Approximately 284,000 shoppers jammed B.C.’s newest mall in the six days following Tsawwassen Mills’ October 5 launch and many of them complained about being stuck in parking lot gridlock that was so bad that it took up to four hours to leave the facility.
Flaggers and the Delta police helped direct traffic but their efforts were not enough to ensure a smooth traffic flow.
“To prevent [gridlock] from happening again, we’ve adapted some of the learnings to the traffic control people we have in place for the busier times,” the mall’s general manager Mark Fenwick told Business in Vancouver October 13.
“We’ll have them here again this weekend.”
One problem is that the mall, which has 6,000 parking spots, only has three exits.
Two of those exit to Canoe Pass Way, which is a new road that mall owner Ivanhoé Cambridge helped build. A third exit accesses Salish Sea Drive.
Some frustrated drivers who were unable to get to those exits drove over mall landscaping in order to get to roads.
Bunt and Associates Transportation and Planning and Engineering designed the parking lot and Fenwick said he has no plans to alter that firm’s design.
“What we’re doing is providing some educational material for guests to better show guests how they would exit the parking lot,” he said.
“It’s not as simple as having one exit on each side of the property. As people learn the site, it will flow a lot better, I’m sure.”
Fenwick plans to have up to eight flaggers, which are employed by the mall, directing traffic.
The police were involved on the opening weekend as part of a special effort because larger than normal crowds were expected.
The mall is 1.4 million square feet with about 1.2 million square feet of leasable retail space and about 20% of that leasable space remains available.
About 180 stores were open for the opening weekend, including Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, DSW–Designer Shoe Warehouse, Pro Hockey Life and Saks OFF 5TH.
