A strange thing happens when you’re travelling BC’s highways and you head through Rogers Pass, drive a section of Highway 93, cruise alongside Long Beach near Tofino, or travel Highway 97, 133 kilometres north of Dawson Creek. You see, the ground under your tires changes… You may think that’s provincially owned and operated road beneath you…but it’s not. These stretches of road are owned and operated by the federal government’s Parks Canada Agency, which has a long involvement with the...
What better way to enjoy the long weekend than getting on the highway and enjoying our provincial back yard? So much to see. So much to do. But, with that extra day comes extra traffic, and in warmer weather, extra construction, so it’s more important than ever to make that one vital driving decision… To drive safely. Know before you go…and…pssst, we can help you with that. Here are some tips for a safe trip: Plan ahead and be...
A man with a wooden stare is watching over the Trans-Canada Highway at Revelstoke, to see if motorists are driving safely. The man, with his unblinking gaze, was once stationed along the Big Bend Highway and now resides in a park, named in his honour. Just who is this man? Why it’s Woodenhead – BC’s highly original roadside attraction that started as a cedar stump! In the 1940s, a large stump was spotted by Peter Fuoco who was...
APRIL 26, 2016 UPDATE: The new McKenzie interchange will be built as a partial cloverleaf reflecting the preferred option of 75% of those who participated in the public consultation, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Todd Stone announced today. You gave us a lot to consider during the first phase of McKenzie Interchange Project consultation last November-December. Now it’s time to look back… and move forward with a more detailed design and continued consultation with you. The report summarizing the fall...
You asked for it and here it is. Hop aboard our BC Road Trip Time Machine and travel back to Highway 1, through the Fraser Canyon from Hope to Lytton, circa 1966. The significance of this road and its seven tunnels cannot be understated. In order to improve this portion of the Trans-Canada (the same general route used by the Royal Engineers to build the Cariboo Highway almost 150 years ago), some of the most difficult and expensive highway...
If you are unable to view this video, click here to watch on our YouTube channel. We’re big fans of the maxim: “drive to conditions.” Highway travellers improve their safety dramatically by following those three words, especially in winter. Our highway engineers set speed limits based on IDEAL driving conditions – think bare, dry roads and warm, clear weather. Once factors mess with these conditions – be it fog, rain, snow… whatever – drivers should adjust by slowing...
By now, you may have already experienced what it’s like to go back in time through our BC Road Trip Time Machine series. Using an old 16 mm reel from our Photolog program archives, we started by recreating the drive along the Malahat (and Trans-Canada Highway) in 1966. We had a good hunch people would like it, and we weren’t wrong. Whether reliving the experience from your youth or seeing it for the first time and being shocked at...
Picture 5,300 cyclists launching from Vancouver, to pedal 122 kilometres up the scenic Sea-to-Sky Highway to Whistler, in a few hours. Or, imagine more than 2,500 Ironman athletes cycling and running a total of 222 kilometres on Highway 99, around Whistler and Pemberton (after a 3.8-kilometre swim in Alta Lake). It’s easy to do – picturing it, not performing it! Photos and accounts of the grit, grime and guts it takes to do the annual RBC Whistler GranFondo and...
It’s full steam ahead for a second round of safety improvements on the Malahat, with work expected to kick off in May and finish in the spring of 2015. Once this work is completed, over 50% of the Malahat will have median barriers. These improvements were identified in the 2012 Malahat Corridor study, and were also identified as a priority by the Malahat Advisory Group, which includes local residents, commuters, first responders and safety advocates. Those upgrades we’re planning...
Let’s take a trip down memory lane shall we? Back to the days when things moved a little more slowly, perhaps around 1959. Slide into a larger vehicle, one built for style, say… an Edsel? Bring the whole family on a motoring adventure and explore Beautiful British Columbia.Take one of our many modern highway systems, each a marvel of 20th century engineering. Outside you will see a seemingly endless variety of scenery. Please don’t spoil the scenery by...
