Editor:
I live in the south edge of Tsawwassen and for the last 13 years or so, I've cooled my heels halfway up the 56th Street hill, waiting for the two southbound lanes to inch their way into Point Roberts so I can turn right on 1st Avenue and get home.
It usually takes a halfdozen lights to get there from the middle of the hill. On a sunny summer weekend, the lineups go all the way to the bottom.
So when construction started on the hill about eight months ago, my fellow travellers and I rejoiced at the thought of a third lane to solve our problem.
Finally we could get home or to the park with a minimum of delay. Silly me! The construction is finished now, and the lines are painted, but there are still only two lanes up the hill when there could have been three.
Hydro poles were moved, a new sidewalk was installed and the year-old curb at the bus stop on 1st Avenue was ripped up and re-done.
Must have cost the poor taxpayer a lot of money for all this, yet what is the net gain to local drivers? Zero, zip, zilch, nada! All we got was a new bicycle lane.
A right turn lane services the top two cars on the hill, but to balance that "advantage," entering that lane over top of the bicycle lane is, at the least, confusing, and I'll betcha that somebody gets hit before the summer is over.
So I'll sit, fuming, in the lineup, just like before, thanks to the narrow-minded thinking of someone in an office who has probably never used 56th Street.
Isn't this like "improving" the tunnel by not adding another lane? The new road, however, is nice and smooth.
I advise all Tsawwassen taxpayers to think carefully before casting a ballot in the next civic election.
Ralph Parker
