The province installed 22 new highway cameras in 2024 — including one remote camera that utilizes solar power and satellites — which together provide 37 more views of B.C.’s highways to help motorists know before they go.
The cameras give drivers a better picture of traffic and weather conditions when planning trips, which is especially helpful during winter, when highway conditions can change rapidly and vary wildly from one location to another. Ministry of Transportation crews locate the webcams strategically, based on needs that have been identified by residents, contractors, or weather experts.
One of the new cameras has been installed on Highway 1 at the new CeXw Cixw (Check-Chow) Bridge at Falls Creek (Jackass Mountain). The camera looks both east and west along the highway, and is the second camera to be added along that corridor in the past two years. In 2023, a camera was added at Gladwin, six kilometres east of Lytton Airport; other cameras along the Fraser and Thompson corridors are located at Yale, Alexandra Bridge, Hells Gate, Boston Bar, Spences Bridge, and Cache Creek.
Another camera that was added in 2024 was at Paulson Summit on Highway 3 south of Castlegar, looking west. This remote camera shares the site with weather sensors, leading to a more efficient and reliable system, and is off-grid because there are no available cellular or land line networks, and no power nearby.
Instead, the system uses solar power and transmits the weather data and camera images via satellite. This set-up will be a model for installing similarly remote cameras in the future.
A new camera at an old site is located at Pine Pass on Highway 97 at the access road to the Powder King Mountain Resort region. The camera that was previously at the site had gone offline after its components failed and replacement parts were no longer available.
New cameras are added to the network each year. The latest additions bring the total DriveBC webcam network to 503 cameras delivering 1,037 views of current road conditions. Many DriveBC cameras are pan-tilt-zoom cameras that can deliver several views from a single position. In the Lower Mainland, many intersection cameras provide images of four or more positions.
The DriveBC cameras are also designed to protect privacy. For example, a webcam on Highway 3A at Glade Ferry Road north of Castlegar, which looks at the ferry landing on the east side of the Kootenay River, uses a pixelated mask to avoid showing private property that is within view of the camera.
In addition to providing information about weather, road, and traffic conditions, DriveBC has links to information about border delays, inland ferries, ongoing construction projects, and tips for how to drive safely in winter conditions. To view the DriveBC webcams, visit https://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwaycam/.
