Self-driving to Vancouver from Seattle

[JDinWA]

A few years ago, I found a route recommendation in this forum for driving from Seattle to the Vancouver cruise port. Could someone familiar with the area confirm if the notes I saved are still good? They seem to work using online maps, but those aren't always up-to-date and there might be better alternatives due to traffic or construction or whatever. (Travelling on a weekday, if it matters.)

 

Take I-5 north to 99, go over bridge, right on Marine, left on Cambie. Cambie becomes Smithe, turn right on Seymour, left on Cordova, right on Howe, arrive.

[martincath]

There's a bit of a gap before you hit town from the border in those directions JD, and depending who you speak to Marine/Oak/Park/Granville, or jinking right on Marine but then left on Cambie is best for downtown core access, but we're quibbling over a minute or three difference so no big whoop for you as a one-off rather than a commuter doing it daily. Since we live just off Main Street, so our debate is more 'Knight vs. Main vs. Cambie' I'll defer to any West Side local commuters who give an opinion about which of Oak>Park>Granville or Marine>Cambie is best this year.

 

Personally I would play the 'bridge or tunnel to cross the Fraser' by ear - there are signs giving approx. drive time for both taking 91 east to the Alex Fraser bridge and sticking to 99 through the George Massey tunnel. Both have counterflow systems - the bridge is much less extreme, having 7 lanes of which one flipflops, while the tunnel is a gosh-durn nightmare if you get the counterflow timing wrong as it goes from 2+2 to 3+1 at peak times (and a lot of folks really dislike being in the 'wrong tunnel' with oncoming highway speed traffic in an enclosed space without barriers during the counterflow times). You can check the scheduled counterflow times here - they change a bit seasonally so a cruise late Aug vs early Sep will see a different schedule.

 

If you plan to hit Vancouver early, but not mad early, you'll find that you benefit from an extra lane on both bridge & tunnel northbound, but will be stuck in commuter traffic any time after ~7am weekdays; even with counterflow helping, it's annoying. Being on the Canadian side of the border ~10am should be a good time if you are sticking to 99 - the tunnel will be back to 2+2 lanes, backup from the counterflow cleared, commuters gone, so you should flow pretty well. But sometimes the tunnel just plain sucks and using the bridge saves a fair bit of time - if the signs have a 10min or greater variance, take the bridge. That doesn't give massive amounts of padding for a same-day cruise - so you may want to get up super early and try to hit the border ~6am if you want to avoid all the commuter nonsense. But if you're used to Seattle commuting, you'll find ours less bad!

 

If you want to check roadworks in advance, check DriveBC (by route is the most efficient)

Edited July 27, 2022 by martincath

[quack2]

Google Maps works fine.