3768 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Major upgrades eyed for Six Mile Road

By Edward Hill
Goldstream News Gazette
Aug 02 2006

The morning commuter crush through View Royal can often make driving the Six Mile seem more like the never-ending mile.

To streamline traffic flows, the Town is looking to rejig the Six Mile Road corridor in a three-phase, multimillion-dollar project that could see more turning lanes onto the Old Island Highway, and a roundabout at Atkins Road.

Six Mile Road is under Ministry of Transportation jurisdiction and all Town plans are subject to its approval.

For Phase 1, View Royal wants to widen Six Mile Road at the Island Highway to include two left turning lanes and a right turning lane. Further, it wants to remove the crosswalk on the east side of the intersection to take pedestrians out of the left-turn equation.

Those changes would require updated signal timing along the Island Highway.

Deb Becelaere, View Royal’s engineering technologist, said in a report a signal timing analysis hasn’t happened since 1996 and is “urgently required.”

“We need to look at the entire corridor, from the Colwood exchange on,” Becelaere said.

Morning traffic peaks between 6:45 a.m. and 7:45 a.m., straining capacity with 2,300 vehicles Victoria-bound on the Island Highway and up to 450 along Six Mile Road.

With more property development in the area, and morning gridlock on the Trans-Canada Highway, the Six Mile-Island Highway route is only becoming more popular for commuters, said Alan Haldenby, View Royal’s director of development services.

“At peak morning hours we have a huge amount of regional traffic coming off the Trans-Canada to Six Mile to get to Victoria,” he said. “Things can choke up pretty badly.”

Haldenby noted that adding turn lanes and moving crosswalks won’t reduce traffic volumes; it will only allow for a more efficient movement of vehicles.

If Phase 1 gets the ministry go-ahead, construction will likely start late September or October 2006. Early estimates peg the cost at $638,000.

Haldenby said all the Six Mile infrastructure work would be paid with development cost charges from Lakeside Village and other future developments.

Phase 2, a concrete sidewalk, curb and gutter from Six Mile to Chilco Road, is estimated at $384,000, and wouldn’t start until 2007. Further down the road in 2008, Phase 3 is a $1-million roundabout at Atkins Road and Six Mile, complete with landscaping.

Becelaere said the intent of a roundabout is to slow down traffic and to discourage people from using Six Mile as a commuter corridor.

“We want to improve the service for those going to Victoria,” she said. “The capacity issues are regional and more than a small town can handle.”

mailto:reporter@goldstreamgazette.com

[Mike K.]

Any word on the new Skirt Mountain/Bear Mountain exchange that Langford has been pushing for?

Btw, Langford has update its "proposed roads" document: http://www.district....cu ... rds.pdf

[Galvanized]

^^There's one thing that confuses me about that article. They are adding an additional lane on Six Mile Rd due to the increase in traffic to make things easier for commuters but then 2 years later they want to add a roundabout to discourage peope from using Six Mile Rd? Why not just skip the extra lane and forget the roundabout!

[Mike K.]

Because they need to spend the money!

View Royal is making so much $$$ from the casino that it actually has to come up with insane money-spending blitzes to purge itself of the cash. They did it with Helmcken, spending excessive amounts on beautification gadgets that most residents see absolutely no value in, and now they're getting ready to do it again along Six Mile!

[aastra]

Too bad they couldn't chip in some $ to do something beautiful with the Thetis Quay waterfront. Wasn't an attractive condo development supposed to go in there? Did it get quashed?

[Scaper]

No it was aproved but I haven't heard yet of any construction starting yet.

[Carewser]

Because they need to spend the money!

View Royal is making so much $$$ from the casino that it actually has to come up with insane money-spending blitzes to purge itself of the cash. They did it with Helmcken, spending excessive amounts on beautification gadgets that most residents see absolutely no value in, and now they're getting ready to do it again along Six Mile!

Exactly.

It's because these people are allocated so much money that they actually have to look for ways to spend it to ensure they get the same funding next time. People either don't know this or don't care so nothing ever gets done about it. That's why the province should stop giving these morons so much money. I say cut the amount of money these people get by half. Suddenly they won't have the money for make-work projects that most of us hate anyway, like roundabouts. We would save billions in taxes as well.

I e-mailed Deb Becelaere about this planned roundabout for Six Mile Rd. Even though i was pretty diplomatic, i doubt i will hear from her.

[HomelessGuy]

Can you say Overpass?

How about an overpass to take Victoria bound drivers directly from the Trans-Canada to the Old-Island Highway, completely avoiding the 6-Mile Rd. and the Colwood strip?

I just don't understand the deep-seated fear the developers and politicians have for building overpasses in Victoria. The Mackenzie and Trans-Canada springs to mind as a good example...there would be no traffic lights and no long lines of cars trying to get north from the city if they would eliminate the traffic lights and build an overpass wherever there is a traffic light. They have had many years to do this but have done nothing...I don't understand. Are they actually trying to slow everyone down on the highways as well as the city streets? If so why?

Is there a bylaw restricting overpasses as they would be more than ten feet off the ground and we can't have that in Victoria?

Overpass
Overpass
Overpass

[G-Man]

Welcome aboard!

We do need a couple of specific overpasses but I wouldn't want to see them get to carried away and put them everywhere.

[Holden West]

OVERPASS VIC WEST!!!! W00T!!!

[G-Man]

I am still for that proposal its too bad that the Dockside Green proposal is in the way. Of course we could still do some serious tunneling.

[Carewser]

Hey! Welcome aboard HomelessGuy!

I think i know why you want overpasses so much. So you can have somewhere nice and dry to sleep at night.

[ressen]

A car tunnel was once suggested to go from Jutland Rd and then come out at Tyee but that was before Songhees was built.

[Ms. B. Havin]

There's an interesting news clip on KPLU/ NPR's "Morning Edition" about traffic congestion on highways into city centres, as well as downtown gridlock problems. The clip is on [url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6618320&ft=1&f=1001:18002]this[/url:18002] page, which has the following brief description:

December 13, 2006 · The U.S. government wants the nation's cities to do more to end traffic gridlock. The Department of Transportation points to a successful experiment in Minneapolis, where some commuters can now pay a fee to drive in a free-moving lane. (more [url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6618320&ft=1&f=1001:18002]on this page[/url:18002])

I guess this strategy wouldn't help on a narrow stretch of highway like the Malahat, because you need designated HOV ("high occupancy vehicle") lanes, for which you then charge a fee. But it could probably work on some of our other roads. (Although maybe, if the Malahat does get built out...?)

The congestion/ gridlock comes from adding more vehicles, and traffic planners talk about a "tipping point," where you add just one more vehicle, and the whole system goes into a major snarl. Why do more cars keep coming on the road? Because the roads are perceived as "free." From the clip:

Economists say the problem is that when you give away a public good for free -- say, road space during rush hour -- people will use it up. One remedy is to start charging for it.

So, using computer technology and transponders etc., you pay to use the HOV lane (even if it's just you in the car). You get into town in 10 minutes vs. 45, and even the slower traffic lanes get a little better because you've taken your vehicle out of them.

[G-Man]

I think there may be a little faulty economics in there. A lot of public goods are given away for "free" and are not over extended by use. I am not saying that the practice of charging to reduce congestion is wrong just the economics. Anyways roads are anything but free they are one of the most heavy tax burdens we have. If we, the public, perceive it as free than we should be educated.

Or perhaps we need to split our property tax so that one line shows the proportion going to municipal roads. The same could be done at other levels of government.

My main problem though is you are not going to get one person out of a car when there are no alternatives. We need better transit here and until we get the funding for that we can do all we want to push people out of cars and it won't help.

[ressen]

I heard talk on the radio of a new road to Sooke possibly going trough from Goldstream area. The complaint was that Sooke can be cut off from Victoria due to there being only one road out of there. I could see a new road start at the top of the Sookahala (the four lane stretch) that would follow the power-line right of way inland from the existing road, but for all the cost would LRT not make more sense. An LRT route could even pass over sensitive park land for a more direct route.

[G-Man]

For the amount of people in Sooke I don't think the cost would be worth it. Anyways there is an alternate route, they can ride the Goose!

Or they could span the mouth of the harbour so that there would be direct access to East Sooke and Metchosin.

[gumgum]

I don't get this panic about Sooke potentially being cut-off from Victoria once in a while. Even if it happened a couple of days a year, no biggy. If you absolutely have to leave, try the inland route via Port Renfrew.
Many towns get cut off all the time. The gulf islands are one example.
Hell, I know of a few towns bigger than Sooke in Northern Ontario that are garanteed to get cut-off over a week a year from the snow.

[ressen]

For the amount of people in Sooke I don't think the cost would be worth it. Anyways there is an alternate route, they can ride the Goose!

Or they could span the mouth of the harbour so that there would be direct access to East Sooke and Metchosin.

Hey lets leave Metchosin out of this.

[G-Man]

^ Oh come on just a small freeway