Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

kelownanow.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 477 posts

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

#261

Post by curmudgeon22 »

iainctduncan wrote: post #254
lhorie wrote: post #100

For just a bit of context/anecdata, I'm talking to my brother who lives in Vancouver and he wasn't even aware this was a problem. The road closure[0] on hwy 1 near Abbotsford/Chilliwack is a good one hour drive away from Vancouver core[1]. So while it sounds noteworthy for an entire city be technically flooded in, unless you were driving to the boonies, you're probably not actually impacted in any meaningful way. He…

This is complete bullshit. EVERYONE is affected. Honestly, just read the BC news. If they think they aren't affected, then they don't understand BC supply chains and haven't noticed... yet.

I'm in Burnaby. It was really rainy and windy for a couple days, but I haven't been meaningfully impacted so far.

For sure it was a major storm with some major impacts, but I think most people in the lower mainland weren't severely impacted.

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

#262

Post by cf100clunk »

soperj wrote: post #247
cf100clunk wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an excellent point - using the channel maps at the site I linked to above, there is nothing to stop someone with a scanner keeping informed of FSR traffic. Just one other point: on an FSR an average person's general sense of traffic "right of way" is generally wrong and can result in some terrible accidents far from help. To wit: the bus crash involving UBC students outside Bamfield.

Pretty sure that was UVic students.

Yes, you are correct.

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

#263

Post by ygjb »

pjkundert wrote: post #150
blondie9x wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. As people over consume and the planet's climate continues to become more erratic and destabilized infrastructure disasters will increase.

Or, rampant incompetence of increasingly all-powerful government functionaries paralyzes more and more of our nation when random events occur. The capacity to quickly repair roads exists. Call in a major structural steel engineering firm, and give them free reign and a big cheque. You'll have a bridge over the swirling rapids in 24 hours. Of course, government workers will be falling to the ground foaming at the mout…

you might want to loosen that tinfoil hat.

Private sector does really well in a lot of spaces, but despite being public infrastructure, most highways and roadworks built in Canada are already built by private sector employees working under contract.

Those public sector employees foaming at the mouth? Those are the ones who are responsible for making sure that the roads, highways and infrastructure are fit for purpose, including safety. But hey, why would we want anyone providing oversight of private corporations right?

You want emergency, purpose built solutions built by a mission oriented team? May I point you in the direction of the Canadian Military Engineers (you know, government workers?).

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

#264

Post by btilly »

Symbiote wrote: post #145
btilly wrote: post #137

It looks like rail lines are also cut off. This is kind of a big deal for shipping. Approximately $200 billion goods/year travel through Vancouver, including millions of (metric) tonnes of grain bound for Asia, and imports of Chinese goods bound for the rest of Canada. Most of that traffic now needs to find another route until repairs are made.

Are all of them cut off? There seem to be four, one north, two along the river, and one south. https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=49.346598...

From https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bc-floods-rail-impact-1.625... it looks like some lines are out and others remain to be inspected once things clear up. So maybe all, maybe not all, but enough to be a big problem.

A dairy farmer in Abbotsford is quoted as having only 5 days of feed. Consider the economic damage if farmers have to kill livestock, and can't even get them to a meat packing facility to recoup any part of their losses.

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

#265

Post by mrtnmcc »

AutumnCurtain wrote: post #232
cronix wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole upper pacific coastline is experiencing it. There is a lot of flooding along the Oregon coast as well with cars/trailers floating away and evacuations. Intense rains for days at a time. I mean we get a lot of rain here, but this has been pretty crazy and constant.

Let's hope it migrates further south and relieves some of the California drought. Any meteorologists have a sense of the weather patterns at play here?

It looks like we will be in another La Nina year, which means wetter northwest and drier southwest.. unfortunately.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/la-nina-california-dro...

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

#266

Post by version_five »

Scoundreller wrote: post #239
seryoiupfurds wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I understand it, they already share their tracks in routine service, using one westbound and the other eastbound. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-track_railway#Direction... > A similar example exists in the Fraser Canyon in British Columbia, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific each own a single track line - often on either side of the river. The companies have a joint arrangement where they share re…

“Competitors” sharing networks is such a Canadian tradition. Just like 2 of our 3 big cellular companies (Bell and Telus) sharing a single network.

I'm guessing its your point, but to spell it out, canada has oligopolies or monopolies, it doesnt have competitors at least in telecom and banking. From what I understand (like the recent Kansas? railway acquisition) CN and CP may actually be more in competition than some other industries. There is some complexity because part of the tradeoff for being granted oligo/monopoly status is the requirement to allow others on their network (e.g. for telco so maybe also for rail - I know they have to let Via, even if it's on a low priority basis). But overall, the business environment in canada is much closer to some kind of aristocracy or feudal system than an actual competitive landscape. Maybe that's true everywhere and just not as easy to see.

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

#267

Post by iainctduncan »

time_to_smile wrote: post #260
iainctduncan wrote: post #253

It is disappointing to see some people thinking this is not a big deal. Please don't spread that kind of misinformation. We had multiple highways closed over southern BC, many roads down, power outages, municipalities evacuated, and tons of homes flooded in towns and cities all over southern BC. This is affecting a hell of a lot more than whether we can get to the rest of the country by road. There is almost no one w…

HN has long declared itself an "Everything is Fine" zone. While you are here it is important to remember that "Everything is Fine". Suggesting that things might not be fine is a good pathway to being flagged or at least downvoted. Since everything is fine, the only motivation you would have for suggesting it's not, is to create trouble for political reasons, which is clearly against HN guidelines. It's pretty clear t…

on point.

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

#268

Post by woah »

lhorie wrote: post #100

For just a bit of context/anecdata, I'm talking to my brother who lives in Vancouver and he wasn't even aware this was a problem. The road closure[0] on hwy 1 near Abbotsford/Chilliwack is a good one hour drive away from Vancouver core[1]. So while it sounds noteworthy for an entire city be technically flooded in, unless you were driving to the boonies, you're probably not actually impacted in any meaningful way. He…

Most of the population of Canada is within miles of the US border. For any given city, connection to the US is probably much more important than connections to other parts of Canada.

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

#269

Post by iainctduncan »

Here's an article that gives people a better sense of how severe this is. I have lived in Southern BC for 40 years and cannot remember there ever being so many simultaneously affected areas from rain.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-floods-tu...

And one on the supply chain effects: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bc-floods-rail-impact-1.625...

Some folks in Vancouver are saying they are unaffected... well what you really mean is you haven't noticed yet. There will absolutely be ripple effects. Even in Victoria we had a general "do not drive" advisory yesterday, and good luck getting a plumber if you need one this week.

I know city folks who have worked for the BC government in emergency management and are now stocking up on essentials...

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

#270

Post by cf100clunk »

skrebbel wrote: post #105
lhorie wrote: post #100

For just a bit of context/anecdata, I'm talking to my brother who lives in Vancouver and he wasn't even aware this was a problem. The road closure[0] on hwy 1 near Abbotsford/Chilliwack is a good one hour drive away from Vancouver core[1]. So while it sounds noteworthy for an entire city be technically flooded in, unless you were driving to the boonies, you're probably not actually impacted in any meaningful way. He…

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?

The BC Milk Marketing Board has told many of its producers to begin destroying their output until further notice since there is no means of transporting it:

https://bcmilk.com/notice-to-producers-flood-conditions-and-...

Vancouver's surrounding agricultural areas, lush as they are, will now be almost out of commission for an indefinite length of time.

Post reply on HN