General Road and Highway Discussion

[mpd618]

It's interesting to see which roads used to be which. Mill St. used to be the main arterial in that area, for example, but they decided to switch it to Courtland and extend Courtland west of Mill St. to Fairway Rd. Vanier, Manitou, Doon Valley Rd and so on all used to be Mill St.

It's fascinating to see how much we've reconfigured the street network over time - people like a narrative of "Waterloo Region roads don't make sense because Mennonites" but the reality is there were a lot more straight lines on the map before the second half of the 20th century.

I think Mill Street is the most cut-up street we have. Bonus: it used to go through the village of German Mills around present day Manitou Dr / Cress Lane; the only trace I've seen is the few old houses in that area.