British Columbia

===Roads and highways===
{{Main|List of British Columbia provincial highways}}
[[File:Alex Fraser Bridge from below.jpg|thumb|The [[Alex Fraser Bridge]] on [[British Columbia Highway 91|Highway 91]] between Richmond and Delta]]
Because of its size and rugged, varying topography, British Columbia requires thousands of kilometres of provincial highways to connect its communities. British Columbia's roads systems were notoriously poorly maintained and dangerous until a concentrated program of improvement was initiated in the 1950s and 1960s. There are now [[controlled-access highway|freeways]] in Greater Victoria, the Lower Mainland, and Central Interior of the province. Much of the rest of the province, where traffic volumes are generally low, is accessible by well-maintained generally high-mobility two-lane [[arterial road|arterial highways]] with additional passing lanes in mountainous areas and usually only a few stop-controlled intersections outside the main urban areas.

[[File:Highway 1, Burnaby.jpg|thumb|British Columbia Highway 1 near Brentwood, Burnaby]]
A couple of busy intercity corridors outside Greater Vancouver feature more heavily signalized limited-mobility arterial highways that are mostly four-lane and often divided by portable median [[traffic barrier]]s. [[British Columbia Highway 1|Highway 1]] on [[Vancouver Island]] and Highway 97 through the [[Okanagan Valley]] are medium- to high-volume roadways with variable posted speeds that range from {{convert|50|km/h|mph|abbr=on}} to maximums just slightly lower than the principal [[grade-separated]] highways. Numerous [[traffic light]]s operate in place of [[interchange (road)|interchanges]] on both arterials as long-term cost-cutting measures. Signalization along both these highways is heaviest through urban areas and along inter-urban sections where traffic volumes are similar to and sometimes higher than the freeways, but where funding is not available for upgrades to interchanges or construction of high-mobility alternative routes or bypasses. The building and maintenance of provincial highways is the responsibility of the [[Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (British Columbia)|British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure]].<ref name="BC highways">{{cite web |year=2013 |title=BC highways |url=http://www.gov.bc.ca/tran/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020112834/http://www.gov.bc.ca/tran/ |archive-date=October 20, 2013 |access-date=October 24, 2013 |publisher=[[British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure]]}}</ref>

There are only five major routes to the rest of Canada. From south to north they are: [[British Columbia provincial highway 3|BC Highway 3]] through the [[Crowsnest Pass]], the [[Vermilion Pass]] (Highway 93 in both [[British Columbia Highway 93|British Columbia]] and [[Alberta Highway 93|Alberta]]), the [[Kicking Horse Pass]], the latter being used by the Trans-Canada Highway entering Alberta through [[Banff National Park]], the [[Yellowhead Highway]] (16) through [[Jasper National Park]], and [[British Columbia Highway 2|Highway 2]] through [[Dawson Creek]]. There are also several highway crossings to the adjoining American states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. The longest highway is Highway 97, running {{convert|2081|km}} from the British Columbia-Washington border at [[Osoyoos, British Columbia|Osoyoos]] north to [[Watson Lake, Yukon]] and which includes the British Columbia portion of the [[Alaska Highway]].