The Inner Harbour of Victoria is a nautical traffic hub, thanks to the recreational boats, international ships, kayaks, paddlers, sea planes, harbour ferries, and the lost tourist or two. Not to mention huge summer events including the Symphony Splash and the Swiftsure Yacht Race.
RELATED:
RELATED:
This begs the question; how is all this traffic coordinated?
Transport Canada, who runs the Harbour from Ogden Point to Selkirk Trestle, says itB次元官网网址檚 a matter of keeping the harbour as a place of organized chaos.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a busy, complicated harbour with a certified airport in the middle of it,B次元官网网址� says Mariah McCooey, Harbour Master with Transport Canada. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 important everyone knows the rules. We have a traffic scheme that lays out lanes, runways, different zones and speed lanes and we have to enforce that.B次元官网网址�
How has traffic been in the Inner Harbour lately? spoke with to find out! Story coming soon.
B次元官网网址� Nicole Crescenzi (@NicoleCrescenzi)
Every day during the peak seasonB次元官网网址� running April to OctoberB次元官网网址� Transport Canada has three Harbour Patrol vessels on the water tracking whatB次元官网网址檚 happening and filing reports about rule contraventions, with the most common write-ups circling around speed or improper lane use.
While citations are written up, Transport Canada does not issue tickets to those breaking rules, since McCooey says most of the time people simply are unaware of them. Should people cause problems or be repeat offenders, consequences are a diverted to the RCMP.
McCooey said that summers have become more and more work to coordinate, between large events, an increase in paddler traffic and the installation of new services like the V2V ship which travels between Victoria and Vancouver.
B次元官网网址淎 huge amount of our workload is in the summer. WeB次元官网网址檙e responsible for issuing special licences, and any event that is coming up we call someone in and have a big safety meeting about roles and responsibilities,B次元官网网址� she said.
Transport Canada starts information campaigns to remind people of safety measures, including reaching out to local kayak clubs, and more recently, establishing clear rules against any drones within nine kilometres of an airport, including the sea plane port that sees 34,000 air craft movements per year.
Miraculously, in any recent memory there are no reports of traffic accidents or injuries, though Transport Canada is meticulous with its records and now hosts more than 14,000 reports.
The data-driven department will soon instal more systems to help it keep track of the harbour, including using 23 pieces of camera equipment installed last spring, and an upcoming installation of an Automatic Identification System (AIS) which will be used to track ship sizes, speeds, and routes live.
For McCooey, the harbour is an anomalous little gem.
B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檝e got the only airport in the world where youB次元官网网址檒l see whales on the runway, and that happened twice this year.B次元官网网址�
Like us on and follow us on
