LETTER – Don’t build either Lansdowne pathway or the Summit overpass

Hello Mel – just some thoughts on your recent column on NOT building the overpass and using that money to build the Lansdowne bike route – why build either?

The students crossing the road are lawbreakers; let TRU pay for it if TRU feels it is necessary to pay for idiots who won’t walk a block out of their way to be safe.

As for 6th Ave bike route: since it was built I have seen a grand total of 3 people using it, other than someone who was using it for some kind of lesson and had 5 bike riders stopped behind behind them.

So 9 people in total. I drive it twice a day most days. Nine people. For how many millions of dollars? How many City staff took part in that? I saw City trucks there. City staff would have done the planning and inspections. Did we pay their wages from grant money or are we paying their wages  through taxes, and with an 11% tax increase this year?

Are we really adding bike lanes for such little usage? At such cost?

Do we even see bikes on the road the way we once did – maybe one or two a day? Not even that these days. So why in the world are we pretending that we are Holland? There is not a bike culture here and I doubt that there ever will be.

So why are we wasting this much money per cyclist for nothing? Couldn’t we use that money to expand a park or spend it on getting people housed? Do I see bikes as a problem needing a solution? NO, but I sure see people sleeping in their cars and a lot asking me for money at what was once Thompson Park Mall.

So why are we solving a problem that doesn’t exist and ignoring the one that is becoming a big impact?

What was Council thinking?

CARA BECKETT