141 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Maybe only Rogers is switched on so far.  They are Rogers towers.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 March 2023 - 12:17 PM.

[Mike K.]

Yup, maybe.

[Victoria Watcher]

Once it's ready to go though, you just hit the Clack button.

 

[vortoozo]

It’s still not working on Telus.

 

I've heard through the grapevine that Telus may be about 6 months away.

[Mike K.]

Wowzers.

[vortoozo]

Wowzers.

 

They have their own cabinets for equipment at each site, and presumably don't/didn't receive access until Rogers allowed it.

It's not just something that will be enabled by software.

[Mike K.]

I can confirm, no Telus signal.

Wasn’t this government-funded, and touted as in-store to be a complete project by October of 2021!?

[vortoozo]

There was government funding yes. It's a miracle that this corridor was completed before Highway 4 between Port Alberni and Ucluelet.

[Mike K.]

$4.9 million, announced in April of 2021.

There is more travel between Renfrew and Sooke than Alberni and Tofino/Uc. You’ve also got thousands of people living west of Sooke without cell services, so I can see the priority.

Highway 14 is -busy-. You’d never think so, but it is. A big part of that is people just going for a cruise between a centre with 400,000 people, and the Cowichan Valley, with 100,000 people.

[JohnsonStBridge]

There is more travel between Renfrew and Sooke than Alberni and Tofino/Uc. 

 

Traffic volumes are fairly seasonal on both routes but I can't see this. Government data has average traffic on Highway 14 at ~1,500/per day over the Labour Day Weekend in 2018 and ~2,700/per day on Highway 4 over the following weekend in 2018. There is limited data to compare directly but it certainly does not support claiming there is more travel between Port Renfrew.

[Mike K.]

It's not just weekend volumes that count, though, and things have changed drastically since 2018. COVID saw the area explode in popularity. Is your traffic data for west of Port Alberni, or east of Port Alberni? Is the data west of Sooke, or at Port Renfrew? The location of where the data was taken is important, too.

 

Population numbers alone would indicate there is more usage of Highway 14 than Highway 4 west of Alberni. There are thousands of residents fully dependent on Sooke/Victoria along Highway 14 west of Sooke. Tofino and Ucluelet are self-contained, few people live in Tofino and work in Alberni.

[lanforod]

I dunno Mike. I actually expect you're wrong here, especially in the summer.

[Victoria Watcher]

I cry foul too.  2,800 permanent population in T/U.   13 hotels/resort in Tofino alone.

 

JDF electoral area has 5,300, but split between 3 areas.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 April 2023 - 10:27 AM.

[lanforod]

Camping travel is probably higher to Tofino too. Tofino area has a dozen or so good sized campgrounds and they are all full from May to September.
Renfrew and all along Hwy 14 has a handful of places, plus the offroad stuff. 

[vortoozo]

Ministry count data from 2018:

 

Shirley at Sheringham Point Road

Average daily traffic: 2023

Summer average daily traffic: 2784

 

West of Sprout Lake

Average daily traffic: 2640

Summer average daily traffic: 4593

[vortoozo]

By China Beach it drops significantly.

 

2018:

Average daily traffic: 884

Summer average daily traffic: 1525

 

Just before arriving at the Tofino/Ucluelet junction:

 

2018:

Average daily traffic: 2567

Summer average daily traffic: 4402

 

So if you want to talk about how many are using the whole corridor, highway 4 has about 3x the traffic volume.

If you prefer to focus on the first count of the corridor, towards the population centre (Sprout Lake vs Shirley), highway 4 is still ahead. Plus, you'll have some local traffic at the Shirley counter (eg people coming from the beach to the cafe) which you wouldn't on the Sprout Lake counter since it's west of the camping areas.

Edited by vortoozo, 03 April 2023 - 10:49 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

By China Beach it drops significantly.

 

2018:

Average daily traffic: 884

Summer average daily traffic: 1525

 

Just before arriving at the Tofino/Ucluelet junction:

 

2018:

Average daily traffic: 2567

Summer average daily traffic: 4402

 

So if you want to talk about how many are using the whole corridor, highway 4 has about 3x the traffic volume.

If you prefer to focus on the first count of the corridor, towards the population centre (Sprout Lake vs Shirley), highway 4 is still ahead.

 

 

For reference:

 

[JohnsonStBridge]

It's not just weekend volumes that count, though, and things have changed drastically since 2018. COVID saw the area explode in popularity. Is your traffic data for west of Port Alberni, or east of Port Alberni? Is the data west of Sooke, or at Port Renfrew? The location of where the data was taken is important, too.

 

Population numbers alone would indicate there is more usage of Highway 14 than Highway 4 west of Alberni. There are thousands of residents fully dependent on Sooke/Victoria along Highway 14 west of Sooke. Tofino and Ucluelet are self-contained, few people live in Tofino and work in Alberni.

 

I compared the Sproat Lake count location to the China Beach count location. By no means perfect yet a reasonable measure of both corridors.

 

Your suggestion that population numbers alone would indicate highway usage demonstrates a vast misunderstanding of highway traffic on Highway #4. Traffic volume on Highway #4 is driven by tourism and not residents. Go read a tourism impact report for the Pacific Rim region and you might appreciate that tourists in Tofino equate to a equivalent number of permanent residents along the Juan de Fuca corridor. If comparable weekday volumes were avaliable, there would likely be a bigger drop in volume along the Highway #14 corridor.

[Mike K.]

I have been known to have vast misunderstands about a great many things, that is for sure.

Let’s get some recent traffic data. There’s a reason why the province chose Highway 14 and not Highway 4. I suspect it’s because a population of 500,000 people and the second largest tourism market in BC, connected by the Circle Route, generates quite a bit of traffic, in 2023.

[lanforod]

I have been known to have vast misunderstands about a great many things, that is for sure.

Let’s get some recent traffic data. There’s a reason why the province chose Highway 14 and not Highway 4. I suspect it’s because a population of 500,000 people and the second largest tourism market in BC, connected by the Circle Route, generates quite a bit of traffic, in 2023.

 

I think you're wrong on the why. They chose it because there is more population living and doing things ALONG the highway. There are small pockets of residents, various beaches and stopping points, a hiking trail.
Hwy 4 has more traffic from end to end, it doesn't have much of anything between Port Alberni and the junction to Ucluelet/Tofino.