Traffic in the Mission

[Grandan]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... htm#180021

This problem is only going to get worse. The Upper Mission has exactly 2 lanes (1 lane on Lakeshore, and 1 lane on Gordon) to exit the neighbourhood. Yet more and more homes are being built, and more developments proposed. Without some important changes to infrastructure, the travel time will undoubtedly reach an hour or more.

Finally, this congestion has resulted in many cars idling in traffic in front of two large schools (Anne McClymont). Having poor traffic planning has resulted in a definite worsening of air quality for our children, and neighbours in that area.

I ask that Castanet consider this news story as a way to put more pressure on the city to evaluate the issue, and work toward viable solutions. There needs to be action toward traffic planning and infrastructure if the city is going to continue developing this area, and other areas of Kelowna.

Despite the protests of many, the Kelowna City Council of the day thought it would be a great idea to to develop the south Mission ahead of other areas of the city. Even after the devastating fire of 2003 no new routes were planned and it was business as usual. Why? It took advantage of the unsuspecting home buyers who believed that proper planning was done and unrestricted emergency access was assured.

[GordonH]

Those who purchased a home up in that area should have been aware of access into & out of the area.
If not then they failed to do their homework, and only looked at house they purchased and not whole picture.
While money spent on Lakeshore does not address these issues, I guess sometime in future Gordon will be 4 laned. Who knows when that will ever happen.

[lightspeed]

Those who purchased a home up in that area should have been aware of access into & out of the area.
If not then they failed to do their homework, and only looked at house they purchased and not whole picture.
While money spent on Lakeshore does not address these issues, I guess sometime in future Gordon will be 4 laned. Who knows when that will ever happen.

Agreed. Anyone who bought in the Upper Mission over the past ten years should have done their due diligence.

You couldn't pay me enough to live there.

[Grandan]

I think planners naively believed that seniors without kids would inhabit those rocky hillsides burned to the bedrock and free to clear cut. Well I guess history proved them wrong. The area of Kelowna that was held back was Glenmore despite it's close proximity to the Airport, UBCO and all city services.

[dodgerdodge]

Yeah how many squillions of taxpayers money went on the "improvements" to the road by Anne McClymont? Looks nice and probably better for pedestrians/cyclists but zero change for motorists. Still no large food store as promised would happen during early phases of The Ponds so everyone still has to head down for anything more than a coffee or pizza and of course very little commercial or retail to encourage people to work and live in same area

[snohman]

If they really cared, they could carpool, bike, or take the bus, and have their kids walk or bike to school instead of doing two round trips every day to drive them. That would be a lot better for the health of their families than whining for more roads.

Or they could move to a denser area which has decent transit service and doesn't require a 20 minute drive to get to anything. Google maps show it to be a 3km walk from Anne McClymont to Frost Road and Southridge Drive, yet our provincial school walk limits for K-5 are 4km.

These are the type of people who would move up the mountainsides to Joe Rich or Big White and immediately complain about the amount of snow they have to shovel, and why isn't there a snowplow running up and down their street 24/7. Somebody call the waaaaahmbulance.

[Queen K]

I think planners naively believed that seniors without kids would inhabit those rocky hillsides burned to the bedrock and free to clear cut. Well I guess history proved them wrong. The area of Kelowna that was held back was Glenmore despite it's close proximity to the Airport, UBCO and all city services.

How is Glenmore held back? Clifton Road has ghettos on it now and Wilden has razed an entire natural habitat to the ground.

[dodgerdodge]

If they really cared, they could carpool, bike, or take the bus, and have their kids walk or bike to school instead of doing two round trips every day to drive them. That would be a lot better for the health of their families than whining for more roads.

Or they could move to a denser area which has decent transit service and doesn't require a 20 minute drive to get to anything. Google maps show it to be a 3km walk from Anne McClymont to Frost Road and Southridge Drive, yet our provincial school walk limits for K-5 are 4km.

These are the type of people who would move up the mountainsides to Joe Rich or Big White and immediately complain about the amount of snow they have to shovel, and why isn't there a snowplow running up and down their street 24/7. Somebody call the waaaaahmbulance.

And there you have the answer that's been staring us all in the face, of course they should all jump on their bikes or the bus because its really that easy eh?
Fact is this is Canada, we need vehicles to get us around because we have no local trains, a hit and miss bus service, steep hills and winter weather coming up. If we all worked and schooled a short bus or bike ride away it would be great but we don't.

Are you dropping the kids at school honey? Sorry dear only room for one on my tandem. Might be a bit late home its a *bleep* walking the bike all the way back up.

[Atomoa]

My sympathy for those who greatly contribute to Kelowna having the worst urban sprawl in Canada is lacking.

[Grandan]

Yeah how many squillions of taxpayers money went on the "improvements" to the road by Anne McClymont? Looks nice and probably better for pedestrians/cyclists but zero change for motorists. Still no large food store as promised would happen during early phases of The Ponds so everyone still has to head down for anything more than a coffee or pizza and of course very little commercial or retail to encourage people to work and live in same area

There is talk of food wastelands in the USA where there are no food stores for miles around, just convenience stores where the high profit junk food is peddled to poor people who cannot afford a car to drive to a real store.
The city of Kelowna planners failed the citizens of Kelowna
The thought of all those new subdivision lots being created and what that means for empire building by city staff was just too much of a delight to pass up. What they have created is a city with no services.

[Grandan]

I think planners naively believed that seniors without kids would inhabit those rocky hillsides burned to the bedrock and free to clear cut. Well I guess history proved them wrong. The area of Kelowna that was held back was Glenmore despite it's close proximity to the Airport, UBCO and all city services.

How is Glenmore held back? Clifton Road has ghettos on it now and Wilden has razed an entire natural habitat to the ground.

You are wrong in more than one way. Wilden did not raze an entire natural habitat to the ground. In fact they were the most sensitive about preserving the natural environment than any other developer. In fact they were singled out as the beast of the bunch. Compared to other sites that were scraped down to bedrock and then blasted away even more Wilden did a stellar job.
Back in the early '90's John Hindle Drive was on the map to be completed by 2013. It was subsequently removed from the planning maps for the next 15 years.
We have seen megabucks spent on improving roads into the Mission and within the Mission. Roads in N Glenmore, specifically Sexsmith Rd have seen only the addition of paved bicycle paths. Cross Rd finally got a traffic circle after they ran out of places to put them in the Mission.
Why is it that every mountaintop around the city is within the growth boundary while the Valley Road N- Sexsmith corridor is excluded from the growth boundary? This is despite the fact that the UBCO bus route is along this very corridor.
Dr Knox Middle School is 0.5 Km away and is an easy 6 minute walk from Valley and Sexsmith
N Glenmore elementary is 0.7 km and takes 9 minutes to walk. As well, there are 10,000 vehicles a day through this area.
I can walk to the 2 supermarkets on Kane Road in 20 minutes and visit the medical lab at the same time.
The city is crying for development land with these very attributes but cannot seem to bring themselves to include this area. It really makes no sense unless you consider political motives.
Despite the fact that up to 100 heavy trucks a day traverse the section of non truck route between Union and Sexsmith I cannot get the city to enforce the bylaw but I see they had to hire 4 new bylaw officers to control the homeless, how insane is that?

[Grandan]

My sympathy for those who greatly contribute to Kelowna having the worst urban sprawl in Canada is lacking.

Are you referring to the people who bought houses in areas that the city said was good to go because they had all the planning right spot on? Or are you referring to the planners who screwed the city over royally with really stupid plans?
I agree that anyone who does not take in to consideration the commuting times to obtain essential services does not have my sympathies. You want to live on a mountaintop where all you hear is the breeze in the treeze, expect some other inconvenience.
Don't expect that salesman to clue you in about the downside to living there.

[GordonH]

^^^ no city services, oh so those in upper mission don't have:
water
sewer
garbage pickup
streets
street lights
elementary school (this is Provincial)

Oops my mistake they don't have privately owned grocery chain willing to build a new store in the area. While on subject is there any fuel stations... how about clothing stores.
Okay maybe I'm stretching that one.

Again its about home buyers doing their homework before buying into an area.

[lightspeed]

very little commercial or retail to encourage people to work and live in same area

You can hardly expect something equivalent to the Landmark Buildings to be built at the base of the hills in the Mission.

Folks rush to buy McMansions, but never step back to take a good long look at what they're buying into, the cost and time suck of slow pace commuting, the effect on their lifestyles, and what they are collectively doing to society.

[snohman]

And there you have the answer that's been staring us all in the face, of course they should all jump on their bikes or the bus because its really that easy eh?

Your solution is to pave a four lane highway through long-established neighbourhoods along Lakeshore and Gordon just so that people who moved far up the hillsides can drive even more often? Nice sense of entitlement you have there - the residents in those neighbourhoods simply don't matter because they are not part of the self-elected elite who live in Kettle Valley?

Choosing to live in the sticks was a decision made by every person who moved up there. These hillside dwellers have no right to rip up other neighbourhoods to try and erase the consequences of their poor choices. Building more roads just creates more traffic anyways, so a different approach is needed.

Fact is this is Canada, we need vehicles to get us around because we have no local trains, a hit and miss bus service, steep hills and winter weather coming up. If we all worked and schooled a short bus or bike ride away it would be great but we don't.

Ever been through a prairie winter? How can a city in Finland have more winter cyclists than Kelowna has summer cyclists? A place near the arctic circle, north of Iqaluit has more people riding bikes in the middle of winter than Kelowna gets during Bike to Work Week in June. How can Minneapolis, Calgary and Winnipeg have winter cyclists? Maybe Kelowna is full of a bunch of crybaby wimps, who are afraid of winter, and should move to Arizona or Florida.

Next time I see some parents putting their children onto a device at night in the winter that hoists them up in the air, exposes them to -10 temperatures plus windchill from speeding along at 20 km/h, and leaves them unable to even move around to generate heat for a 10 minute duration, I'm going to call in the social workers to end that abuse. Oh wait, Kelowna residents do that every winter - it's called skiing, and our schools even bus children up the hills to expose them to these horrific outdoor conditions and make them undergo this torturous experience. Seriously, *bleep* people.