Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Henry_Man
I was going back home in Richmond (Richmond Centre area) from Splashdown Park in Tsawwassen yesterday through the GMT northbound at around 4:20pm. This is absolutely a national embarrassment, to have a major artery in the 3rd biggest metro area in Canada going from 6 lanes merging into 1 lane in GMT because of the counterflow lane being opened for southbound traffic. The entire trip took about 45-50min, with 30-35min being stuck at the 99/17A interchange going into the tunnel whereas it took only 20min to make this same trip without significant traffic. I'm absolutely convinced that the new GMT replacement needs to be 10 lanes (or at the absolute minimum 8 lanes with room for widening to 10). Having the bridge at 8 lanes is inadequate in solving any traffic woes because all you're building is an extra HOV lane and we all know that even the current 3 lane arrangement southbound during the afternoon rush hour still produces horrible traffic backups from the tunnel all the way to Westminster Hwy interchange.
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I once experienced that, too, and it sucks.
Vancouver in the late 50s, early sixties was never envisioned the second-tier, but respectably populated (2.5m) metro region it is now,
and plans were made for that time. There seemed a total inability to "think big" (except the Granville Bridge perhaps) and now that we're thinking "big" (Port Mann, Cape Horn ...)
many people are very pleased while many people seem abhorred on what they see as the encroachment and strangulation of the city by superhighways. They're often phobic of anything with on or off ramps, more than four lanes wide.
The new George Massey crossing will have do be "done big" in whatever way that will be.