Castanet

just wondering if anyone else thinks the main left turn into swan lake fruit stand going north on the highway should be shut down.
this is a very high accident area with a very high chance of fatality.
it would make more sense to have people entering go under the underpass and take the much calmer route in at the end of the lake.
it seems most of the general public going there in the spring are a bit on the elderly side and crossing the highway with oncomming traffic going the speed it is with a slight corner as it swerves around the lake has taken a few lives lately.

What do you know we do have something in common. I would have to agree that that turn is a very dangerous one and does need altered somehow. It seems to me that the Vernon and NORD area is notorious for having bad turns on the highways.

Reminds me of a few other intersections.

Here is just a small danger left zone list that I thought of in a 1 minute brain storm. I am sure other people can think of many other places where it was bad, or is still bad.

1. Okanagan College, they corrected it finally with a stop light, it took a death to finally correct this intersection

2. Predator Ridge -- restructured it, however still I don't agree with left turns come out of Predator to Highway 97 , quite a few deaths before they did anything

3. Left turn coming out of Polson Place during rush hours, on highway 6 and left on Kalamalka lake road. Always accidents here, hopefully they don't wait for another death.

4. All the left turns out near the Swan Lake automile onto the highway. Vehicles coming from the car dealerships trying to turn left. There are a few roads along that stretch that have very dangerous lefts turns. I witness close calls nearly everyday much like yourself I am sure.

Left turn from the automile onto the highway should be closed.

I agree. There would need to be some very good signage so Swanlake didnt lose to much business, but yes, very dangerous spot.

To that I'd add the left turn onto Hwy 97/32nd St from the Vernon Square Mall. It's one of the worst in town, if not THE worst, especially in high-volume traffic, which is almost always these days. During the summer south-bound traffic waiting for the stop-light on 43rd Ave is often backed up so far that this uncontrolled and ill-planned driveway is completely blocked in both directions. The left turn onto 43rd Ave isn't much better.

I have little to no faith that the powers that be will do anything until someone gets killed, and that's been the unfortunate history of the way things get done in this city. It's called 'tombstone engineering' by some, and Vernon is chock-full of examples. Two of them are only blocks from my house, the 43rd Ave and 48th Ave intersections on 20th St. Someone had to die in both cases before city hall did anything, and even then their 'solution' on 43rd was almost worse than the original problem. IMO any and all left turns onto major thru-roads should be controlled by traffic lights, and the lights need to be controlled by the volume and direction of traffic. Not only would that save time by not requiring vehicles to stop when there's no cross-traffic, it would save lives. Just my 2 cents.

The traffic in Kamloops used to go down through town, but then a semi lost it's breaks down "hospital hill" killing some people. As tombstone engineering dictates, they built a bypass in the aftermath.

Fast forward 30 years, and we have Vernon - a city at least as large as Kamloops was 30 years ago - with atrocious bottle-necked traffic. When will they wake up and smell the coffee and build a bypass here. Hopefully before a semi loses its breaks on Hospital Hill. But don't count on it.

As for Swan Lake, there is simply too much traffic on highway 97 to still have such a podunk highway. They should have been planning a proper highway 30 years ago with proper overpasses and interchanges. It's never too late to start though; the longer we wait the most costly it gets.

I know a couple of Americans who used to live just south of the Osoyoos border. It wasn't the money the deterred them from coming up to Kelowna (they had good paying jobs), it was the slow roads. They can ether drive 66 km/h to Kelowna or drive 85 km/h to Spokane. Guess which one they chose most of the time (even though it was further away). No wonder Americans avoid day trips to the Okanagan.

yes this is the truth of it Vernon hired monkeys for planners and its starting to show.
look at the london drugs intersection in the summer, up to 5 lights to get through.
A bypass is the smart solution but the city has wasted so much time talking about it they couldnt afford the land now.

32 st 4 lanes , one way , southbound ...... and 27th st 4 lanes , one way , northbound with a more gentle grade down from the college and an overpass above the garbage dump end of Polson Park . Most of our traffic woes , left turns etc. would be improved. It has been discussed for years but like most things here , never gets done. Biggest concern was the 2 schools on 27th , but a pedestrian overpass would work , and the students would be much safer than they are now. As for the OP , yes , left turns at Swan Lake fruit stand are an unnecessary risk , especially for some of the older drivers.