Highway 407, a toll route that passes through the northern stretched of the Greater Toronto Area, has set a traffic record.
The 108 kilometre highway, which runs between Durham Region and Burlington, recorded 454, 275 trips on Wednesday, June 30, the largest number of one-day travellers to ever use the road.
The previous record, 445,822 trips, was set October 5, 2007.
The company that operates the highway credited vacationers looking to get a head start on the long weekend for bumping up the road's traffic last week.
The number of vehicles on the road fell with the onset of last year's recession, but has been steadily rising recently.
"The actual traffic numbers are coming back up in the first quarter of 2010," said Steve Spencer, spokesperson for the company that runs the highway.
The road allows drivers heading west or east to bypass the traffic-heavy Highway 401 through most of the GTA, attracting an average of 375,000 users on weekdays.
By comparison, one of the most used parts of the 401 - its junction with Highway 400 - sees about 400,000 vehicles on a typical workday, Mr. Spencer said.
Highway 407, which opened in 1997, is run by a company owned by a consortium comprised of Cintra Infraestructuras, Intoll and SNC-Lavalin.
The operators have budgeted $70-million this year to expand the highway with the goal of adding extra lanes at spots where congestion is worst, said Mr. Spencer.
The operators also periodically adjust the tolls to keep traffic lighter on the road, they say.