Thursday, April 14, 2011

McTavish Road Interchange

So the new interchange is open though not completely done.   I headed out there to look at it yesterday and it was a bit of an adventure.  

We have not had many roundabouts in BC for a very long time.   I knew they were to part of the design for the interchange, I just had no idea what it would like to drive through them.   It is a bit more confusing than I expected.

I have years of experience in freeway related roundabouts in the UK.   I should know what I am doing, but it has been some years now since I lived in London.   I needed some time to orient myself.

In looking at the roundabouts, I am concerned that they could very quickly become clogged and that people will not know how to deal with multiple lanes in a roundabout.  The diameter of the roundabouts feels too small from my view.  

We shall see how it plays out over time and how much people like or hate the new form.   If it works here, I would like to see the province retrofit the Helmcken interchange, I think there is enough space on both sides to build the roundabouts and the scale of the traffic is right for a roundabout.

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