The Basketweave is the name of a stretch of Highway 401 in Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, immediately east of the Jane Street underpass

Overpass

An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...

 in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

; the name derives from the interesting criss-crossing design of the roads, which evokes imagery of a straw basketweave.

For the westbound Highway 401 driver, the functional aspect of the Basketweave is to allow drivers in the express lanes to change into the collector lanes, from which they can subsequently enter Highway 400. The Basketweave also enables the reverse lane change (from collector to express), acting similar to an express-collector exchange site. Users of eastbound Highway 401 also enjoy the facility of changing from express to collector, and vice versa, because of the symmetric design of the Basketweave.

The Basketweave was completed in 1967 as part of a major project to widen Highway 401 to a collector-express system. Despite the speed limit on Ontario freeways being raised in 1968 from 50 mph (80 km/h) to 70 mph (112 km/h) (later reduced to 60 mph (96 km/h) in 1974, then 100 km/h (62 mph) with metric conversion in 1977), motorists must reduce speed to 70 km/h to navigate the underpass safely (the overlaid transfer flyover is restricted to 80 km/h); all of the other 401 collector-express transfers (and vice-versa) allow the 100 km/h standard speed. The flyover ramps were rehabilitated in 2001.

Toronto-area radio broadcasts often refer to The Basketweave to describe traffic flow along Highway 401, for example: "Eastbound traffic is moving slowly east of the Basketweave."

Other basketweaves

Highway 401 near Highway 409

The main collector-express setup of Highway 401 westbound has a basketweave between Islington Avenue and Weston Road

Weston Road

Weston Road is a north-south street in west end Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The route is named for the former Village of Weston, which was located near Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue West....

 at 43°42′41"N 79°32′50"W. Here, the collectors eventually split off and default on Highway 409, but the basketweave transfer allows collector traffic to move back onto Highway 401, whose collector-express setup ends at this point. Express traffic also has the option of using the overlaid flyover transfer to reach Highway 409.

Highway 401 near Hurontario Street (2012)

Another collector-express setup of Highway 401 in Mississauga will have a basketweave between Highway 410 and Mavis Road according to the Ministry of Transportation proposal. This project apparently has been under construction since 2008, with completion due sometime in 2011.

The Transfer

Highway 401 eastbound has another collector-express exchange near Toronto Pearson Airport at 43°39′30"N 79°36′56"W, known as the "Transfer" on the MTO Compass traffic cameras. Unlike the other examples, the Transfer does not use a flyover structure to separate the criss-crossing transfer lanes; rather, the express to collector ramp passes under a rigid concrete frame structure cut into an embankment.

This was completed in 1986 when collector lanes were added to Highway 401 between Highway 403/410 and Highway 427, providing a direct link between these freeways. Since the collector lanes beyond the transfer merely serve as ramp extensions to Renforth Drive and Highway 427, motorists wishing to continue eastbound on Highway 401 must leave the collectors at this transfer. Highway 401 express east of this transfer is congested due to only four lanes (widened from three) passing through the 427 interchange; the collector-to-express transfer often serves to make this worse.

Highway 427

Highway 427 also has basketweave transfers in both directions between the Bloor Street

Bloor Street

Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, in the Canadian province of Ontario. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct westward into Mississauga, where it ends at Central Parkway. East of the viaduct, Danforth Avenue continues along the same...

 overpass and Dundas Street interchange at 43°38′00"N 79°33′31"W. This was completed in 1972 when then-Highway 27

Highway 27 (Ontario)

Highway 27, formerly known as King's Highway 27, was a provincially maintained highway in southern Ontario that is now cared for by the city of Toronto, York Region and Simcoe County. It is considered an undivided expressway in Toronto's municipal expressway network...

 was expanded to its current configuration and renamed 427.

A major complaint of this exchange is that the collectors south of Dundas are underused due to their complete lack of direct access to the QEW

Queen Elizabeth Way

The Queen Elizabeth Way, commonly abbreviated as the QEW, is a 400-Series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The freeway links Buffalo, New York and the Niagara Peninsula with Toronto. It begins at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and travels around the western shore of Lake Ontario, ending...

/Gardiner

Gardiner Expressway

The Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, colloquially referred to as "the Gardiner", is a municipal expressway in the Canadian province of Ontario, connecting downtown Toronto with its western suburbs...

. It is for this reason that the southbound collector to express transfer is busy during rush hour, causing a major bottleneck as it merges with the express lanes, while the overlaid express to collector ramp does not divert enough traffic to compensate. In 2001-2002, improvements were made to the QEW-427 interchange to allow the southbound collectors to access QEW eastbound (Gardiner Expressway) via a new loop ramp, which was supposed to take some pressure off the collector-to-express transfer. However, there is still no southbound collectors to QEW westbound access.

The flyover ramps were rehabilitated in 2002.

Eindhoven, Netherlands

Near interchange Batadorp, north of Eindhoven 51°28′30"N 5°24′14"E, there's a construction like a basketweave. However, northbound it is a choice between two different motorways, and only southbound it is a choice between collector/express motorways. It was built as part of the reconstruction of Randweg Eindhoven. This construction was completed in winter 2009/2010