Student maps Ontario's highway oddities
- University of Waterloo first-year civil engineering student Jonathan Silverman launched “Ontario Oddities,” an interactive map of unusual highway relics, errors, and roadside quirks across Ontario. - The map tracks things like incorrect signs, abandoned bridges, and even submerged roadways, and now includes an “On-the-way Oddities” route tool on Jonathan’s Junction. - It matters because it turns obscure transportation history into a road-trip guide — and shows how enthusiast mapping can surface local tourism. (cbc.ca)
Ontario has a lot of roads. But Jonathan Silverman is interested in the weird parts — the pieces that don’t quite fit the clean version you see on an official highway map. He’s a first-year civil engineering student at the University of Waterloo, and he built an interactive project called Ontario Oddities to track the province’s highway leftovers, mistakes, and curiosities. That’s the news here: a student hobby project turned into a public map people can actually use for road trips and local history hunting. (cbc.ca)id he actually make? Silverman’s site, Jonathan’s Junction, hosts Ontario Oddities as a map of “forgotten and overlooked corners” of Ontario’s highway system. The pins cover abandoned roads, old signs, historical facts, and unusual features — basically the stuff most drivers pass without realizing there’s a story attached. (jonathansjunction.ca) ### What kinds of oddities are on it? The fun of the map is how specific it gets. Silverman highlights wrong or outdated signage, abandoned(cbc.ca)is isn’t just infrastructure trivia for engineers. It’s the kind of thing that gives a normal drive a scavenger-hunt feel. (cbc.ca) ### Why would anyone care about old road fragments? Because roads leave fos(jonathansjunction.ca)changes, and the old version doesn’t fully disappear. You end up with stubs, ghost alignments, odd ramps, and signs pointing to a logic that no longer exists. Silverman’s project turns those leftovers into a readable story about how Ontario grew and how its transportation priorities changed over time. (cbc.ca) ### Why is a civil engineering student(cbc.ca)s, especially roads, and built Ontario Oddities as an enthusiast map. He also writes about transportation on his Substack, so the project sits in that sweet spot between hobby, public history, and early professional obsession. (jonathansjunction.ca) ### Is this just a static map? No — and that’s part of why it’s getting attention. Jonathan’s Junction now also has an “On-the-way Oddities” tool (cbc.ca)he project from “cool database” to “actual road-trip planner.” The catch is that the appeal depends on people enjoying detours for their own sake. But for the right audience, that’s the whole point. (jonathansjunction.ca) ### Why is CBC covering it? Because it lands at the intersection of local curiosity, student initiative, and tourism-lite usefulness. CBC’s rece(jonathansjunction.ca)oad enthusiasts and into a broader audience of Ontarians who might want a weekend drive with a built-in story. Silverman’s own site says the project has already been featured twice on CBC. (cbc.ca) ### Does this say anything bigger about maps? A little, yes. Official maps ar(jonathansjunction.ca)t to make you notice things. Silverman’s map does the second job — it treats mistakes, remnants, and dead ends as the interesting part rather than the clutter. That’s why it feels more like a guide to hidden infrastructure history than a navigation tool. (jonathansjunction.ca) ### So what’s the bottom line? This is a student-built map of Ontario’s highway weirdness. But it also shows how much local history is sitting in plain sight beside the road — if someone bothers to pin it. (cbc.ca)
