Like many people, Braden Dupuis believes Highway 99 traffic will continue to get worse, and tells us unashamedly that he is a regular contributor to the issue himself (see Pique, July 14). Despite all the negative social, environmental, medical and economic impacts inherent in his choice of transportation, Mr. Dupuis presumably drives because he finds it quick, cheap and convenient.
But why is it so? For the past five generations, timid and unimaginative North American politicians have almost universally understood that it is their mandate to accommodate personal motor transportation rather than to manage it. Motor traffic volume is not a random act of God, nor does it obey any particular law of physics or chemical formula. We get exactly the amount of traffic that we plan for!
Would Mr. Dupuis still consider driving to be the best option if we reduced the highway speed limit for personal vehicles to 50 km/hr from Function Junction to Emerald Estates and if we simultaneously established dedicated express bus lanes, free of fare, with speed limits of 60 km/hr (to be shared with cyclists and e-cyclists)? How’s that for quick, cheap and convenient? And 100 times safer than driving!
For those currently motoring in from farther away, why not also establish free transit service every 30 minutes to and from Pemberton and Squamish? For those coming up from the Lower Mainland, how about instituting regular passenger rail service to Creekside, with a shuttle bus connecting every arrival with the village? Even if such measures were to be reproduced across the country, their collective cost would likely be less than the $13 billion that Ottawa just granted Volkswagen to build electric cars, as if emissions were the only problem associated with over-reliance on driving! If funds, however, should fall a bit short, why not collect more tax on gasoline?
After 100 years of planning civilization around cars rather than around human beings, isn’t it time our politicians summoned the courage to plan for mankind instead of autokind? We’d all be much safer, healthier and happier.
