Commuter Hell

[GordonH]

The reason for the large area on west side of the current bridge, is the first bridge started out as a toll bridge. Toll booths were located on that side of the bridge, in 1963 the tolls were removed.

[westsider49]

"it's nothing more than normal summertime volumes"; "traffic at the bridge now generally clears between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m." What ludicrous statements by the Ministry of Transportation! If it's "normal summertime volumes" then why are commute times 2 to 3 times longer on a daily basis than they were last year and the year before that? Also the suggestion that it clears by 8:30 is delusional. These volumes and delays are present to 9:30 a.m. and beyond. Clearly the changes are due to the growth of the Westside resulting in larger commuter traffic volumes, the Campbell Road interchange and the duration of the traffic lights along Harvey Ave. Oh, and dare I say the forward planning that should have created alternate routes/crossings 10 years ago, not 10 years from now.

[neilsimon]

Seriously, the Sneena workaround is absolutely a problem. Between Hudson/Westlake, the right lane moves faster than the left. However, once you get to where you are descending bridge hill, the right lane backs up as people have to hammer the brakes to let the Sneeners in. Just ask anyone who lives down Campbell Rd how impossible it is to get into the roundabout.

It's actually not bad at all. Most drivers are courteous and ignore the roundabout rules, letting traffic in.

Also, what you are forgetting is that the traffic which comes on at the merge lane would have to be in the traffic on the highway coming down the hill otherwise. That means that they would slow that traffic down from earlier (by just being part of it). I have never seen a situation where there is significant traffic merging when the traffic has been flowing freely otherwise, but that could be a result of my vantage and when I commute.

What people seem upset about is that traffic is using this "sneak" to bypass existing traffic and in so doing, actually slows down the traffic they have bypassed. The same is true of many who use Boucherie road, who could take the East Boundary Road instead. Or any number of other routes. It's the nature of driving with multiple routes.

edited to add: Oh, and then a number of them slow things further as they have the compulsion to immediately get into the left lane. Things move smoother until after the crest of the bridge itself on account of the Abbot traffic light (which really should be eliminated altogether for the northbound traffic)

Actually, if the traffic is moving slowly enough, some should move into the left lane to allow for even flow of both left and right lanes. Of course, they shouldn't pull out if it is going to cause someone to have to brake moderately hard.

At least, that's my opinion.

[What_the]

Misread. Thought it said computer hell.. I was gonna complain furiously lol

[stevei]

I find a lot of it is because of the construction going on to widen 97 to the airport. 2nd year of this and traffic always backed up for miles. cheers

[D machine]

Something has changed and it changed about 4-6 weeks ago. MOTI says it's increased volume (aka tourists and returning snowbirds) but are they clogging up the highway at 7 am? I am not so sure about that. I do remember this happening to the morning commute other years at this time of year and then it improved at the end of June when school was out. Time will tell I guess.

[Danielson99]

It's amazing how some people can't do the math in their head. The merge at the bottom of the hill is entirely 100% of the problem. Traffic slows almost to a stop simply because people are merging. You can't merge hundreds of cars one after the other at 60km/h, so cars slow, people change lanes which slows it even more. You'll notice that once you get on to the bridge the pace picks up again. It has zero to do with the lights in town at the other side of the bridge and zero to do with too many cars. This is entirely because of the merge at the bottom of the hill.

If all those cars merging at the bottom of the hill were forced to stay on the highway, the flow would stay at a constant 60km/h or so and everyone would be in town twice as fast. I've been driving into Kelowna for over 30 years, it's very obvious why we have a traffic bottleneck at the bottom of the hill. It was never there before they built it. The only time traffic was backed up was either because of an accident or because there was only 1 lane open on the old bridge and people had to merge again.

It's time for the city to wake up and correct this. It's absolute stupidity having the Sneena workaround and it's causing everyone major delays for no reason.

[zamajada]

With respects, I disagree with Mayor Findlater. Tourists would not be backing Sneena Rd. up past the dollar store nor would tourist try to cut up Hudson Rd. and then sneak back down Boucherie. Traffic is so backed up on Hudson in the morning that residents of Guidi Rd. cannot even get off their road and on to Hudson. The Cheaters (as the Mayor refers to them) refuse to let a car into the flow of traffic thus preventing the local residents from getting off their own street!

I've lived on the West side for over 16 years. The only time I've seen traffic so consistently backed up like this (that is without an accident) is when the Ministry started stopping people for their random survey regarding a new bridge.

I heartily believe that the traffic lights on the east side of the bridge are the cause of the traffic mayhem; NOT regular seasonal norms nor tourists. My suggestion? remove the lights all the way back to Richter. Put in an overpass on Pandosy (as many of us were expecting.

What's happening now is not normal. To say it is avoidance pure and simple.

[dieseluphammerdown]

https://forums.castanet.net/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=73164&start=15

[voice of reason]

it doesnt really help having a traffic light every 500 meters all the way from the bridge to westbank

[oscillate_wildly]

I live in the McCurdy/Rutland Rd. area, and a lot of times, it's just easier to go through McCullough to get anywhere near downtown. Enterprise, Hwy 97, and Springfield are always clogged with slow hesitant drivers who don't seem to be wanting to get from point A to point B with any expediency, lights that seem always red (I did a count once, it was 8/11 along Hwy 97)

At this point I think the only thing that's going to solve this is a second bridge with a freeway running on top of hwy 97 with 4-5 exits and on-ramps. But this is more or less a pipe dream as people would complain of a project like that being an "eyesore".

[binky11]

It's amazing how some people can't do the math in their head. The merge at the bottom of the hill is entirely 100% of the problem. Traffic slows almost to a stop simply because people are merging. You can't merge hundreds of cars one after the other at 60km/h, so cars slow, people change lanes which slows it even more. You'll notice that once you get on to the bridge the pace picks up again. It has zero to do with the lights in town at the other side of the bridge and zero to do with too many cars. This is entirely because of the merge at the bottom of the hill.

If all those cars merging at the bottom of the hill were forced to stay on the highway, the flow would stay at a constant 60km/h or so and everyone would be in town twice as fast. I've been driving into Kelowna for over 30 years, it's very obvious why we have a traffic bottleneck at the bottom of the hill. It was never there before they built it. The only time traffic was backed up was either because of an accident or because there was only 1 lane open on the old bridge and people had to merge again.

It's time for the city to wake up and correct this. It's absolute stupidity having the Sneena workaround and it's causing everyone major delays for no reason.

Again, I totally agree with this. It's not rocket science. Having experienced it last Tuesday morning at about 9:15 am, after thinking there must be an accident, it all became clear when I got to the merge. Seems to me this could be an inexpensive fix to a very major problem. But hey, what do I know. But it's easy enough to find out if that is indeed the problem. Isn't it?

[Poindexter]

I agree. Basically three lanes holding equal traffic merge into two because of poor planning and desperate commuters who are trying to reduce thier drive time. In my opinion, the on ramp at the bottom of bridge Hill should be closed and those that live down there should unfortunately be routed back to the on-ramp by theater. It's not ideal for the locals but the current set up is ridiculous for commuting.

[neilsimon]

I would bet that it would have little to no impact on the rate of cars passing through the lights on the east end of the bridge. I would be surprised if that area's 3 sets of lights are not the actual bottleneck. The backup of traffic is essentially caused by traffic waves.

That said, my experience is that the bridge is essentially stop and go traffic after the merge, and of course the merge doesn't cause that, but those stops ripple back through the traffic, causing stop and go patterns all the way back to the top of the hill and sometimes beyond.

Maybe you are going a different times to me and after the merge the traffic just flows without stopping until after the 3 sets of lights downtown, but I find that the rate of traffic flow after the merge is slow until after Ethel.

[neilsimon]

It's amazing how some people can't do the math in their head.

Can you provide me with the appropriate equations? As a bit of a mathematician, I would relish the chance