Editor: Re: Another two-lane tube is better than a new bridge, letter to the editor, April 4 Recently a reader posited: How do I stop a bridge from being built? I have been wrestling with this for weeks and I kept ending up at the same place: we don't need this bridge right now. We need to start at the basics and change our way of thinking about our infrastructure.
Even if we can cross the Fraser River more quickly when we are travelling to Vancouver, we are going to get stuck on the highway (or the Oak Street Bridge if we are lucky) because of a set of lights at 70th Avenue.
The same goes for those coming back into Delta because if you are travelling past Ladner there is a very good chance you will come to a screeching halt around the Delta Works Yard but not because of any lights, because of plain old driver ineptitude.
These two examples highlight the main reasons we face congestion at any point on our commute: badly designed infrastructure and driver incompetence/idiocy.
A new bridge will not change the fact drivers will choose to break the law by driving in the bus lane going south on Highway 99 if there is too much congestion with no regard for the fact that they are making it much harder for those drivers coming from Westminster Highway to enter. Damn everyone else! They have somewhere to go!A new bridge will not change the fact drivers have yet to figure out that if they were to leave a few car lengths between them and the driver in front of them, and slow down, they could coast down the highway, allowing drivers to merge from Westminster and Steveston highways seamlessly.
So back to the question: How to stop a bridge from being built? I realized this morning that we need to take it one step back and ask: Why is the provincial government forcing this bridge upon us when we could use the money on 10 other projects that could make more of a difference? Many suspect it is because big business wants to bring hazardous goods down the Fraser River and that means the George Massey Tunnel must go and a taller bridge must be built to allow for bigger ships.
Then why don't we fight that fight? I don't have enough knowledge on the subject to create a defence but there has to be some environmental reasons why a bridge wasn't built originally. There has to be a reason that the tunnel was chosen.
Let's tell our government that we do not want to bow to the interests of big business over everything else. The costs of job creation and tax collection are not worth it to us to allow this to happen. Let's stop it.
Now I ask a question: How do we stop our government from putting the interests of big business over the interests of the communities they are supposed to serve? I would love to hear from people that feel the same way. Feel free to email me at [email protected].
Krishna Sangara
