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Highway 407 (pronounced "four-oh-seven") is a tolled 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The present highway is owned by 407 ETR Concession Company Limited, which is officially known as the 407 Express Toll Route (407 ETR). However the extension of the tollway (Highway 407 East) will be owned by the province of Ontario. The route begins at the junction of the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) and Highway 403 in Burlington, and travels across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to Highway 7 and Brock Road (Durham Regional Road 1) in Pickering. Highway 407 is the first electronically operated toll highway opened in the world; there are no toll booths along the length of the highway. Transponders or licence plates are read at entrance and exit points and distances are calculated electronically. Major interchanges along the route include the QEW, Highway 403, 401, 410, 427, 400, and 404. Highway 407 was planned in the late 1950s as a freeway bypassing the Toronto segment of Highway 401, the busiest highway in the world. However, construction did not begin until 1987. During the early 1990s, the provincial government proposed tolling the highway to alleviate a revenue shortfall. The central sections of Highway 407 opened 1997. The remaining sections were built quickly over the following four years, with the final segment opening in mid-2001. Despite being included in the 400-series network, Highway 407 is no longer considered part of the provincial highway network due to it now being privately owned.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = Service Ontario e-Laws )〕 The route is operated privately under a 99-year lease agreement with the provincial government. The lease was sold in 1998 for approximately C$3.1 billion to a consortium of Canadian and Spanish investors operating under the name 407 International Inc. The privatization of Highway 407 has been the source of significant criticism, especially regarding the increases in tolls, plate denial, and false charges. In addition, the safety of segments constructed following the sale of the freeway has been called into question. Many have come to regard Highway 407 as a luxury, as opposed to the bypass of Highway 401 it was originally conceived to be. A provincially owned and tolled extension to the route, known as Highway 407 East (407E), is currently under construction through Pickering, Whitby and Oshawa. Under the current schedule, it will open to Harmony Road in Oshawa by 2015, including a tolled north–south link to Highway 401 known as Highway 412. A further extension will push the highway east to Highway 35 / Highway 115 in Clarington by 2020, with a second link to Highway 401 known as Highway 418. == Route description == Highway 407 ETR is a 〔 controlled-access highway that encircles the GTA, passing through Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham and Pickering as well as travelling immediately north of Toronto. Although the general public felt that tolling made the highway a luxury rather than its original purpose of relieving traffic on Highway 401,〔〔 Highway 407 has had average daily trip counts of over 350,000 vehicles in June 2014.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = 407 ETR )〕 The 407 ETR is contractually responsible for maintaining high traffic levels as justification for increasing tolls, but conduct their own traffic studies.〔 Despite increased usage, parallel roads that Highway 407 was intended to supplement continue to grow congested, forcing the MTO to revisit costly widening projects of Highway 401 and the QEW.〔 Highway 407 has been designed with aesthetics and environmental concerns in mind by featuring landscaped embankments, 79 storm drainage ponds, as well as a curb and gutter system. Unlike most other Ontario highways, it features concrete pavement as opposed to top-coated asphalt. Because of this, the high-mast lighting along the urban portions of the route feature fewer luminaires than asphalt-surfaced freeways. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ontario Highway 407」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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