Eighty-two per cent of people who responded to a recent Surrey roads survey looking at more than 4,500 lane kilometres of roadway said they drive themselves to work, while eight per cent work from home, seven per cent use transit, two per cent walk and one per cent cycle.<\/p>\n
So reveals the Surrey & White Rock Board of Trade\u2019s 10th annual Surrey Roads Survey Report for <\/a>2026<\/a>, conducted from Dec. 17, 2025 to Jan. 23, 2026 and presented by the board\u2019s CEO Joslyn Young during a luncheon at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel on March 18.<\/p>\n B.C.\u2019s Minister of Transportation and Transit Mike Farnworth was guest speaker, focusing on transportation and networks and infrastructure for Surrey, White Rock and the surrounding region.<\/p>\n Interestingly, the 2025 survey had 4.3 per cent of respondents reporting they\u2019d been working from home, indicating that hybrid and remote working arrangements that arose from the COVID-19 pandemic persist.<\/p>\n Of business representatives who responded, 80 per cent were from Surrey, 11 per cent White Rock and nine per cent from other cities such as Delta, Langley and Burnaby.<\/p>\n The Now-Leader is awaiting a response from the board as to how many people participated in the survey.<\/p>\n \u201cOver 10 years, we\u2019ve engaged our business community annually and collected feedback from more than 1,500 businesses. That cumulative dataset is what gives this survey its strength,\u201d the board\u2019s communications manager Heather Booth replied in an email.<\/p>\n The report states that the survey was \u201cconducted between December 2025 and late January 2026\u201d and was \u201cdistributed via multiple member communications and through social media.\u201d<\/p>\n Forty-five per cent of respondents identified themselves as an employer, 26 per cent an employee, 23 per cent as a self-employed contractor or consultant, and six per cent as \u201cother.\u201d Fifty-four per cent live and work in Surrey.<\/p>\n Key findings in this year\u2019s report include more than 80 per cent of respondents reporting that traffic congestion is having an impact on their business, with one quarter identifying that impact as \u201cmajor.\u201d<\/p>\n Businesses also reported longer travel times, delivery delays, increased operating costs, reduced productivity and scheduling challenges as \u201ckey consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n Meantime, infrastructure project priorities for those surveyed include widening the 152 Street overpass at Highway 99, improving 16 Avenue, and a new interchange for 24 Avenue. Also flagged for priority attention was the intersection of 104 Avenue and 152 Street, a stone\u2019s throw from the hotel.<\/p>\n Farnworth told an audience of about 80 that few places in Canada are growing as quickly as the communities south of the Fraser River.<\/p>\n \u201cSurrey is on track to become the province\u2019s largest city by 2036, and White Rock continues to be a strong hub for tourism and small business,\u201d he said. \u201cThis region is more than a community it is a gateway \u2013 it is the gateway.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a kick being in this ministry watching stuff get built,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n While there are \u201chuge\u201d opportunities here, but with them come challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cWith that rapid growth comes higher commuter volumes, more commercial traffic, more pressure on an already busy transportation network. When roads are congested we see the impacts first-hand. Businesses lose productivity, workers face longer commutes, and supply chains slow down for goods moving to and from ports and the border,\u201d Farnworth said.<\/p>\n He noted this is clearly borne out by the survey. Highway 1 going in to, and out from, Metro Vancouver, he said, is the \u201cbackbone of goods movement,\u201d connecting farms, manufacturers, warehouses and distribution centres to regional and global markets and widening it is critically important, with 57 kilometres of new HOV lanes. \u201cIn total the program will create approximately 24,000 direct and indirect jobs throughout its delivery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Farnworth described the 16-kilometre Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension as a \u201conce-in-a-generation project that will transform how people move south of the Fraser.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cConstruction is well on track,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is not just a transit project \u2013 it is very much an economic project, one that supports employers, employees.\u201d<\/p>\n He called the new stal\u0315\u0259w\u0313as\u0259m (Riverview) bridge that replaced the Pattullo a \u201cmajor achievement\u201d that relieves one of the region\u2019s busiest bottlenecks with wider, modern lanes for \u201csafer\u201d traffic, \u201cbetter connections on both sides of the river and improved reliability for commuters, commercial traffic and emergency response.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough it\u2019s delivery, this project has generated approximately 7,300 direct and indirect jobs. It\u2019s also been a meaningful example of partnership with First Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n Another important project, Farnworth noted, is the Fraser River tunnel. \u201cEarly construction work is underway on the Fraser River tunnel, which will see a new toll-free eight-lane tunnel constructed to replace the aging George Massey tunnel. This work which began in January with tree clearing will allow us to move straight into the major construction phase once the environment assessment certificate is approved, which is expected to be later this year,\u201d he told the luncheon audience.<\/p>\n He said the new tunnel will be a \u201cmore dependable\u201d corridor with reduced delays and a higher capacity to handle the region\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n \u201cBy eliminating a major bottleneck this project will strengthen supply chain reliability, reduce transportation costs for exporters and importers, and support the efficient movement of goods to underpin our province\u2019s competitiveness in global markets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eighty-two per cent of people who responded to a recent Surrey roads survey looking at more than 4,500…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-548188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}