What this is
Is the Malahat Open? is a free, single-purpose website that answers one question for Vancouver Island drivers: is the Malahat highway (the Trans-Canada Highway 1 section between Victoria and Mill Bay, BC) currently open, closed, or delayed. That's it. No ads, no accounts, no popups.
Where the data comes from
Status comes from DriveBC's public Open511 API, refreshed every 5 minutes. We filter events to the Malahat corridor and classify each one as open, delayed, or closed. Driver reports on the homepage are secondary; the official DriveBC status is always the source of truth.
Who runs it
A Vancouver Island resident who got tired of guessing whether the Malahat was open during storms. It's run as a community tool, funded out of pocket, with no plans to add ads or paid tiers. If it becomes expensive to run, donations may open up — but the core service will stay free.
Contact
Bug reports, corrections, or media requests: hello@isthemalahatopen.ca.
Not affiliated
This site is not affiliated with DriveBC, the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, or any government body. In an emergency or for authoritative highway information, always check DriveBC directly.
Privacy
Emails are used only for closure alerts and never shared or sold. Push notification subscriptions are stored anonymously — no account, no profile. Traffic is measured with Plausible, a privacy-friendly analytics tool that doesn't use cookies or collect personal data.