From a broader urban planning and public policy perspective:
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For a while, this was the widest freeway bridge on the planet. In a metropolitan area that isn't even in the top 150 by population, IIRC.
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I guess the component in Coquitlam has some redeeming quality in that, instead of bisecting neighbourhoods, it's a firewall between the suburbs and our increasingly scarce light industrial land?
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The whole thing is just… …even if some of the road lanes get converted for transit-dedicated use in the future, well, it's on a corridor where heavy rail would make the most sense, but I'm not sure the geometry or structures are up to that task.
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Most of this car capacity basically exists for the purpose of dumping cars onto Gaglardi, Willingdon, Boundary, Grandview/12th, East 1st, Hastings, Marine, and Lonsdale. None of those streets need even one (1) more car on them. (The corollary being that people in the Valley absolutely, completely deserve, not kidding, fifty times the current level of rail service into and through Vancouver.)
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The design of this whole stretch of Highway 1 is basically as useless as possible to the people most affected by having this gigantic freeway interchange system right near their houses.
But it's not even that good to drive on, either:
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Trying to get from Surrey to Coquitlam City Centre? Better choose the right lane five kilometres in advance, dipshit.
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Want to go to Downtown Surrey? Too bad, bozo, you picked the wrong lane two municipal borders ago.
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Just admire how Highway 1 crosses right over Highway 17, with the quickest route between the two being, uh, many kilometres in length.
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Trying to get to Surrey from somewhere along the Mary Hill Bypass? You better not miss the turnoff for United Boulevard or take any wrong turns after there!
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For certain routes, there's a lot of jarring speed transitions that I'm pretty sure are usually discouraged for freeway interchanges.
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Certain underpasses in the interchange are basically built to flood as easily as possible, as far as I can tell. (I'm half-kidding, but.)
The 401 is wide enough to have separate express and local lane subsets. It is one of the busiest in North America. Toronto still has horrible traffic
