Currently we think of Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt, and Oak Bay as the "core municipalities", and the Westshore (including Langford) as peripheral.
I've lived in a large American city for the past few months, and it's changed my perspective on distance and commuting. Commuting the same distance as Langford to Victoria is considered "close by", while the true people considered commuters are traveling the equivalent of Duncan to Victoria, every day (1h to 1.5h in one direction a day).
Distance wise, the Westshore and Langford should not be considered far away, but it is considered so due to the heavy traffic and transportation choke points. In the next couple of years however, these will be cleared up, and I think our perception of Langford and the Westshore will change, and it will be considered a core part of Victoria.
The biggest and most important of all, will be opening of the McKenzie interchange. This will cause the commute from Langford to Victoria to drop by 22 minutes in the morning, and drop 17 minutes on the way back in the afternoon. According to the study, these time savings will persist even to 2038.
As always, people will call "induced demand" when traffic projects are proposed. First of all, if after a road improvement travel times go back to their original state (ie. the speed of the flow is the same), there are still more people able to take part (ie. the volume of flow has increased). However, for the McKenzie interchange, and the other improvements below, it is not simply a matter of adding another lane, but improving the flow of traffic through grade separation, or improved entry/exit points, etc.
Aside from the McKenzie interchange, there are several other traffic issues in accessing Langford and the Westshore. First, the merge and backups at Leigh Rd. The 4-laning to Goldstream will move the merge point down, and eliminate the rat-running occurring at the interchange. There will still be backups, but with the 4 laning and the dual left-hand turn lanes, these should only affect those going over the Malahat.
Second, the overloading of the Millstream interchange. Several projects are working on this. First, the Bear Mountain Parkways extension to Leigh Rd will transfer all travelers from Bear Mountain away from Millstream. Second, the extension of Leigh Rd over the railway tracks to Langford Parkway will move traffic from the Westhills development. Third, the Westshore Parkway extension over the railway tracks and to Sooke will first eliminate some highway traffic between Goldstream to Langford, as they can now use an internal route, and will will move over some traffic from Sooke. We will go from having one main access to Langford, to having three.
These significant transportation network improvements will drastically reduce travel times to and from Langford, and I believe will change its perception from being a peripheral municipality, to being a core municipality of Victoria.
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A map of some Langford roadway improvements: