Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Traveling to Kelowna via Vancouver


Traffic backlog on the new overpass
I am in Kelowna today, and tomorrow, and the next, enjoying the grey skies and cool weather. I’m actually here for my grandfather's birthday, which brings me to today’s story: the Border Infrastructure Program. This program basically turns Highway 10 and 15 into expressways (freeways with traffic lights), and finishes the incomplete overpasses on Highway 91. One of those interchanges on Highway 91 opened about a few weeks ago. I had the luxury of traveling on the new and “improved” Howes Street interchange in an attempt to pick up my aunt from Vancouver before heading out of town. I think the pictures speak for themselves. The whole point of the project was to reduce the congestion caused by the traffic light a Howe.
Me stuck in traffic on the Howes Street on-ramp
Unfortunately, it does not seem to help. The problem is that there is still a bottleneck upstream where Highway 91 dumps onto local roads. There is a fancy term for this; it’s call “shifting the bottleneck.” Anyway, it took me the same amount of time to travel to Vancouver from Langley and back, as it did for my aunt and I to get from Langley to Kelowna. Good times. Wish there was better public transit, my aunt could have taken a train.

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