The first regular commute with eight full lanes on the new Port Mann Bridge was notable for the lack of issues.

Amber Belzer, a traffic reporter with the Canadian Traffic Network, said the morning drive "was fabulous actually."

The reason, she said, is probably due to a combination of things such as the fact Monday was a school Pro-D day and tolls have not yet come into effect.

"It was way better than we thought it was going to be, so that might have been part of it," said Belzer.

The Surrey section of Highway 1 leading to Vancouver was "smooth sailing."

"However, over on the Coquitlam side, the construction's not done there so it goes from four lanes - three regular and an HOV lane - down to two regular lanes right by Brunette.

"It jammed up close to Brunette and was really busy in that section."

The new Port Mann Bridge will eventually have five lanes in each direction, once portions of the old bridge are removed. The new crossing, traditionally a nightmarish bottleneck for thousands of commuters, is considered the widest bridge in the world right now. It was officially opened Saturday.

But traffic watchers like Belzer predict it's too soon to know how this new bridge will really impact regular travel.

"I think we won't have a true gauge of things until January because by the middle of this month, that's when all the universities are out and that's when the elementary schools and high schools start going out too, so it still won't be normal volume and that's right around the time when the tolling is going to start," explained Belzer. "It's probably not until the New Year that we're going to have a true sense of what's going to go on there."

She said, "It's like a fun science experiment that I look down on every day."

In other road-related news this weekend, the first section of the South Fraser Perimeter Road also opened Saturday. The new route, named Highway 17, is meant to help relieve travel pressure for big trucks moving goods in the region. The open section runs from Highway 1 at 176th Street to 136th Street.

Twitter @carolyncooke1