Ottawa-Carleton Regional Road 174 Shield

The city of

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

maintains many regional roads, like most counties and regional municipalities in Southern and

Eastern Ontario Eastern Ontario (census population 1,892,332 in 2021) () is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies a wedge-shaped area bounded by the Ottawa River and Quebec to the northeast and east, the St. Lawr ...

. The regional road system was created by the

Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

(RMOC) and managed by the RMOC until 2001. In 2001, when all six cities, four townships, and one village within the former RMOC amalgamated to form the new city of Ottawa, responsibility of the regional road system was transferred to the new city of Ottawa, and they became today's “Ottawa roads”. In general, even-numbered routes run east-west and odd-numbered routes run north-south. Also, the lowest-numbered routes are generally found in the southern part of the city for even (east-west) numbered routes, and in the western part for odd (north-south) numbered routes. This pattern, however, has many exceptions. As more roads were added to the numbered-road system, the availability of numbers decreased and consequently, the numbering pattern had to be broken. Ottawa-30

In smaller communities and rural areas the numbered roads are, for the most part, adequately signed with trapezoid-shaped signs with rounded corners, which are often referred to as "flowerpots" due to the shape of the sign. Older signs installed prior to 2001 have the legend "Ottawa-Carleton" at the top with the route number underneath. Newer signs installed after 2001 use the legend "Ottawa" or simply the "O" portion of the city's wordmark. Most numbered-road signs are not marked with directional tabs indicating the direction of the road (i.e. North, South, East, West), but where these appear, they are always printed in both English and French. Most numbered roads in the urban areas of Ottawa are not signed with route numbers, despite having official route numbers and being listed on many maps with these numbers. Ottawa's city council adopted an updated route-numbering policy in 2005, under which road numbers are no longer posted inside the

Greenbelt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or gree ...

except for significant roads such as

Ottawa Road 174 Ottawa Road 174, formerly Ottawa-Carleton Regional Road 174 and commonly referred to as Highway 174, is a municipal expressway and numbered road in the City of Ottawa which serves the eastern suburbs of Orléans and Cumberland. The four-lane fre ...

, a former provincial highway, which is now usually known as "The 174". This effectively makes most Ottawa Roads within the greenbelt only used for internal purposes, as they are not signed. This is especially the case for Ottawa Roads 70, 78, 82, 105, and 113 which have little to no public record, due to the fact that they were likely numbered after numbering was discontinued in the downtown core. During the mass downloading of Ontario's provincial highways onto regional authorities in 1997 and 1998, the former

was given responsibility over former Highways 16, 31, 44, the section of 17 east of Highway 417 and the section of 15 downloaded to the Region. These former highways became known as Regional Roads (subsequently Ottawa Roads) 73, 31, 49, 174 and 29, respectively.

List

Former Numbered Roads

General Patterns

Even-numbered roads (East-West Direction)

Odd-numbered roads (North-South Direction)

See also

References