2241 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

There's an emergency bypass for the Farrington Highway on Oahu

 

The bypass would lengthen the alternative route through Waianae and Nanakuli. If approved the emergency road would cut through homestead land, so the Hawaiian Homes Commission will have the final say on whether it gets the green light.

 

Shimabukuro believes the road is a need, despite the stern opposition.

 

"Nobody wants a road going through their neighborhood," she said. "The thing I want to emphasize is this would be an emergency access road. It would be only open when there's a declared emergency."

 

She said there's no truth to a rumor that the church would have to move.

 

But others who challenge the bypass think it would be better to build a road that runs parallel to Farrington Highway and is open all the time. Shimabukuro said that's the long-range plan that will involve major construction. She said a temporary alternative shouldn't be ignored.

 

 

http://www.hawaiinew...or-bypass-road/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 20 February 2019 - 11:04 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

“We don’t need another McKenzie interchange disaster that has carved away large tracts of Colquitz River Creek Park, where active salmon-bearing streams have now become silt and toxic dumping grounds, and thousands of trees have been removed and blasting continues,” said Litman, a one-time candidate for the federal Green Party. “Or another $23-million-plus McTavish Road interchange, the site of numerous crashes since it was completed.”




that’s quite a laundry list.

[rjag]

“We don’t need another McKenzie interchange disaster that has carved away large tracts of Colquitz River Creek Park, where active salmon-bearing streams have now become silt and toxic dumping grounds, and thousands of trees have been removed and blasting continues,” said Litman, a one-time candidate for the federal Green Party. “Or another $23-million-plus McTavish Road interchange, the site of numerous crashes since it was completed.”

that’s quite a laundry list.

 

 

Litman is a strange duck, he is a self professed transportation expert and loves to talk about his books whenever he is interviewed. His solution for all of our traffic woes is pretty straightforward, add a never ending supply of buses to run the Malahat....every 5 minutes in peak and every 15-30  in non-peak and it will remove 80% (or some ridiculous number) of the single use cars on the road as he thinks the only reason people drive is because they have no choice. 

 

Litman is also mis-stating facts. Trans and Highways had reserved a large section of land that ran between the highway and the park, it looked like it was part of the park but was always intended for future expansion. Yes there have been some incidents which I hope the contractor is kicked in the gonads really hard for that...but dont equate that project which was 20 years overdue to running a brand new highway that is also 20 years overdue.  

 

Any presentation like this is like a room full of men planning womens rights. Its all the same usual supect anti-car crowd that run together and attend each others lectures....

 

Its funny that this crowd doesnt consider that most people arent A to B to A travellers. most folks p/u and drop off, run errands, stop for the dry cleaning, p/u groceries, perhaps a case of beer and wine, kids to numerous places etc. 

 

Meanwhile the rest of the world gets on with designing and building....heck in the 10 years it took to build the bridge or even get a shovel in the ground for sewage treatment, These have been designed and completed....

 

https://en.wikipedia.../Millau_Viaduct

 

https://en.wikipedia...ai–Macau_Bridge

 

https://en.wikipedia...deration_Bridge

 

The problem in Victoria is that there are far too many people like Helps, Isitt, Plant, Litwin, Foord etc in positions to screw life up for the rest of the population. 

[Nparker]

...The problem in Victoria is that there are far too many people like Helps, Isitt, Plant, Litwin, Foord etc in positions to screw life up for the rest of the population. 

As I have said before, for some reason much of the wackiness in Canada eventually migrates west and southern Vancouver Island is the last stop on the crazy train (with apologies to Ozzy).

Edited by Nparker, 28 February 2019 - 08:51 AM.

[Coreyburger]

Litman is a strange duck, he is a self professed transportation expert and loves to talk about his books whenever he is interviewed.on. 

 

Wrong Litman. https://www.sookenew...an-green-party/

[Mike K.]

I suspect once the McKenzie interchange opens to traffic and folks realize just how much of an improvement it will be for so many people, they'll want more of the same and the naysayers will come out looking a little out of touch.

 

Next up in terms of priority should be the following (in no particular order):

- creating passing lanes on Sooke Road west of Sookihalla

- straightening out at least one or two sections of Sooke Road west of Sookihalla

- dead-ending Island View, Haliburton and Tanner intersections along HWY 17

- building an interchange at Keating and HWY 17

- building a frontage road from the Keating interchange to East Saanich Road

[rjag]

Wrong Litman. https://www.sookenew...an-green-party/

 

 

Ah Jeez, my mistake, sorry! having heard Litwin on the radio and his wacky solution of all buses I just misread litwin and litman...!!! need to check my eyesight!

[Cassidy]

The anti-Malahat expansion folks are simply taking their expected position and reinforcing it in the press in order to pander to their base.

The CRD water and parks folks are doing what's expected of them based on their prior history, which is keeping CRD residents as far away as possible from "their" area of concern. Unfortunately, they simply want to keep folks as far away as possible in order to keep them as far away as possible, and can't at all explain in specific detail why a Niagara Main route would "devastate" either the reserve or the watershed.

They can't explain it, because such a route wouldn't do anything of substance to the reserve or the watershed, indeed it would likely reach a near zero impact within a few years after opening ... with wildlife moving further away from the noise and traffic, and the CRD putting their security fences up 200 or so metres further West of where they have them located today.

 

5 years from opening, nobody would notice anything at all untoward resulting from an expanded Malahat, or a dedicated Niagara Main by-pass route.

 

I'm not sure I'd call the CRD and their sycophants issuing an absolute rejection to a potential solution to the "Malahat Problem" particularly honorable ... especially coming as it does long before the formal search for solutions actually begins.

Indeed I'd be more likely to call the CRD and their sycophants both incredibly childish and highly irresponsible in their efforts to destabilize the entire process before it even begins.

 

[FogPub]

I suspect once the McKenzie interchange opens to traffic and folks realize just how much of an improvement it will be for so many people, they'll want more of the same and the naysayers will come out looking a little out of touch.

 

Next up in terms of priority should be the following (in no particular order):

- dead-ending Island View, Haliburton and Tanner intersections along HWY 17

- building an interchange at Keating and HWY 17

- building a frontage road from the Keating interchange to East Saanich Road

No...though you're kind of on the right track.

 

Put a full interchange at Island View Rd and close off East Saanich's highway access (and all other access between IV and Keating)

Put a left-lane flyover from Pat Bay (northbound) onto Keating, and leave the southbound Keating access as is.

Not sure if anything can be done between Keating and Sayward - too many private accesses, and Tanner Rd is too important to cut off but not important enough to justify an interchange.

Put a full interchange at Sayward

Cut off Claremont, Piedmont, and Cordova Bay Rd accesses.  Not sure what to do about all the driveways along the east side there, though; nor about the Elk Lake Rowing Club access.

Put a full interchange at Haliburton.

Edited by FogPub, 01 March 2019 - 10:39 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

right track but that's a lot of expensive interchanges for little traffic.  scrap the haliburton and island view ones.

[Cassidy]

In 46 years of driving on various iterations of it, I've never seen any sort of traffic jam on the Pat Bay such that any further interchanges are required.

Indeed, except for ferry traffic heading south, there's never even what could be called "very heavy" traffic on the Pat Bay.

Traffic is never "stopped", and always continues to flow at a reasonable pace.

 

95% of the time, traffic flies at 80 to 100 clicks from Saanich City Hall to the Ferries.

A few short stop lights do nothing at all to negatively affect the trip.

[Victoria Watcher]

the "dangerous" part of sayward is the downward hill southbound on pbh there.  it causes all kinds of driving errors or judgement errors at the intersection itself.  all preventable if drivers just thought a bit more clearly.  surely there is a simpler engineering fix.

[Mike K.]

There are frequent serious accidents along that highway. There was one just the other day which shut down the southbound lanes.

It needs to improved. Further to that, its volumes are not much different than volumes on the Malahat.

[FogPub]

right track but that's a lot of expensive interchanges for little traffic.  scrap the haliburton and island view ones.

Haliburton would be taking any and all traffic that now uses Claremont or Piedmont or any other access along there.  Island View would be taking all the traffic fromthat area except that going directly from n-bound PBH to Keating or Keating to s-bound PBH.

[FogPub]

In 46 years of driving on various iterations of it, I've never seen any sort of traffic jam on the Pat Bay such that any further interchanges are required.

Indeed, except for ferry traffic heading south, there's never even what could be called "very heavy" traffic on the Pat Bay.

Traffic is never "stopped", and always continues to flow at a reasonable pace.

 

95% of the time, traffic flies at 80 to 100 clicks from Saanich City Hall to the Ferries.

A few short stop lights do nothing at all to negatively affect the trip.

The problem isn't traffic volume (yet) except the ferry runs.  The problem is left turns, which are frequent along that stretch, and dangerous. (secondary problem: wasted fuel due to stop-starts caused by traffic lights)

[FogPub]

the "dangerous" part of sayward is the downward hill southbound on pbh there.  it causes all kinds of driving errors or judgement errors at the intersection itself.  all preventable if drivers just thought a bit more clearly.  surely there is a simpler engineering fix.

Part of the problem there - and at some other traditional high-crash intersections - is that when going south on PBH on a bright sunny day the traffic lights can sometimes blend into the background*.  For locals, who already know there's an intersection there, it's not an issue.  But for tourists etc. who haven't driven that road before it adds to the trouble potential.

 

Quadra and Tolmie has (or had, haven't been through there in a while) this same problem for traffic on Quadra going either direction - the lights blend into the background - and traditionally that's been one of the worst intersections particularly given that the crossing road is minor.

 

* - note that the brighter traffic lights installed some years back have improved the situation from what it used to be.

[Victoria Watcher]

right I had not thought of that angle hiding the lights.

I just feel that literally hardly anyone lives east of the highway off island view. to service with an interchange.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 March 2019 - 04:02 PM.

[Cassidy]

Blocking off uncontrolled left hand turns for safety, and building three or four unneeded $50 million dollar interchanges are two vastly different undertakings.

 

Blocking off the uncontrolled left hand turns (which should have been done 20 years ago) makes total sense.

Building $150 million dollars worth of interchanges makes no sense whatsoever.

 

Spend the money on the Trans Canada Hwy #1 first, and the secondary route #17 much further down the road where the population of the CRD reaches three quarters of a million people.

Edited by Cassidy, 02 March 2019 - 07:49 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

one of the problems with the left turns is xy.

they invariably require your vehicle to travel way to far forward (y) to make the fairly simple (x) turn.

now you’ve run out of time and the oncoming car/traffic is on you.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 March 2019 - 07:52 PM.

[exc911ence]

In 46 years of driving on various iterations of it, I've never seen any sort of traffic jam on the Pat Bay such that any further interchanges are required.

Indeed, except for ferry traffic heading south, there's never even what could be called "very heavy" traffic on the Pat Bay.

Traffic is never "stopped", and always continues to flow at a reasonable pace.

 

95% of the time, traffic flies at 80 to 100 clicks from Saanich City Hall to the Ferries.

A few short stop lights do nothing at all to negatively affect the trip.

 

I disagree with your last statement. It seems that the red lights prompt slower drivers to move into the left lane when the traffic is slowing or stopped, the reasons for this are unclear. At least to me. If these folks are driving a speed that has them comfortable in the right (read: proper) lane, what goes through their brain that has them moving over to the left once traffic begins slowing for the red light? All this does is place a slow-moving (slow-accelerating) roadblock in front of everyone that wishes to go faster until they clue in and move back over to the right lane where they should have stayed in the first place. The rage that happens after every red light because of this could easily be avoided by eliminating the lights altogether.

 

(OK, teaching drivers some road manners would accomplish the same goal but unfortunately local drivers seem to take a sick pride in their ignorant and rude behaviour, so good luck...)

 

The ferry traffic alone justifies the investment to remove all of the level intersections... a normal 20 minute drive becomes 40 minutes when the Tsawwassen boat unloads onto the Pat Bay and that's once per hour during peak months. Not only does it inconvenience those of us who live on the Peninsula, I'm sure it makes tourists and truckers wonder what backwater place they've landed on when they're jammed up bumper-to-bumper, constantly stopping at lights most of the way into Victoria.

 

They might also wonder why the section of the highway that's peppered with traffic lights is mostly a 90kph zone, but then lowers to 80kph once the road opens up after Haliburton... but I suppose that's a topic for another day.

 

One last point. Because of the left-turn-across-traffic exits at Keating and East Saanich, there are frequent head-on collisions that basically close the road down until they're cleaned up. When this happens, I can tell you from experience that traffic does indeed come to a stop and remains stopped for quite a long time. This doesn't happen every day of course, but would never happen if at least those intersections were re-designed.