At approximately in length, Carling Avenue begins at the fringes of the Glebe neighbourhood and runs in a straight direction west until the
Ottawa River where it bends north to go around Crystal Bay and Britannia Bay and ends north of Kanata. It used to begin at O'Connor Street, one block east of
Bank Street, but the part east of Bronson was renamed Glebe Avenue on February 7, 1974. It is a four to six-lane principal arterial road for most of its urban length, with a speed limit of . The portion through the
Greenbelt and into Kanata is generally a two-lane rural highway (although widening is planned, which would also remove a substandard underpass in the 3700 block about midway between March Road and Moodie Drive), with a speed limit of . In December 2005 one lane in each direction between Booth Street and Cambridge South just before Bronson was converted to a
bus-only lane. This very short (roughly 150 m) bus-only section speeds up bus traffic through the Carling/Bronson intersection during rush-hour. Carling Avenue is roughly 19 km long. ==Features==