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Take a 1966 road trip on the Pat Bay from Victoria to Swartz Bay

Highway 17 featured in latest instalment of Transportation BC’s time machine series
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Tie on a silk scarf, put on your cat-eye frames and hop in that Chevy Chevelle for a trip up the Pat Bay Highway.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure recently posted a new video in its BC Road Trip Time Machine series, and this time the reel takes viewers on a spring 1966 drive from Victoria out to the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal.

According to Transportation BC, there are almost too many changes to list, but it’s recommended to keep your eyes peeled for video highlights such as the 0:05 mark, where the video shows Highway 17 starting on Douglas Street near Carey Road. The current alignment that separates north and southbound traffic via the Blanshard Street extension wasn’t built until 1978.

Other highlights include the 0:45-0:53 mark, showing how Highway 17 used to run directly in front of Beaver Lake Park before the highway was divided.

Scared you’ll miss something? Clicking on the gear-shaped icon in the bottom right corner and selecting ‘playback speed’ will allow you to toggle the speed of the video, so you can catch details such as mid-century cars, pedestrians and a boy on a bicycle.

In 2015, the series posted a 1966 photolog drive along the Malahat and includes videos of other major B.C. routes including Hope to Lytton, Horseshoe Bay to Squamish and Penticton to Kelowna.

The Road Trip Time Machines are created through “photologs” or still images collected by a dash camera every 80 feet or so along the route and then run together to create the footage. According to Transportation BC, Canada’s then-named “Highways Department” was the first organization to collect information that way.

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