Dear Editor,
Re: “Talk to us stuck in traffic before you dis the bridge,” Letters, Feb. 22
As a result of the mis-information put out by the Christy Clark government, Mr. Doctor apparently doesn’t understand why he is caught in a traffic mess at the tunnel. Everyone agrees that a new crossing is needed to ease traffic. The real issue is between a quick, inexpensive twinned tunnel, or an expensive, unjustifiable bridge.
If Doctor thinks that the BC Liberals care whether he is stuck in traffic or not, he’s sadly mistaken.
If Clark cared, semi-trucks would be banned from the Massey Tunnel during peak morning and afternoon traffic periods, and the port would operate 24/7. This is what every major port does in North America to ease traffic. Since one semi-truck displaces four to five cars, B.C. transportation minister, Todd Stone, could ban them today, which would add 30-40 per cent road capacity for commuters, immediately. But they aren’t.
Christie Clark wants to make traffic the biggest possible mess that she can. Why? Because Christy Clark and the BC Liberals want to force public support for a bridge, to run massive freighters of LNG, coal and jet fuel up the Fraser River. That these developments do not meet international standards, are illegal in the USA, that they put public safety and marine habitat at risk, is of no concern to Clark any more than commuters being purposely trapped in traffic.
Mr. Doctor, if you want traffic to ease as soon as possible, consider that twinning the tunnel will take a quarter of the time and take one fifth of the amount of money to build. Historical overruns of 30 per cent show that the bridge will be $5 billion at least. And, as reported in the news this week, using the new Port Mann Bridge as an example, it will lose $86 million a year for 41 of its 50-year life span.
This all assumes the new bridge doesn’t fall over, because the intention is to build it on what is essentially quicksand. If you don’t like commuting through years and years of construction traffic, write Premier Clark and tell her to stop her phoney war on commuters, and stop the bridge proposal immediately.
Barbara Huisman
Richmond
