In November of 2017 the Ministry of Transportation released an archival video from 1966, as part of their BC Road Trip Time Machine photolog series.
Mounting a 16mm camera on top of a vehicle, the ministry takes viewers on a drive from Horseshoe Bay, through downtown Vancouver, up Main street then onto Kingsway to Metrotown in Burnaby.
This week somebody decided to do the same drive, and put the videos side by side to show what it's like to do it 52 years later. Starting at Taylor Way instead of Horseshoe Bay, Youtuber Chris Thompson (Six7Films) does most of the original trip.
Chris did the trip on Remembrance Day in his 2011 Audi Q5 because he figured traffic wouldn't be too bad.
He had previously seen someone do a similar side-by-side video using classic SkyTrain footage and figured it would be interesting to see something similar with the Ministry's video.
Opting out of shooting on an old 16mm camera, he used a Canon 1DX Mark II.
There are obvious changes in the scenery like the types of vehicles seen whizzing by and the fact that BC Place doesn't exist in the original video. Keen viewers might pick up landmarks like the clock at Kingsway and Mt Pleasant, and others, appearing on the right (new) side.
According to the Ministry, the roads traveled in this video "were classified as provincial Highways 1 and 99 until the early 1970s. In fact, Kingsway was also a component of the Trans-Canada Highway until construction was completed on the current alignment of the TCH across the Fraser River on the Port Mann Bridge in 1964."
Enjoy this "highway" drive, which has been condensed into a quick 4 minutes, below.
