After two hard-fought rounds of voting, we’re going into the Round of 16 with eight nominees from the City of Vancouver and eight more from the suburbs.
If you’re joining us for the first time, we asked our followers on Bluesky and Instagram to nominate their least favourite intersections and selected 32 of the scariest, nastiest, most confusing ones throughout the region for a community vote.
In doing so, we aim not only to crown a Grand Winner (Loser?), but also to highlight the reality that safety often comes last when our governments design roads. Each year, 100 people are killed on our roads in Metro Vancouver. Together, we can advocate for safer road designs to bring that number down to zero. Join us in our fight to make that a reality!
City of Vancouver
Main & East 2nd Ave vs. Granville & SW Marine
In the last round, Main & 2nd narrowly edged out Cambie & 7th, claiming a spot for the intersection that turns a nice stroll from the SkyTrain to the breweries into a terrifying trek. Impressively, the relatively small bikeway crossing of Cambie & 7th pulled a respectable 45%, underscoring how inadequate the Off-Broadway bike lane is despite Ken Sim’s protestations to the contrary.
Meanwhile, the spaghetti junction where Granville St meets Marine Dr and the Arthur Laing Bridge romped past Arbutus & 41st. While Kerrisdale’s two traffic lights cause endless delay for drivers, cyclists and R4 riders alike (especially without long-overdue bus lanes), they were no match for the concrete tangle at the foot of Marpole.
- Main St & East 2nd Ave: East 2nd Ave becomes Great Northern Way a block east of this intersection that you have to cross to get between Olympic Village and Mount Pleasant. We’re not so sure what’s so great about it, other than the amount of traffic.
- Granville St & SW Marine Dr: Forget skydiving. There’s much cheaper thrills to be found at this intersection, from dodging eight lanes of traffic to walk to the Marpole bus exchange to biking on the 1 metre-wide lane of the Arthur Laing Bridge.
Main St & East 2nd Ave (left) vs. Granville St & SW Marine Dr (right)
Main & Kingsway & East 7th Ave vs. PENDER & GEORGIA
The Granville Island Seawall (of brick fame) got an unlucky pairing against one of Vancouver’s most congested and infamous intersections, which naturally moves on. Meanwhile, Pender & Georgia defeats Quebec & Terminal, setting up a confrontation this round between two of Vancouver’s bizarre and confusing triangle intersections.
- Main St & Kingsway & East 7th Ave: Fellas, is it a good sign when your intersection is so confusing to everyone that there’s overhead highway exit signs pointing you where to go? Did we also mention that you have to cross three crosswalks to get to Mount Pleasant’s only library?
- W Pender St & W Georgia St: 28% of people who cross the Lions Gate Bridge do so by bus. 100% of them get stuck at this intersection, where Pender and Georgia converge to form a grueling crawl to Stanley Park.
Main St & Kingsway & East 7th Ave (left) vs. W Pender St & W Georgia St (right)
Commercial & Broadway vs. Victoria & Kingsway
By less than 1%, Commercial & Broadway ekes out Clark & 10th. Perhaps it was the freshness in people’s memories of the recent escalator closure forcing everyone to cross the street to catch their 99 bus, but it narrowly beat the deadly bikeway crossing that city staff refuse to do anything about.
Meanwhile, the battle of the cheap eats saw Victoria & Kingsway (dead in the middle of Vancouver’s wide selection of Vietnamese restaurants) beat Nanaimo & Broadway (home to Bon’s $2.95 breakfast) to proceed to the Round of 16.
- Commercial Dr & E Broadway: The only thing there’s more of at this intersection than pizza-by-the-slice places (Three! How are they all still in business?) is car crashes (74, yikes!).
- Victoria Dr & Kingsway: You think you’ve escaped all the cars once you manage to cross the crosswalk—until a distracted driver fiddling with their rewards app barely avoids hitting you while turning into one of the three drive-thrus that open up on this intersection.
Commercial Dr & E Broadway (left) vs. Victoria Dr & Kingsway (right)
Boundary & Kingsway vs. Boundary & Highway 1
Boundary Road sucks. Practically serving as a barrier on the city border, it funnels pedestrians, drivers, cyclists and bus riders alike onto a handful of tiny, congested arterials that are wildly dangerous to cross.
Perhaps that’s why two of its intersections handily beat Knight & 41st and Kingsway & Knight to set up a battle of the Boundary crossings.
- Boundary Rd & Kingsway: Not only do you have the classic combo of distracted drivers who don’t check their blind spots while flying down high-speed slip lanes, but you also introduce the countless pedestrians and cyclists who take the BC Parkway across this intersection. If only the footbridge down the block was more useful…
- Boundary Rd & Highway 1 & Grandview Hwy: We were lost for words when trying to describe this intersection last round, where Highway 1 funnels a never-ending stream of speeding drivers into a residential neighbourhood. We still are.
Boundary Rd & Kingsway (left) vs. Boundary Rd & Highway 1 & Grandview Hwy (right)
The Suburbs
BRUNETTE AVE & LOUGHEED HWY vs. BRUNETTE AVE & BRAID ST
If Boundary Rd is the hobgoblin haunting the Vancouver–Burnaby boundary, the same could be said about Brunette Avenue being the bugbear separating New Westminster from Coquitlam.
Our two Brunette Ave nominees easily trounced Coast Meridian Rd & Mary Hill Bypass in Port Coquitlam and Capilano Rd & Marine Dr in North Vancouver to set up an inter-Brunette battle.
- Brunette Ave & Lougheed Hwy, Coquitlam: If you ever forgot about how bad this intersection was, the pile of used and abandoned car tires in the middle is a good reminder.
- Brunette Ave & Braid St, New Westminster: Who doesn’t love this intersection? Drivers can look forward to 103 crashes a year and being blocked by a railway crossing. Pedestrians can look forward to crossing high-speed slip lanes full of trucks. Cyclists trying to find their way back onto the Central Valley Greenway get sent the wrong way down a one-way bus loop because of the lack of wayfinding.
Brunette Ave & Lougheed Hwy, Coquitlam (left) vs. Brunette Ave & Braid St, New Westminster (right)
KENSINGTON AVE & CANADA WAY vs. 8TH ST & ROYAL AVE
Last round, an intra-Burnaby fight saw Kensington & Canada Way triumph over Lougheed & Willingdon. While the dreadful streetscape of the Not-So-Amazing Brentwood does little to spark joy, people clearly had strong opinions about the labyrinthine freeway junction in the heart of Burnaby’s forest park.
Meanwhile, Maple Ridge’s messiest intersection at Dewdney Trunk & Maple Meadows Way got narrowly eked out by the pseudo-highway that cleaves New Westminster in two, 53% to 47%.
- Kensington Ave & Canada Way, Burnaby: There’s no pleasant Highway 1 exits per se, but this one is somehow uniquely unpleasant because Burnaby decided to route the Lakes Greenway between two nature parks down this overpass. Who knew an intersection could be more toxic than the water in Deer Lake?
- 8th St & Royal Ave, New Westminster: There’s nothing regnal about Royal Avenue, the car sewer that funnels thousands of cars from the Pattullo Bridge through the heart of New West—severing Uptown from Downtown. If this road is royalty, then call us Robespierre.
Kensington Ave & Canada Way, Burnaby (left) vs. 8th St & Royal Ave, New Westminster (right)
NO. 3 RD & SEA ISLAND WAY vs. KING GEORGE & 88 AVE
In the most decisive vote of Round 1, No. 3 Rd & Sea Island Way—the massive junction that funnels Highway 91 and Richmond traffic to the Arthur Laing Bridge and airport—trounced 112 St & 80 Ave in North Delta. That’s not to say that Delta’s decision to build a brand-new dangerous slip lane in 2017 was the correct one, but Richmond clearly made something far worse.
In a Round 1 matchup between two King George Blvd intersections, 88 Ave on the edge of Bear Creek Park beat 152 St in Semiahmoo. While both intersections feature massive slip lanes, hostile pedestrian environments and ultra-wide roads, dropping it on the side of a family-friendly park seems like an insult on top of injury.
- No. 3 Rd & Sea Island Way & Bridgeport Rd, Richmond: What is it with gigantic, terrible intersections underneath SkyTrain tracks? Despite spending millions of dollars building a new train station around the corner, we didn’t think to make it easy to walk or bike anywhere from the said station. Classic Richmond.
- King George Blvd & 88 Ave, Surrey: You know when landlords throw on a new coat of paint on the walls to hide all the damage? Surrey has decided to apply the same principle to road design, hoping that a tasteful dash of red and green will make you forget how terrible it is to cross here.
No. 3 Rd & Sea Island Way & Bridgeport Rd, Richmond (left) vs. King George Blvd & 88 Ave, Surrey (right)
GARDEN CITY RD & Granville Ave vs. FRASER HWY & LANGLEY BYP
Garden City & Granville may not be responsible for that many crashes, but that doesn’t change that it’s a terrifying and utterly baffling design—especially when you’re trying to cross the concrete tangle by foot or bike. Clearly, many of you agreed, raising it above Scott Rd & 104 Ave in the poll.
Meanwhile, the gateway to Langley’s Willowbrook neighbourhood beat another Scott Road intersection at Nordel Way to claim the 16th and final spot.
- Garden City Rd & Granville Ave, Richmond: Based on a sample size of 2, we’re starting to develop a theory that every street named “Granville” in Metro Vancouver has to feature a massively overbuilt interchange that’s a nightmare for pedestrians to cross… At least the other Granville has a bench, I guess.
- Fraser Hwy & Langley Bypass (the one at Willowbrook Mall), Langley Township: Don’t let the “Welcome to Willowbrook” sign fool you: there’s nothing welcoming at this terrifying intersection where two highways intersect, with trucks and high-speed slip lanes to boot.
Garden City Rd & Granville Ave, Richmond (left) vs. Fraser Hwy & Langley Bypass, Langley Township (right)
Vision Zero Vancouver 