DriveBC Frequently Asked Questions

Navigating the website

Q. What changes have been made to DriveBC?
A. The DriveBC site was updated in March 2014. We have listened to your feedback and have made a number of enhancements to make DriveBC more effective for you. Check out "What's New"
Q. Who manages and operates the DriveBC website?
A. DriveBC is managed by the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. A map of the contract areas and their corresponding maintenance company contact information is available under Maintenance Contractors. This link is available from the Related Links.
Q. What browser should I use to view DriveBC?
A. DriveBC can be optimally viewed all modern browsers, including, but not limited to Internet Explorer 7 or higher, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari.
Q. Where can I find information about ...
Highway webcams?
A. More information about the highway cams can be found at the BC Highway Webcams website. Here you will find answers to additional Frequently Asked Questions specific to the highway cams. This link is also available from the Related Links.

The "Map View" page provides an optional webcam layer that provides HighwayCam images when clicking on the camera icons. The BC Highway Webcams can also be viewed from the "Webcam List" page.
Weather?
A. The Map View provides three optional weather layers: weather forecast (provided by Environment Canada), current weather (provided by Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure weather stations) and high elevation weather (provided by Environment Canada). Additionally, weather information is provided below each webcam image on the BC Highway Webcams
BC Tourism?
A. For information related to tourism in British Columbia, please refer to the HelloBC web page on the Tourism BC's website, or visit the BC Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Investment website. These links are also available from Related Links.
Ferries?
A. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure provides free inland ferry service across rivers and lakes throughout the province as part of the provincial highway network. Information about services and schedules can be found under the Inland Ferries link in the left navigation menu, or under Related Links.

The Map View also provides an Inland Ferry layer that has links to Inland Ferry schedule information when clicking on the ferry icon.

BC Ferries is an independent commercial organization which provides ferry service along the coast of British Columbia. Information about their services and schedules can be found at www.bcferries.com. This link is also available from the Related Links.
Q. How can I make a comment or suggestion regarding DriveBC?
A. We welcome your comments through our Feedback Form.

Road condition and event information

Q. Who can I call to report an incident on one of BC's provincial highways?
A. You can report an incident or road condition directly to the Maintenance Contractors responsible for the district. A map of the contract areas and their corresponding maintenance company contact information is available under Report a Highway Problem in the left navigation window. This link is also available from the Related Links.
Q. How do I know the highway information is current?
A. Maintenance contractors are required to update the highway information in their district at regularly scheduled intervals throughout the day, and as conditions change.
Q. Most of the province is in the Pacific Time zone, but some areas operate in Mountain Time. How can I tell which time zone each event is referring to?
A. All event information across the province is displayed in Pacific Time, in order to maintain consistency along provincial routes.
Q. What does it mean when a highway is bare, showing no icons?
A. When a highway or stretch of highway is not displaying any icons, this means that there have been no reported road conditions or incidents.
Q. Can I get notifications of new or updated events sent to me?
A. DriveBC features a new email subscription service that allows you to register for email notification of new or updated events in your district or along your preferred routes. Click the icon for help or definitions while registering your email address.
Q. Why does DriveBC not show incidents or road conditions on all streets in BC?
A. DriveBC only focuses on provincially managed highways. DriveBC does not report road conditions, incidents or events on municipal roads. In addition, National Parks and other areas such as the Alaskan Highway that are not under the jurisdiction of the provincial government are not reported on DriveBC except where special agreements have been made.
Q. What are Major Events and how can I check for them?
A. Major Events are defined as incidents, planned events or road conditions which affect the flow of traffic by closing the road, causing delays longer than 30 minutes, or when a Travel Advisory has been issued by the ministry.

The "Major Events" link in the navigation bar takes you directly to the list of Major Events. If there are no Major Events in the province, "No events found" will be displayed. On the map, Major Events are depicted with a solid red icon.
Q. How can I search for events on a specific route or in a given area?
A. The Events List has functionality that allows you to filter events using check boxes. Select the various event types you'd like to see and view by category (Major Events, by Area, or by Route) to further narrow the results. You can now select multiple districts or routes, to see all events along your planned route.
Q. How can I bookmark events that I always want to see? For example, "I always want to check for Major Events on Highway 17"?
A. Use the filters on the Events List to define the type and location of events you would like to see. Create a bookmark for the page. When you use this bookmark, you will always return to your preferred Events List. You can create multiple bookmarks for multiple filter conditions.
Q. An event is listed as stretching from "Point A" to "Point B" in the events list. Where do I look for the corresponding icon on the map?
A. Icons for events that extend beyond a single location are placed at the "to" location (i.e. "Point B").
Q. I'm travelling next week. How can I plan my route to avoid closures?
A. Events scheduled to occur at a specific future time and location on the provincial highway network, such as maintenance, construction work or special events, are listed as Future Planned Events. Please see the Help page for details on how to view Future Planned Events in both the Map View and Event List.
Q. How often is data refreshed on DriveBC?
A. DriveBC receives updated data every two minutes. If you have the DriveBC site open on your computer, you can refresh your browser at any time to make sure the data you see is current.

About the map

Q. What is the source of the metro Vancouver data?
A. Mobile signals are used to determine the traffic flow within Vancouver.
Q. Why is traffic data only provided for the metro Vancouver area?
A. This is the first stage of providing regional traffic data. Funding was provided by TransLink, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and the Department of Transport to initially provide traffic data for the metro Vancouver area.
Q. Why are major roadways and highways showing "Unconfirmed" for traffic data during peak travel times?
A. Traffic data is displayed as "Unconfirmed" when the data confidence level is not high. This has been implemented to help minimize erroneous information being displayed.
Q. Why can't I zoom in closer to the map?
A. The zoom level is limited because DriveBC's data does not perfectly align with the Google platform. We are currently working on improving this function.
Q. Why do some DriveBC events refer to places on a highway that do not appear on the map?
A. Some provincial highways have stretches of road that do not pass any towns or significant cross-roads, so permanently identifiable structures such as bridges or snow sheds are used as reference points for events. Maintenance Contractors are encouraged to include descriptors of recognizable locations in addition to the most geographically correct reference points. We are always adding new reference points to our network.
Q. What do the different symbols on the DriveBC map mean?
A. Please refer to our Help page for an explanation of the site's icons and features.
Q. Why do some of the road reports say eastbound and westbound (Hwy 16, for instance) when the map shows the road going north-south?
A. For software programming reasons in DriveBC, all highways in the province are designated to go from south to north or from west to east. A highway is designated as south/north or west/east based on the overall direction of the road, rather than the section that is reported on.
Q. When I view the map on DriveBC, I notice some of the names of places, roads and jurisdictions are not current/correct. Why are these not updated right away?
A. DriveBC uses the Google map as the basis to display provincial highway traveller information. The map itself is not under the control of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. Any issues or discrepancies in naming conventions are reported to Google as they are identified. Naming convention issues can be reported using the Feedback Form.