As part of a series, CTV Vancouver is looking into why more Metro Vancouver residents than ever are spending large parts of their days stuck in traffic. Visit our Extreme Commutes microsite for full coverage.
A North Vancouver man's commute can take as long as two hours, even without having to cross a bridge to get home.
Derek Churchill drives just 20 kilometres from his home near the base of Mount Seymour to work in West Vancouver, a trip that takes about 15 minutes in the morning.
But when he heads home from the Cypress Bowl Road area, his trek on the Upper Levels can take eight times as long. On a good day, it's about 45 minutes west to east, but sometimes he's stuck in traffic for hours.
He said it takes him as long to drive the short distance home as it does for his colleagues to get to Squamish, a trip more than double the distance.
Churchill was born on the North Shore, and has lived there for 38 years.
"I've got what a lot of people call 'North Shore-itis," he joked.
"I love it. I grew up mountain biking on the North Shore."
While he's not considering moving away, a section of Highway One known as "The Cut" is a daily source of frustration for him.
The problem? "It's a whole bunch of people that work on the North Shore that don’t live on the North Shore," Churchill told CTV Vancouver's David Molko during a ridealong.
The traffic is so bad that sometimes he gives up, stopping somewhere for dinner and to wait out the traffic.
Churchill said he doesn't think tolls are the solution to the problem on the North Shore: "You're going to penalize people already stuck in traffic trying to get home."
He'd like to see a system where those who aren't leaving the North Shore get a separate lane from those taking the Lions Gate or Iron Workers Memorial bridges.
He said tolls would only work if drivers had more alternatives, but without them, a user pay system doesn't seem fair.
When asked whether a SkyTrain extension or light rail line would help, he conceded that it would, but it would be expensive. And he said the option of a third crossing over the Burrard Inlet would just be moving the problem somewhere else.
Taking side streets also isn't a great alternative, because when traffic is really bad, the smaller roads are just as congested. However, a new, wider bridge built at the bottom of the Keith Road hill has taken some of the pressure off those using the route, and improved the highway situation a bit, he said.
Churchill said he believes the jams will ease more when ongoing construction projects are completed.
The province, District of North Vancouver and federal government are investing about $200 million in three phases of improvements to Highway One-Lower Lynn, estimated to be finished by the spring of 2021.
The changes were designed to help alleviate congestion at key points in one of Metro Vancouver's worst bottlenecks. Work includes reconstruction of interchanges, increasing lanes, upgrading aging infrastructure and adding on- and off-ramps.
"I think they're working at it. It's very complicated," Churchill said.
He also admitted that he knows others have it worse, hitting more traffic as they leave the shore to further destinations like the Fraser Valley. But his suggestion to politicians is to make living in North and West Vancouver more affordable, so fewer people have to commute such distances.
"I really can't tell them anything they don't already know," he said.
"My wife and I, we don't own a home, and we've probably missed our chance with how exploded the housing market is."
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