, the Montreal Gazette, April 12, 2010