Thanks MOT, West Kelowna, WFN and Peachland

[nikonfan]

I would like to give a huge shout out and thanks to the MOT, West Kelowna, WFN and Peachland for totally turning the Westside into "Kelowna 2.0". Thankyou for turning our highway into a vast parking lot of stop and go a bit then stop and go,a bit more. All the extra lights that you thought so necessary are nothing but bottlenecks that cause all of us to sit in traffic and spew exhaust into the air and steal the money right out of our pockets.
Why are we not building a bypass past the abomination that downtown West Klowna is? Why are we not working on 4 laning Peachland? Why are we paying some of the highest gas prices and taxes in North America yet drive on some of the most archaic roads? Why are we not putting in overpasses at the major intersections and get rid of the rest and use frontage roads?
To top it off there are a bunch of kooks in Peachland that think building a 4 lane high line bypass up over 2 creeks connecting Greta Ranch and the connector is a viable idea when we can't even get 1 (one) little overpass at Butt or Gelatley road.

Thanks for letting me vent, I however don't feel better because i know nothing will ever change and even get worse because we are dealing with a bunch of nuts in office and an MOT who have no clue what they are doing.

[GordonH]

^^^ Actually on west side of the bridge a by-pass would not be needed, if they would have put in placed of lot of those lights underpasses. Then straight threw traffic would be free to do just that.
True not all of lights but vast majority would have worked, it just would have meant planning ahead. I know MOTI rarely if ever does that.

I figure at least 7 of those traffic lights could have been made into underpasses, back when development along highway was many years away (or at least needed space was set a side).

[36Drew]

I would like to give a huge shout out and thanks to the MOT, West Kelowna, WFN and Peachland for totally turning the Westside into "Kelowna 2.0". Thankyou for turning our highway into a vast parking lot of stop and go a bit then stop and go,a bit more. All the extra lights that you thought so necessary are nothing but bottlenecks that cause all of us to sit in traffic and spew exhaust into the air and steal the money right out of our pockets.

I know, right? Every damned time I drive or ride up to visit, the first thing running through my mind is the bottleneck of traffic lights on either side of the bridge. I can make it from lougheed mall to canada place in roughly the same amount of time it takes to drive through west kelowna and kelowna.

[Randall T]

That light at Abbott is an example why traffic will never flow properly through these two cities. Interrupt traffic to appease the local walkers/joggers so they don't have to add an extra block to their workout. Incredible.

[Dizzy1]

It took me longer to get to the bridge from Walmart in West Kelowna then it did from the bridge to the airport last night. Good God. Southbound traffic was plugged up even more.

[nikonfan]

Well, after another long weekend traffic was a nightmare through Peachland, Westbank, and all the way to Kelowna. My question is why have our "road experts" not learned by history? You completely screwed up Kelowna with light upon light upon light and now you are doing exactly the same thing with the Westside! Are you guys all idiots? Really? Traffic circle on Butt is way undersized evident by the traffic stuck in the intersection at 97. Too late now to do it properly. Have no idea why there were not adequate roads built parallel to highway with an overpass at Butt to feed all the useless box stores that don't have any stock anyway. (Went to West Kelowna auto store Friday night to get a battery for a very common car but no battery but shelfs of toasters, pots and pans in a store that has a Tire in the name)
Most of us moved to the Westside to get away from the Kelowna rat race, the stupid inadequate traffic system only to have the same mindless idiots completely messing up the Westside just like Kelowna. West Kelowna isn't much better, just look at the redesigned Boucherie and Elliott! Brilliant Mr Findlater and staff! How many millions of dollars spent on Boucherie with NO bus pullout, No increased capacity and a turning lane on the bottom of Boucherie with a curb jutting out so the turning lane is useless. And then there's Peachland, from Friday night to Sunday night line up all the way up Drought Hill to Princeton ......Thanks! I guess all these "smart road experts" have all this special knowledge and we will just sit back now and see what kind of brilliance they come up with, maybe a high occupancy lane in the slow lane or something.

[36Drew]

Well, after another long weekend traffic was a nightmare through Peachland, Westbank, and all the way to Kelowna. My question is why have our "road experts" not learned by history? You completely screwed up Kelowna with light upon light upon light and now you are doing exactly the same thing with the Westside! Are you guys all idiots? Really?

25 minutes from Downtown New West to Playland in holiday weekend traffic today (about 20km). Up Marine and down Boundary. Just sayin'. You have every reason to be *bleep* - your city planners don't know how to plan for traffic.

[dodgerdodge]

I was thinking today i cannot remember if i have ever managed to catch all greens when driving through West Kelowna in the last 2 years. I can remember catching all reds on many many occasions and now Daimler also has the new turn arrow we will have more wait time for highway traffic at that intersection too. Bartley has been a nightmare since they added all the turn signals but probably safer.

[nikonfan]

What gets me is every 4 years these guys go on and on about creating an economic climate for economic development and a tourist destination. The one thing they don't come to grips with is business that depend and the movement of goods or businesses that depend on adequate roads to do their business will just go where they can get around especially as the price of fuel goes up. Tourists will remember spending their precious few days off a year sitting in an archaic road system that seems to go nowhere fast while the fuel (that is higher than any other city in Most of Canada) is quickly going on E and they are not moving.
I guess I just expect too much from people with a wack of degrees who get paid ridiculous amounts of money to engineer our roads and would expect these "experts" to see the screw up on the other side of the great bridge and see the errors of their forefathers and would not repeat the mistakes of the past. I guess the commen sense of us mere peons has no legitimacy without all the fancy letters after our names!

[GoStumpy]

Well, the traffic is only horrible for a couple weekends a year, the other 48+ weekends aren't bad at all.

Pretty hard to justify the amount of $ necessary for such a small problem, really.

[36Drew]

Well, the traffic is only horrible for a couple weekends a year, the other 48+ weekends aren't bad at all.

Pretty hard to justify the amount of $ necessary for such a small problem, really.

No - your traffic is horrible any weekend of the year. For the volume of traffic and the population that's there, traffic has far too many delays through the downtown core. As I said in an earlier post, every time I head up there I'm absolutely amazed (in a bad way) at how long it takes to crawl through the plethora of lights along Harvey.

[dodgerdodge]

Well, the traffic is only horrible for a couple weekends a year, the other 48+ weekends aren't bad at all.

Pretty hard to justify the amount of $ necessary for such a small problem, really.

It not specifically a weekend problem, its an everyday problem when you have to travel up and down 97. Early afternoon today and i'm heading towards Hudson/Westlake intersection and traffic is tailed back because of the lights, its not weekend or rush hour yet we have a tailback caused by traffic lights. I can see they changed to green and i can also see the vehicles move forward but i failed to make it to the lights before they change yet again to red, i don't know what that distance was but half a kilometre at best.
It's just not going to get any better and don't forget they have already stated there may be advance turns put in for the cross traffic at that intersection which means even longer wait times on the highway!

[Glacier]

Well, the traffic is only horrible for a couple weekends a year, the other 48+ weekends aren't bad at all.

Pretty hard to justify the amount of $ necessary for such a small problem, really.

A small problem that isn't fixed soon becomes a huge problem with a huge price tag to fix. Better to fix it now instead of in the future. Best to have fixed it already, but the past is behind us now so let's go with the better option.

Those of us who live in the Vernon area spend the extra few dollars in gas going through Kamloops rather than Kelowna to get to the Coast to avoid those traffic lights.

[36Drew]

A small problem that isn't fixed soon becomes a huge problem with a huge price tag to fix. Better to fix it now instead of in the future. Best to have fixed it already, but the past is behind us now so let's go with the better option.

Those of us who live in the Vernon area spend the extra few dollars in gas going through Kamloops rather than Kelowna to get to the Coast to avoid those traffic lights.

So... a bypass around the main strip - with minimal traffic interruption (lights and intersections) - and an alternative crossing would definitely benefit you?

[GoStumpy]

A small problem that isn't fixed soon becomes a huge problem with a huge price tag to fix. Better to fix it now instead of in the future. Best to have fixed it already, but the past is behind us now so let's go with the better option.

Those of us who live in the Vernon area spend the extra few dollars in gas going through Kamloops rather than Kelowna to get to the Coast to avoid those traffic lights.

It's already a huge price tag to fix.

They are doing a second route through the city, not sure what it'll be called, but it ends with Clement, and then Hollywood near the university. I believe it will use a lot of the 'right of way' area around the old train tracks. A ton of land has been purchased for that roadway, and it should alleviate a lot of the north-of-the-highway traffic.

Improvements like a second crossing don't happen until the current infrastructure is completely overwhelmed, which ours most definitely is NOT.

It backs up when there is an accident, and there is congestion when a festival or something is going on, or Friday afternoons before a long weekend. The rest of the time it is pretty much a-ok, with at most a few minutes of traffic. We all know the most common issues, one was the left turn onto Cooper Rd going southbound, fixed with an advanced green. Other one we have is Dilworth same direction, I'm sure light timing could fix that.

Ellis St is the biggest culprit of backup heading to West Kelowna, since it has an advanced green and THEN pedestrian crosswalk. If they removed the pedestrian crosswalk from the advanced green side it could save a bit of time...

Wait, isn't this thread about West Kelowna and Westbank traffic?

WHAT traffic???

OMG, sometimes it takes up to and including 10 minutes on the busiest days of the year to get through town.

OMG. How is downtown West Kelowna (Westbank, right?) a traffic nightmare? I've been here going on 9 years and I sail through all the stoplights no problem every day, even on the busiest long weekend days. AT WORST we have to wait one rotation of the lights. The other 99.98% of the time there is seemingly NO traffic.

OMG, Old Okanagan Hwy light backs up ALL THE WAY (100'?) TO GOSSET? Oh the horror!!!




Lets get real, folks. What we have here is a small town turning medium. We are going to have more than one traffic light. Deal with it. Move on.