Vancouver Area Shoppers Stuck in Four Hour Parking Lot Traffic Jam

The newly opened Tsawwassen Mills shopping mall just outside Vancouver experienced an epic traffic jam in its parking lot that has left shoppers vowing never to return. Kenneth Chan of the Daily Hive reports that crowds of shoppers hitting the mall during the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday weekend found themselves trapped in the mall's parking lot for up to four hours. Fingers are being pointed at the parking lot's poor design, which features only two exits, and the lack of public transit accessibility. The Daily Hive collected a series of tweets from many of those stuck in the hours long parking lot jam, venting their frustration at the poor parking lot design and warning others to stay away.

Angry shoppers waited for so long that some gave up on following traffic and made their own make-shift exits by driving on the grass and flower beds to get out of the mall. Among the many comments posted on social media, some even claimed that they were running out of gas waiting in the gridlock.

“Fed up mall patrons who were making even less progress than those in my surrounding area began driving over grass medians to travel their desired distance,” Vanessa Obeng, who visited the mall today, told Daily Hive. “The rules of the road meant nothing as frustrated drivers became aggressive with one another.”

Chan reports that road infrastructure was improved prior to the mall's opening, with a highway widened from four to six lanes. Congestion is expected to improve after the holiday weekend rush.