Quote:
Originally Posted by Metro-One
haha, that is a joke, have you ever driven the number 1? It is packed with commercial traffic year round and in the summer immense tourist traffic as well, there is no section in BC that should be a divided highway, why do you think we have the coquihalla (a 4 lane divided highway 300km long crossing the coast mountains), do you call that sparsely used? Why do you think the BC provincial government put in the park bridge near golden and is planning to build the 4 lane 3km long tunnel in the same area? Once the Golden to the Albertan Border section is done (4 lane 100km hour speed limit with interchanges in urban areas) they need to expand the rest of the TCH in BC from Golden to Kamloops. Why do you think BC was just rated the most dangerous in canada for highway travel? Because we have too many 2 lane twisting roads that have heavy traffic that need to be upgraded. The same goes for the prairies too, i have never driven any part of the TCH that should not be 4 lanes and divided where possible. There is a lot of traffic between Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Kelowna and Kamloops.
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Yup. Drove it last summer. The #1 TCH east of Kamloops that is that is.
I was generally talking about the #1 TCH, across Canada. Not just BC.
The Coq. is the #5 Yellowhead and was necessary to connect two large BC population regions. The LM and Okanagan are governed by the same body...
Who rated BC the most dangerous in Canada for highway travel? The Saskatchewan flatland drivers club? We have a higher accident rate? BC is more challanging to drive through than most areas, with all the mountains and all.
But, lets talk about the TCH #1 and BC.
Fact is, there isn't much for population in BC along the TCH #1 east of Salmon Arm. Immense tourist traffic? Not really. Highway 1 TCH east of Salmon Arm has a peak of 9,000-10,000 cars a day EW in July/Aug going down to 5,000 or less a day in the spring/fall then down to 2,500 cars a day in winter. With a AADT number of ~4500/day (seasonal).
A 300km freeway between Salmon arm and Yoho? For whom? Upgrades to take dangerous curve areas out and ease the more congested areas with additional passing lanes - sure. Like the kicking horse project. But a high-speed 4 lane divided freeway isn't required yet.
For BC consider these two highways:
Route 1 (TCH) Malahat Pass (Vancouver Island) - has a peak of 29,000 vehicles a day peak dropping to 17,000 on off-peak days (not seasonal). For an AADT number of 22,000/day. That is about
5 times the traffic of the TCH #1 route east of Salmon Arm.
Route 97 (Okanagan) - South of Kelowna - Peak traffic of 22,000 vehicles/day summer down to 10,000 vehicles a day winter season For an AADT number of 16,009 . That is about
4 times the AADT of the TCH #1 east of Salmon Arm!
Have you driven these routes? So, with federal/provincial infrastructure funds and being the BC Transport minister, which highway - #1 TCH Salmon Arm to Yoho; TCH #1 north of Victoria or #97 Okanagan - would you upgrade to a 4-lane divided freeway first?
Oh, FYI, the Ministry of Transportation did a study on Route #1 TCH north of Victoria in 2007 and concluded that it would not reach capacity for another
18 years mentioned people should just slow down and drive to traffic conditions if needed
So I fail to see how could they could determine that the TCH east of Golden was in critical need of upgrades and they should spend hundreds of millions and ignore the Island Highways and Okanagan Valley highway 97. Where 1.5 million British Columbians' actually live and use the highways everyday!
Then there's BC routes 99, 14 & 4.
I do like the kinging horse bridge - just wish the money was spent on the Island where it would be used more often
Sorry for getting off topic. Rant over. Back to HSR