As my wife and I (along with the same 30 vehicle procession we joined at Edwards) sat stopped in our car at the 12th consecutive traffic light on Hwy. 97 in Kelowna I mused about global warming.
There were a large number of trucks and cars (didn’t count the number going the other way but there was a lot) sitting and idling for 30 seconds while one car crossed the highway and another turned left in front of us.
Hmmm… even my age-addled brain could do some rudimentary math as to the amount of CO2 emitted by the Hwy. 97 traffic as opposed to the two Ellis St. vehicles. And remember, this happened to different degrees 12 times before Ellis.
After having lived, worked and driven in Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago and New York I have to say that the Hwy. 97 corridor through Kelowna and West Kelowna has to be the most poorly planned, incompetently engineered and dysfunctional traffic system I have ever encountered. Even the 5:30 p.m. crush at the Holland Tunnel in N.Y. has a better flow to it than the gruelling 20K stretch from the airport to the Connector.
About the only good thing I can say is that travelling Hwy. 97 through Kelowna makes me glad I live in Vernon.
Glen Carter