Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches Eastern Canada Shortcut - Ottawa to Barrie

Looking for the quickest, shortest route from Ottawa to Barrie.
Usually take the long long long way - 416 to 401 to Toronto to 400 North.
Just wondering if there might be some folks out there who have an idea of what kind of shortcuts I might take.
The help is appreciated!

Hi Ray,

I just looked at a map in our office: If you go up highway 7 to Lindsay, then up to Orillia, it looks like it might be shorter, but it's hard to say.

Mapquest recommends your normal route.

Personally, the highways are probably faster overall. Even though it may be longer in distance but faster because the speed you can travel. I know when I have gone from my house to Peterborough, it is actually longer time wise to take the back roads than if I took the highways. The drive from ottawa to peterborough on Hwy 7 might be about the same as the 401 though.

I would stick the highways.

There's also a bigger risk of getting a speeding ticket on a secondary highway...cops have more places to hide. The 401 has a concrete wall between lanes for most of the ride. Plus most of the time you're speeding with others.

We drive HW7 quite often to Peterborough ... there are 'enough' cops to worry about, but not a great deal. You will probably find though that the traffic on the 7 can often get backed up if you go on a busy day. Between Perth & Peterborough there aren't a great deal of passing options, so sometimes you get stuck behind the dolt doing 60-80 and it's just a PITA.

My girlfriend used to drive highway 7 to come and see me from Mississauga when she was working out there. She would leave at 4:30 and save 40 minutes by taking 7 to avoid rush hour.

My best advice for Ray is to get a good road atlas and plot out some routes. Then try one. Even if it takes you 20 minutes extra, that's not too bad, and you had a nice drive that's way less boring than the 401.

If you go the 7 and pass through Havelock ... they have signs saying speed camera's ... none there though.

My best advice for Ray is to get a good road atlas and plot out some routes. Then try one. Even if it takes you 20 minutes extra, that's not too bad, and you had a nice drive that's way less boring than the 401.

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Phil hit the nail on the head here - sick and tired of the boring 400 series highways.

Also, I have to do this drive leaving Ottawa at about 1pm.

That would put me in Toronto smack in the middle of rush hour. No thanks!

Overall, given the circustances, unless it's snowing something fierce, I think I'll get to Barrie in quite a bit less time than if I were on the 400 series.

The route on hwy 7 is somewhat time consuming although the speed limit is 80kmh all the way - many little communities along the way are 50kmh. LOTS of cops! Can't say I've ever seen so many Crown Vic's in 3 hours before.. haha

You could run through Orillia to #12 south to Beaverton then East across the Argyle Road to Cty#21 (Killarney Bay Road)South to Hwy 35 (via Lindsay) and then grab the #115 south to the 401...

Yep, seems like a pain in the heiny but you'd bypass all the Toronto traffic.

From Lindsay, the time across #7 is the same as going across the 401 even with the lower speed limits.