Signage
All 400-series highways employ standardized signage. The standard directional signage is white-on-green, with collector lanes using white-on-blue to distinguish between mainline (express) and collector signage. Toll roads (i.e. 407 ETR) also need to have white-on-blue signage. Advanced warning signage are placed at 2 km, 1 km and 500 m before junctions, and square lane deviation signs (unique to Ontario) notifying drivers approximately 1 km before their lane leaves the highway. Separated high-occupancy vehicle lanes use black-on-white signage with a diamond logo in the upper left-hand corner.
Most service/attraction signage used on 400-series highways is white-on-blue, though older brown-on-white signs still exist. Caution signage is black-on-yellow, while construction (temporary conditions) signage is black-on-orange.
Roadside advertisements (e.g. billboards) are banned from the right-of-way of 400-series highways. The province has also obtained court orders forcing the removal of advertising signs that are outside of the highway corridor, but adjacent to and still visible from, a 400-series highway (such as along nearby farms close to the freeway). This ban exists to prevent driver distraction. By contrast, the elevated portion of the municipal Gardiner Expressway has many adjacent signs.
Many 400-series highways have also recently had gates installed at entrance ramps, along with special gated ramps located near overpasses, allowing access to the highway to be easily closed in case of emergency or road work.
Within municipalities under the French Language Services Act, 400-series highways have bilingual English-French signage (these include portions of highways 400, 401, 404, 409, 416, 417 and 427).
Read more about this topic: 400-series Highways