Dear Editor,
Richmond is no longer a little farming town with occasional traffic; therefore, I bring the following challenge to Richmond City Hall, the mayor and ICBC.
Every traffic signal should have a dedicated left turn arrow, so motorists can turn left safely instead of gambling with oncoming traffic. Then, make it illegal to turn left except on an arrow, as is the case in U.S. cities. Does ICBC realize how many mid-intersection collisions this would reduce?
Some intersections have dedicated left turn arrows, but they are randomly turned on and off by city engineering.
Really, what nonsense is that?
We hear about ICBC complaining about rising repair costs to vehicles, what have they done in combination with city governments to reduce accidents?
Hardly any of the city bidirectional roads have reflective markers or newly drawn lane lines that would ensure motorists are not handicapped by darkness and rain; none of the curbs have yellow reflective paint to aid turns.
Richmond touts itself as a “world class city.” Why not make some effort to ensure the infrastructure truly reflects this.
This year, city hall passed a three per cent property tax increase, as the did last year and the year before that, and on and on. With all this revenue collected, what has city hall done?
The Richmond mayor is on record as looking at a driving distance pricing model for revenue. Before you do that, make driving safe and worthwhile in Richmond. In case you have forgotten, the citizens who live and drive to and from Richmond for work (last time I checked still the majority of the populous) do this because we like living in Richmond, but do not forget we are also voters!
Rustom Dubash
Richmond
