Talk:List of Quebec provincial highways

Renumbering?

When were the highways renumbered? My guess would be about 1970, but I don't really know. Also, I thought I remember that the 100-200-300 numbers indicated the importance and/or quality of the road and not their geographical relationship to the St Lawrence River ... Anyone have answers? --N5UWY/9 - plaws

I have the 1972 Rand McNally road atlas. It has highways marked with extra numbers in red, and a note identifying these as new numbers to be taking effect over the next two years: 1973-1974. GBC 18:13, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

That sounds about right to me. I wonder if someone has a canonical source? Of course, you could add your date with the citation and hope someone corrects it.  :-) --N5UWY/9 - plaws 18:26, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

The original proposal dates to 1966 [1] (originally with the intent of doing this before Expo 67, a move which didn't happen) so early 1970s is plausible. K7L (talk) 23:14, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

200/300

I looked at the MTQ site. Sure enough, 200/300 indicates location relative to the river and not quality of roadway. News to me.  :-) Was it always that way? --N5UWY/9 - plaws 17:26, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

As noted elsewhere, the Secondary Roads were designated to coordinate with the Primary roads and Autoroutes following Expo 67...some were previous minor provincial highways, others just secondary roads, some were former routes superceded by Autoroutes, etc. The numbering system just following the pattern in the USA of their Interstates, with the event Quebec would become an independent state....

Bacl-presby 17:50, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

You missed my point. I was certain that I'd learned (in driver ed (in 1979, just after the first big re-write of the Highway Code) that 100s were primary (after Autoroutes), 200s were secondary, and 300s were tertiary. MTQ's site now clearly says that 200 and 300 are both secondary and that the difference is geographical. --N5UWY/9 - plaws 22:42, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Naming

The MTQ always uses Route X in French, but mostly Highway X in English; it appears Route is French for Highway. As for the pre-1970s numbers, I have a scan of part of a 1935 (official?) map that includes a drawing of a shield, with Route above the number. It is labeled Numére indicateur de route and Road Marker.

So whatever we decide on, we should probably use the same convention for pre-1970s and post-1970s. This won't cause conflicts due to the numbering. But do we want to use Route (the French word, which happens to be a word in English) or Highway (the translation that MTQ uses, at least on their site)? --SPUI (T - C) 12:11, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Pre-1970s routes

(mostly from a 1968 map)

• Route 1: Montreal-Quebec: Route 112, Route 173, Route 171
• Route 2: Ontario-New Brunswick: Route 338, Autoroute 20, Route 138, Route 132, crossed at Quebec, Route 138, Route 185
• Route 3: New York-Quebec: Route 132
• Route 4: New York-Montreal: Route 138
• Route 5: Vermont-Quebec: Route 143, Route 116
• Route 6: Mont-Joli-Mont-Joli: Route 132
• Route 7: Vermont-Montreal: Route 133, Route 104
• Route 8: Montreal-Ontario: Route 148
• Route 9: New York-Quebec: Autoroute 15, Route 116
• Route 10: Riviere-du-Loup-Mont-Joli: Route 132
• Route 11: Montreal-Hull: Route 117, Route 105

12 and on seem like less-major routes, except for 17, which was numbered to match Ontario.

• Route 17: Ontario-Dorion: Route 342