[Amaru]

So we've had a few threads on "best roads" in this forum, how about your LEAST favourite roads/intersections in Victoria?

- I despise turning left onto Mackenzie from the Island Highway (doesn't everyone?), even in non-rush hour traffic.

- Government St. downtown in the summer is pretty brutal with all the pedestrians/jaywalking/etc.

- Beach Drive, particularly the Uplands section and the area north of Oak Bay Marina... when you get stuck behind some cock doing 30 and sightseeing while holding up a line of traffic. Beautiful scenery, bad drivers.

- Northbound Blanshard @ Saanich during rush hour, as it can often be backed up beyond Cloverdale. :(

Any more?

[Renthal]

lol i work for city of oak bay and cock fags drive way too fast on the SCENIC ROUTE. slow down and enjoy some of the overpriced real estate.

-basically all of oak bay avenue anytime before 6 oclock when the seniors are out
-government and belleville.. down by the empress when tourists are jumping off the curbs
-cedar hill and mckenzie, cedar hill gets jammed whenever school is in and makes for mayhem
-wilkinson and interurban - the 5 way - always gets jammed in all directions and is very slow going

[wnderinguy]

The section of the Hwy through Duncan,that stop and go through all the f'in lights is painfull.They are putting in a roundabout in Qualicum (Memorial Ave/Rupert road intersection) could be rather entertaining .

[Dentz]

5 way intersetction between Wilkinson/Interurban/Hastings. Most notably, people don't seem to grasp the idea of a separate left turn lane from Hastings onto Wilkinson. This simple "booboo" by somebody turning left in the straight lane has nearly gotten me smashed on at least 5 occasions...

That and Wilkinson Road just past Layritz field anytime between 3pm and 6pm.

[m1ataman]

How about the eternal Craigflower construction zone.

[SkinnyPupp]

I always hated turning left where SW Marine Dr turns into Granville St, after the Arthur Laing bridge. There are always idiots speeding down Granville, and it's a blind corner for people turning left.

[84gti]

hammond bay road sucks for the dam man holes everywhere

[Amaru]

5 way intersetction between Wilkinson/Interurban/Hastings. Most notably, people don't seem to grasp the idea of a separate left turn lane from Hastings onto Wilkinson. This simple "booboo" by somebody turning left in the straight lane has nearly gotten me smashed on at least 5 occasions...

That and Wilkinson Road just past Layritz field anytime between 3pm and 6pm.

+1, forgot about this. The death zone.

[Great68]

Spencer & Trans Can.

Every time I drive through there I'm guaranteed to encounter someone who doesn't know how to merge where the lane ends.

[h0tSX]

+1 for Spencer and TC hwy...

The overall oblivion that the mergers display is almost as stupid as the road-vengeant who give no room due to the fact that they feel more entitled because they endured the queue.

absolutely mind boggling.

[rental_metard]

every road in oakbay, I've had old ladies gross the yellow line into my on coming lane a few times now. Apparently Foul Bay is not straight enough for them. Or the dingleberry I am almost hit because he came to a complete stop on an advanced left only to pull a U-E in the middle of Fort/Foul bay intersection.....

[Black SC2]

The left turn from Yates onto Wharf St. should have a razorblade dispenser there so you can end your suffering everytime a car coming from your left stops RIGHT IN FUCKING FRONT OF YOU TO LET THE PEDESTRIAN CROSS, THEREBY GUARANTEEING YOU WILL SIT THERE ANOTHER 7 GODDAMNED MINUTES AS ALL THE OTHER CARS WHO WAITED FOR THE PEDESTRIAN TO CROSS ARE NOW JAMMING THE INTERSECTION AGAIN. Of course this wouldn't happen if the driver were observant enough to halt his car a mere 10 feet shy of the crosswalk, would it now?

The other one that gets me is where Strandlund, Peatt and the VMP come together. Damn near every morning as I try to turn right from Strandlund onto the VMP, directly into my own right lane to get onto the TCH, and always with a green in front of me, there will be some twat making the left turn opposite me from Peatt who thinks that he or she has:

A: The right to enter the intersection while I'm using it, and
B: The right to shoot all the way across 3 lanes to get into the lane I have a right of way for.

I don't know how many times the front end of my car has nearly been clipped from this one. I can't wait to have the F-450 back on the road again, as I'll be far less inclined to use the brakes when I see one of those jerks coming.

[NashMan]

umm every were victoria's road system is junk

and same with there drivers

[hud 91gt]

Atleast the roads are in good shape. The rest of the country is a disaster.

[Darb 2k]

The left turn from Yates onto Wharf St. should have a razorblade dispenser there so you can end your suffering everytime a car coming from your left stops RIGHT IN FUCKING FRONT OF YOU TO LET THE PEDESTRIAN CROSS, THEREBY GUARANTEEING YOU WILL SIT THERE ANOTHER 7 GODDAMNED MINUTES AS ALL THE OTHER CARS WHO WAITED FOR THE PEDESTRIAN TO CROSS ARE NOW JAMMING THE INTERSECTION AGAIN. Of course this wouldn't happen if the driver were observant enough to halt his car a mere 10 feet shy of the crosswalk, would it now?

The other one that gets me is where Strandlund, Peatt and the VMP come together. Damn near every morning as I try to turn right from Strandlund onto the VMP, directly into my own right lane to get onto the TCH, and always with a green in front of me, there will be some twat making the left turn opposite me from Peatt who thinks that he or she has:

A: The right to enter the intersection while I'm using it, and
B: The right to shoot all the way across 3 lanes to get into the lane I have a right of way for.

I don't know how many times the front end of my car has nearly been clipped from this one. I can't wait to have the F-450 back on the road again, as I'll be far less inclined to use the brakes when I see one of those jerks coming.

I turn left from Peatt and see this!

I dont understand.. idiots

[GregM]

Mackenzie and the #1. By far the worst out of all the intersections in vic. Burnside backs up to tillicum mall, which makes interurban back up just as far. Marigold gets backed up by people trying to get around. Tillicum gets backed up by people turning left onto the highway, which backs out all the way to burnside... and the #1 backs up all the way to wal-mart.

[Black SC2]

In the morning, that intersection will back the TCH up all the way to the Millstream overpass now that school is back in session. My 15 minutes to Camosun just became 40.

[Amaru]

In the morning, that intersection will back the TCH up all the way to the Millstream overpass now that school is back in session. My 15 minutes to Camosun just became 40.

Gross.

I honestly don't understand the justification for building an overpass at Bear Mountain but not at Mackenzie. Sure, maybe it was easier to finance the Bear Mountain project, but Mackenzie is in far greater need. That would take 10 minutes off the Langford commute, easy.

[ostampflee]

Politics. Nobody wants to pay for it and the CRD is a bunch of useless twats.

[Great68]

When I used to commute from Cow Bay to work every day I hated the hated the backup on the transcan through langford/colwood to Mackenzie...

But then I realized it's still nowhere near as bad as when I used to commute the knight or oak street bridges in Vancouver every day. 1/2 an hour to move 3 city blocks SUCKED, and that was on a GOOD day.

[m1ataman]

I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure Bear Mountain paid for that overpass not the province.

[projectcivic]

We have some shitty roads in Victoria but we have it sooooo good compared to some places. I was stuck in rush our last year in Toronto and we werbumper to bumper for the whole drive from Toronto to Burlington which is like driving from Victoria to Ladysmith doing 15-20km/hr, lets just say 2hours later I was fairly annoyed.
My biggest petpeeve around Victoria is people who don't yield to on coming cars at intersections. Example being I have the advance left turn and while turning the jerk pulls out in front of me trying to turn right onto the same road I was turning onto. This then forces me to brake and backs everyone else up. Yield means you yield to the right of way!

[Vette Dood]

I'm in Toronto right now and despite the terrible drivers and slow speed limits in Victoria I wouldn't trade that for here ever.

Middle of the day bumper to bumper traffic going across town.
People riding your ass and being pinned between semis trucks while Im doing 140 down the QEW going over massive bumps and holes where the speed limit is 100 and they give a $10,000 fine for going 50 over.
Terrible fucking roads. Bump and jumps in corners of ramps that you are taking at 120+
oh and this is in the summer.... Can't imagine the snow

now not that it's a terrible place to be but I sure as shit wouldn't want to be driving anything with low pro tires, or have to ever commute in this. It makes the Colwood crawl look like a miracle. There was more traffic on a Sunday afternoon on Eglington then the island highway has ever backed up in it's existence. Try a daily commute In January on the 401 and tell me you don't want to live in Vic. Can't wait to get home and take my car out on our silky smooth road ways.

(just got back from drive to Niagra falls /rant )

[Amaru]

There are also 8 million people living in the GTA, while Greater Victoria has 350,000. Similarly, comparing Victoria to Vancouver is also unfair because Vancouver has dozens of bridges and tunnels, which back up traffic severely.

The roads in this city are in fantastic condition, and overall we have it good when it comes to traffic. Nonetheless, like any other place, Victoria has areas that need serious improvement. This thread was just intended to be a place to discuss our least favourite roads and intersections, not really to complain about Victoria traffic in general.

[Island_Yota]

Spencer Rd merge, everyone changes into the fast lane right before the light, On a good day you can just pass the entire group in the slow lane, but usually you will have someone in front of you doing 70 weaving back and forth with their signal on.

Coming off the ferry on the Pat bay is another fun one, people are like omg sweet were on the hwy lets do 130, then almost rear end everyone at the first light.

[Great68]

Similarly, comparing Victoria to Vancouver is also unfair because Vancouver has dozens of bridges and tunnels, which back up traffic severely.



Proportionally I'd say the number of bottlenecks are the same. Vancouver also has decent sized blocks between lights so you can actually drive some distance at some speed. Here traffic lights are so close that you can barely even get up to the speed limit before hitting another light... My Mazda's computer tells me that my average speed here is 39km/h...

[ostampflee]

I love living in Sooke.... Three lights and the locals mostly know how to drive. Tourists on the other hand need to stay the eff in Victoria.

[projectcivic]

I lived in Sooke for 8years and I completly agree with that statement. Its not the locals that make the commute down Sooke road a hassle, its the tourist who feels the need to brake at everything turn, while driving 40kms/hr.

[ostampflee]

40km/h? You're giving the tourists credit. Last weekend I followed some guy who nearly smoked a deer coming out of the Sookihalla and then drove the rest of Sooke Rd at 30km/h.

[rental_metard]

I would held my horn down for periods of 5 seconds at a time, that shit shouldn't be tolerated.

[Elevorett]

I don't care if i'm the only one who does this: if i am waiting in the 10 minute qeue at the spencer road merge, and people are using the small turn off road to go into the gas station solely to move back onto the merge and further hold me up, I will absolutely not let you in. Maybe some other sucker will. I waited, now you can to.

I do the same thing with with Mckenzie merge onto the highway. If I am waiting past the bridge and I see you blaze up the left lane, and almost kill someone trying to merge in front of me, you can wait, I won't let you in.

That is all.

[Valk]

5 way stop in james bay... menzies, simcoe and somthing else. crosswalks on every corner, lots of people traffic too with a bank/pharmasave on one side and thrifties/starbucks on the other.

[TouringTeg]

I don't care if i'm the only one who does this: if i am waiting in the 10 minute qeue at the spencer road merge, and people are using the small turn off road to go into the gas station solely to move back onto the merge and further hold me up, I will absolutely not let you in. Maybe some other sucker will. I waited, now you can to.

I do the same thing with with Mckenzie merge onto the highway. If I am waiting past the bridge and I see you blaze up the left lane, and almost kill someone trying to merge in front of me, you can wait, I won't let you in.

That is all.

I know how you feel but even if you block them off 9 times out of 10 the next person behind you will feel bad for them and let them in.

I'm not sure how they can stop people taking the gas station exit to jump the light. One Friday afternoon I was heading out that way and people were taking the Costco/Veterans Memorial exit, getting back on the highway then driving up the shoulder to the gas station exit. I was cursing but as I got up further I saw there was two cops writing tickets to anyone who was driving up the shoulder lol

[Gyuji]

5 way stop in james bay... menzies, simcoe and somthing else. crosswalks on every corner, lots of people traffic too with a bank/pharmasave on one side and thrifties/starbucks on the other.

Hell yes! That's what I was gonna say and I was surprised it hadn't come up yet.

Also, crossing Broad street at any point downtown, Menzies @ Belleville, and any 4-way stop in Sidney where the old people seem to think they've spent enough time in their lives waiting at stop signs and will go whenever they damn well please (which also includes not going when they should be).

[stevo911_]

the entire Sooke - Port Renfrew - Cowichan route, everybody should stay off it like the plague :angel2:

[Island_Yota]

the entire Sooke - Port Renfrew - Cowichan route, everybody should stay off it like the plague :angel2:

Between Renfrew and Lake Cowichan is fun, especially near Lizard/Fairy lake, my car is stock height and I scraped my exhaust a few times, just watch for Elk.. the switch backs are awesome, could spend a day just ripping up and down those. The Sooke-Renfrew is terrible now though, used to be not half bad.

Found the worst road on the Island by far, Cowichan - Nitinat lake, theres section thats gotta be 5km of savage pot holes.

[stevo911_]

Between Renfrew and Lake Cowichan is fun, especially near Lizard/Fairy lake... the switch backs are awesome, could spend a day just ripping up and down those.


SHHHH! It was supposed to be a secret!
(though the trucks towing boats/rv's cutting the corner and dragging gravel into the switchbacks makes them less fun on a motorcycle)

[Benny95TA]

I am pissed they are paving the Renfrew-Cowichan road... so much more traffic now. Last time I was camping at Lizard Lake there was a damn Mercedes in the site next to me! So wrong!

[Nightwalker]

I fucking love driving here. No annoying roads are on my regular routes, so I don't really have anything for this thread.

Actually, the 1 way roads in Vic sure are annoying before you've been there a few times.

[Island_Yota]

I am pissed they are paving the Renfrew-Cowichan road... so much more traffic now. Last time I was camping at Lizard Lake there was a damn Mercedes in the site next to me! So wrong!

Theres been pavement to Fairy and almost to Lizard for a long time, just had to take the Sooke way.

Go camp at Maid lk or out Nitinat/Carmanah, now those are shitty roads! I drove Shawnigan to Renfrew one night, cut up through Maid lake.. that was scary, it was windy, pissing rain and there was snow on the ground, had to clear a bunch of fallen trees.