Thursday July 13, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC [Updated July 15, 2023]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Public comments welcome, write to: news@islandsocialtrends.com
What was for many years an efficient left-turn lane from Highway 14 (Sooke Road) onto Happy Valley Road, has lately become a point of frustration for drivers. The previously fluid intersection is now bogged down.
The signaled intersection would — with an advance green signal — previously allow at least 20 vehicles through, to turn left (south) onto Happy Valley Road. Now only about six vehicles can manage to make a left turn during the advance green.
The change seems to have happened in the last 10 to 14 days.
Island Social Trends has inquired with both the City of Langford and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) regarding the reasons for the change and whether it’s a temporary or permanent change.
In some cases this situation is leaving drivers frustrated, with some choosing to still make the turn (after oncoming traffic has past) at the tail end of the orange light. Some are even turning left on the red light, which is illegal.
Oftentimes, the shorter left-turn light is causing traffic backups in the westbound lane of Highway 14 (Sooke Road) which leads to some traffic congestion near Jacklin Road. Westbound through-traffic would be heading other parts of Langford (including access to the West Shore Parkway) and beyond that to Metchosin and Sooke.
The road situation has become unsafe with this change of timing of the intersection traffic signals. The new setup seems to ignore the heavy traffic pattern that has existed at that busy intersection for years. The Galloping Goose Trail crosses the highway at that point; many cyclists and pedestrians also cross the roadways at that intersection.
Drivers — including regular commuters — who turn left from Highway 14 to Happy Valley Road are heading toward the well-populated (and still growing) Happy Valley area and to Metchosin beyond. That includes residents, businesses servicing the area, and visitors or tourists. There is also an SD62 elementary school (Happy Valley Elementary) on Happy Valley Road which receives school-related traffic as well as when the school is used for community purposes.
Island Social Trends was redirected by the City of Langford engineering department over to MOTI for details given that Highway 14 is a provincial highway. This article will be updated upon receiving the MOTI response.
We will also update this article with any available input from ICBC regarding any road safety issues.
Municipal input:
“The health and safety of the citizens in our region are of utmost concern. I am hopeful that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure will work with the City of Langford to resolve some of these glitches in traffic in the Westshore,” said Metchosin Mayor Marie-Térèse Little in a statement today.
Public input:
We are hearing that the intersection is also frustrating for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as drivers of motorized vehicles.
Public comments welcome, write to: news@islandsocialtrends.com
===== RELATED:
New four-lane section of Highway 14 now open (July 13, 2023)
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
News of the west shore region of Greater Victoria has been covered by Island Social Trends since 2008, through the publication series MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), West Shore Voice News (2014-2020), and Island Social Trends (since 2020).
LANGFORD NEWS | SD62 NEWS | TRAFFIC UPDATES | TRAVEL & TRANSPORTATION | ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS