Poll: Highway from Hell - Election?

[Glacier]

The shorter route by bypassing Merritt would have been my first choice.
Now if anyone wants pass blame that would go to the person who signed off on the current route, who was the Minister of Transportation in the late 80's.

Alex Fraser was the highways minister from 1975 to 1986 under Bill Bennet, but I don't blame him, Rita Johnston, nor Harry Lali because highway 5a already existed prior to the Connector being built. Instead, I blame the current government because they are the ones that instead of continuing the connector on in a southwestern direction, upgraded the old highway 5a to 4 lanes, and thus delaying the planned shortcut indefinitely.

[Donald G]

To 1nick ...

I used to drive all the way into Merritt and out again too. ''Till I found out was faster just to drive counter clockwise around the Tourist Centre before carrying on along the by-pass.

Too bad a person can't just cross the Merritt By-pass intersection though. Would be more direct all right.

[sundancer1bc]

Why on earth would anyone drive into Merritt and out again if you are going to Vancouver?

[1nick]

Sorry I didn't make that clear enough,the fact of driving down the hill then having to drive up the hill "by" Merritt is a pain in the *bleep*.The aspen grove way was the logical route.

[matai]

Some coucou on page 4 would like a 70km/h speed limit from West Kelowna to Summerland. Warning: It's disturbing reading:

http://issuu.com/peachlandview/docs/september_19_2014

[John500]

Ministry of Highways is in charge. Its political. Thats why we all go via Merritt to Vancouver. Aspen Groves would have been much better. Not only for cars but especially for trucks. And since its all political, In Kelowna there is an HOV lane on the right side. The bridge is 5 lanes. Not 6 lanes what it should have been. Because of politics is why most highways in the Province go thru towns instead of bypasses. And the funny thing is that the only couple of highway, freeway that bypasses towns is the #1 from Hope to Horseshoe Bay, the Coq and the connector. All the rest have traffic lights that are triggered and so causes massive delays. Wasting of gas and brake pads.

[nikonfan]

Ministry of Highways is in charge. Its political. Thats why we all go via Merritt to Vancouver. Aspen Groves would have been much better. Not only for cars but especially for trucks. And since its all political, In Kelowna there is an HOV lane on the right side. The bridge is 5 lanes. Not 6 lanes what it should have been. Because of politics is why most highways in the Province go thru towns instead of bypasses. And the funny thing is that the only couple of highway, freeway that bypasses towns is the #1 from Hope to Horseshoe Bay, the Coq and the connector. All the rest have traffic lights that are triggered and so causes massive delays. Wasting of gas and brake pads.

If this was strictly a highways issues and we have no input then why are there a bunch of nuts who get together once a month to try and get highways to build a colossal highway to bypass Peachland. In fact one of the members of the nut club wants to run for mayor. To say that its a highway matter and we have no say is not correct. We are all the same voters. My argument is that as long as they have these Highline Bypass nut cases on council and others spewing this utter nonsense guess what? The Province has to do nothing about anything, it is all going to be studied at nauseum. Thanks you high line nut bars!

[Donald G]

If you were the MLA for Merritt or Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon etc and wanted to get re-elected, you wouldn't have dared vote otherwise. Compare their voting population and party affiliation to the alternate route suggested.

Its a "no brainer" as to why it went where it did.

[Glacier]

If you were the MLA for Merritt or Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon etc and wanted to get re-elected, you wouldn't have dared vote otherwise. Compare their voting population and party affiliation to the alternate route suggested.

Its a "no brainer" as to why it went where it did.

Why should one politician have so much sway when he's clearly in a conflict of interest?

[matai]

Something that surprises me is the definition of the name "Highway".

From Google:

a public road.

According to wikipedia, in Britain, a bike path can also be called "Highway", as it represents... any way from somewhere to somewhere else.

So maybe we have wrong expectations of that road... Maybe we think because it's called "Highway", traffic should run fast and smoothly.

In other languages, as in French, Highway (Autoroute) is the equivalent of the English Freeway. A road (une route) is still a main way but is slower than a highway and can also include traffic lights. Then in slower order comes boulevard, street and trail. A trail would be defining the slowest of them all.

Should we rename Highway 97 the "97 Trail"? It's not unusual to go 0km/h to 20km/h on it.

Should the word "Highway" be taken off what we consider to be a freeway when it's not? Should we rename Highway 97 "Road 97" or else? Also, should we rename Highway 97C Freeway 97C? The sign at the end of it arriving to West Kelowna clearly says: "Freeway Ends".

What do you think?

[nextimeround]

I read that the mayor and representing council (not sure who that is) brought up the corridor as a major issue at the UBCM. So, yes it's a provincial matter but to me that doesn't mean that municipal reps should not bring this forward as a priority, just as they've done.

As for the Merrit route and all the arguing around that... it's pretty easy to spout that it would have been much better to by-pass Merrit and to say it was political (of course it was). Unless of course you're a business person in Merrit then it's "a great decision". It's all relative people. The roads (highway or otherwise) are not for your single use. So what's convenient for you may not be so good for an entire community. Good on Merrit politicians for making sure they weren't by-passed into oblivion.

So... I agree with the OP - I'd like to see our municipal reps continue to fight for a holistic review of the entire corridor, including Peachland. Much work and money has gone into serving a single small interest in DWK and now it's time to look at everyone's best interest.

[matai]

It was also in the newspaper this week that a new bridge would not be before like 2033 or something, LOL.

How much $$ is Christy spending on a study right now? What is it gonna be worth in a minimum of 20 years from now?

And just a question like that... is the problem the bridge.. or is Kelowna simply on the wrong side of the lake? I mean if all the Westside population working in Kelowna actually lived on the Eastside, or if West Kelowna would build its own economy instead of acting as a bedroom community and relying on the one going on across the lake... would we even need another crossing?

Something to think about.

[WeatherWoman]

Sounds like she made a promise that she had no intention on keeping. Place the project so far into the future she doesn't have to deal with it.

I wonder how many people fell for her election promises!

[nextimeround]

The only good thing is that our municipal reps are pushing for the minister of highways to review the entire corridor, not just another bridge. And, if I remember correctly, nobody promised a bridge only to look at the feasibility and practicality of a new bridge. I'm not in favor of spending our tax dollars to pay the extreme cost of a second crossing at this point and as has been stated who knows what we'll need in the future. We have much more immediate problems at hand with traffic flows and aging roads. L

[Donald G]

On the other hand; "If you build a road they will come".

The shortest route between two points is by air. All other route choices are relative.