Editor:
It never ceases to amaze me the rhetoric over the never ending bridge or tunnel debate, with the recent snow-agedon highways fiasco.
The causes for this fiasco can be traced to drivers without snow tires, drivers with no clue how to drive in snow, transit vehicles with summer tires, commercial drivers who were not prepared for the event and the almost total absence of the highways department and highways contractors.
The steep approach grades for the major bridges are an ongoing problem in winter and with all bridges and hills closed due to accidents, the highways became parking lots, with gridlock reaching back through the tunnel.
One recent letter in the Optimist naively claimed that a 10-lane bridge would have solved the problem.
A quote from the Minister of Transportation: “It was high winds and blowing snow that subsequently forced the bridge’s closure beyond the accidents...”
I have never heard of high winds and blowing snow closing a tunnel! Please enough of this debate.
Please remember, that Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar Sikh temple, in Richmond, adjacent to the Queensborough Bridge, quickly organized in providing hot drinks and food to drivers stuck on the bridge and approaches. They were able to do what the highways people could not, deal with an emergency situation!
Malcolm Johnston
