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There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

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Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#191

Post by cf100clunk »

arcticbull wrote: post #164
cf100clunk wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the picture being painted by the media is not being accurately assimilated by you? This is real, and magnitude of the circumstances is dire.

Dire in what way? Vancouver still has the YVR airport, a seaport, ferries, a downtown float plane airport and both road and rail access to the US. There will be some impact to prices, I imagine, while the road and rail links to the rest of Canada are rebuilt.

Dire for Merritt (evacuated), Princeton (under water), Hope (all highways closed or curtailed), Abbotsford (under water), Chilliwack (under water), Fernie (no highway access) and a host of other places on the mainland and on the Island that are vital transport, agricultural, forestry, tourism, and mining centres. You mentioned prices, so scale it up to international economics level.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#192

Post by myohmy »

Scoundreller wrote: post #168

I think this event is going to lead to Canada dropping or reducing its PCR test requirement for (re-)entry into Canada. The US is still well connected while Canada has just broken itself in 2.

Nah, that won't happen. International affairs are handled by Ottawa, which is 4000 km away and completely unaffected by this crisis.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#194

Post by bialpio »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #128
skrebbel wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised there's no shortages yet because trucks can't get to the city. Or does Vancouver import most non-regional goods from the US (and not the rest of Canada) anyway?

Gas comes through pipeline from refineries in Washington, so that should be largely unaffected. Lots of produce does come from the Fraser Valley which is impacted, but also North/South links to the USA (ie. we get heaps of produce from California). I assume there's a fair amount of food that is delivered from the port, as a lot of food packaging warehouses are near the port. Most trade in Canada is North/South aligne…

> we get heaps of produce from California

Are the prices in line with what those products would cost in the US (e.g. WA state)? I was under the impression that the prices in BC were lower, so now I'm wondering if the price adjustment to account for local markets is significant or not, or if I misremembered completely.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#195

Post by Mikeb85 »

ygjb wrote: post #119
Mikeb85 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what does that have to do with anyone who doesn't fit into that one category?

The overall tone of the thread is about logistics in a port city that is the main port of entry to Canada. Individually, the testing requirements are very disruptive, but it's one less issue that may have impacted supply chains within the BC lower mainland, and an avenue to ship goods out, albeit more expensively. This isn't (generally speaking) a thread about COVID restrictions, but if you want to sound off about th…

Fair enough. My responses might be slightly shaped by the fact I was going to drive to Vancouver next week to visit a friend and am flying to Europe in 2 weeks.

> that no one really gives a fuck about how inconvenient travel has become for non-essential activities

Plenty of people do. Hence why so many countries (literally the whole EU) are trying to facilitate travel.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#196

Post by klyrs »

cf100clunk wrote: post #191
arcticbull wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dire in what way? Vancouver still has the YVR airport, a seaport, ferries, a downtown float plane airport and both road and rail access to the US. There will be some impact to prices, I imagine, while the road and rail links to the rest of Canada are rebuilt.

Dire for Merritt (evacuated), Princeton (under water), Hope (all highways closed or curtailed), Abbotsford (under water), Chilliwack (under water), Fernie (no highway access) and a host of other places on the mainland and on the Island that are vital transport, agricultural, forestry, tourism, and mining centres. You mentioned prices, so scale it up to international economics level.

If I had a nickel for every time folks have suggested moving out to the country as a solution to the housing crisis...

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#197

Post by ashtonkem »

emodendroket wrote: post #175
ashtonkem wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, more people are in the back woods these days for recreational purposes rather than pure necessity, which also confounds the numbers. The relationship between safety gear and risk taking attitudes seems to be relatively complicated, and none of the sources I’ve read have managed to pin down whether or not safety equipment reliably produced more risk taking behavior. Still, if I was in the habit of going further…

Compared to when? It's not like hiking is some new fad.

Certain recreational activities are in fact new as hobbies, at least at scale. Skiing, mountaineering, and camping were once things you did out of necessity, not for funsies.

For example, our records for recreational skiing stretch back basically 300 years. Mountaineering has been done practically forever, but as a mass hobby it’s also basically 250 or so years old. The idea that you’d do it for fun rather than as a spiritual quest or to catch a lost sheep is a fairly new idea.

Hiking is a bit more debatable. Humans have walked on local trails for practical and recreational purposes forever. Some European trails are clearly very old, so that’s hardly new. But I think the idea of backpacking deep into the woods for fun has exploded in popularity over the past century, and certainly got a huge kick in the pants with the creation of the national park system.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#198

Post by jacquesm »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #25

People really overestimate how resilient infrastructure is to natural disasters, and such disasters will become more common as the earth warms.

Canada is a special case: small population, huge area to cover. The infrastructure budget in Canada per square kilometer is very low.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#199

Post by myohmy »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #155

I watched a video series of a road trip from Victoria to somewhere in Yukon.[0] After getting to the mainland and past the Vancouver metro area, the quality of roads is striking. The further north they went, the more nothing they saw. [0] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV_qemO0oath2Wpt7-8jQ...

I've driven that trip many, many times. Its a wonderful drive if you like peace and quiet.

Although as my cousin put it, all he saw was "A tree, a rock, a mountain, a river, and a bear."

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#200

Post by ashtonkem »

Scoundreller wrote: post #167
ashtonkem wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t have to be particularly intense to find value in a full fledged GPS. We just do a lot of day hikes and a few overnighters, and the 64st ($300-400) has been immensely valuable. Considering that the inreach eliminates the need for a separate rescue beacon, that’s a cost and weight savings. If you’re even more marginally intense than I, one of these is less a toy and more a life saving necessity. Dedicated GPS…

It’s too bad google offline maps only supports driving directions.

Most of these smart phone apps are pretty bad at providing even driving directions in the back country. Plenty of times I’ve had either Apple or Google fail to recognize a forest service road, which I presume is in a freely available file somewhere, and tell me to park and walk miles to the trailhead. I’ve learned the hard lesson to have a backup plan just for navigating to the trailhead, let alone once I’m on the trail.
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