Meanwhile, Gorge Road is still a mess
Well folks, here we go again, building more protected bike lanes instead of doing some regular road maintenance.
Some time ago I remarked in this publication about the sorry state of the roads in Victoria. Some regular readers may recall my “have you driven Gorge Road lately” rant.
After that letter was printed the mayor, Lisa Helps, responded in a letter to the editor that Victoria had spent more on road maintenance than ever before.
I don’t know about most Victorians but the only money I see being spent on roads is either for transit or bike lanes. No repaving and minimal pothole repair have I seen.
Now our new council headed by Mayor Marianne Alto wants to spend more of the maintenance budget on new bike lanes to Oak Bay.
Another 2.7 kilometres of infrastructure dedicated to cyclists with a few bucks thrown in for the sidewalks. No mention of any other road repairs in the queue.
Have you driven Gorge Road lately?
Ron Sleen
Victoria
A vote against the new bike lanes
I just came to Victoria after being away for three years. What an absolute disaster getting around. What a total mess getting around with these idiotic bike lanes.
Did a pack of clowns design them? Total incompetent planning. What mayor and town council would approve this?
They are dangerous to bikes and cars. After a day out driving around, never again. The mayor and council should be fired. They should be proud of one thing: They ruined Victoria.
Alan McGee
Saanich
Inconvenience and a safety concern
With the Fort Street bike lanes, once again Victoria taxpayers foot the bill for “improvements” that benefit the other municipalities and inconvenience residents of Victoria.
In addition to the inconvenience, there could be a real safety issue.
Will the installation of protected (cement curbing?) bike lanes still allow vehicle traffic enough room to get out of the way for emergency vehicles?
Wondering what’s next.
Andrea Racicot
View Royal
The bicycles will lead us to amalgamation
Wonderful news! The construction of a Victoria - Oak Bay bike lane link.
Can amalgamation be far behind?
Dave Buchwald
Esquimalt
Let’s see some action on the Royal B.C. Museum
Congratulations to the provincial government for increasing its contribution to $48.5 million to help establish the Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver.
It is Canada’s first museum dedicated to the history of the Chinese. It is appropriate that it be based in this province, as the first Chinese arrived in 1788 with fur trader John Meares and spent the summer at Friendly Cove on Nootka Island.
They assembled the sloop “North-West America” which was the first ship launched on the northwest coast after being built, then disassembled, in China.
Too bad that the government cannot move with the same speed to reopen the third floor exhibits at the Royal B.C. Museum.
Unfortunately, we seem to be locked into a protracted consultation process to determine what is fit to exhibit to our citizens and to the many visitors to the provincial capital.
Richard McCandless
Saanich
Immigration pushing against housing
Canada’s population grew by more than one million last year, 96 per cent driven by international migration, and the Trudeau government wants this to increase.
To put this in context, the U.K. added 200,00 last year, Italy, 100,000. In other words we are growing our population at a rate of over three times the rate of the U.K. and Italy combined.
Canada produces around 265,000 new homes per year. The population growth is putting a big strain on both the rental and housing markets across the country and particularly B.C.
The argument is that population growth drives the economy and offsets an aging population. Maybe! What it does provide is votes, and challenges related to infrastructure, transportation and housing.
Housing will not become more available, nor rental rates more affordable if we can’t come even close to matching supply with the demands of a population growing at the current rate.
Prices and rents have nowhere to go but up unless we address the imbalance of supply and demand. Increased density and the associated costs is not the answer.
The four-units-per-lot law to be introduced this fall by Premier David Eby addresses the result, not the problem and does so with a total disregard for the local politicians who represent their individual communities.
Eby's suggestion that provincial funding to municipalities would be jeopardized by non-compliance with his decree is both draconian and unconstitutional.
Comply or else you will not see that new homeless shelter or increased police budget for your municipality! Municipal governments across B.C. recognize the impact of the housing shortage on their respective communities and are the best to address it.
There are zoning rules, laws and bylaws that have been put in place at the municipal level to make sure that the collective voice of their constituents is heard and governs the local council in decision making.
B.C. municipalities recently got together and concluded that the new law is short on details, which are to be announced this fall.
Hopefully this demonstrates a willingness to listen to reason before acting irrationally rather than another ill-informed impulsive decision made in the premier’s first 100 days.
Grant Schnurr
Oak Bay
Housing shortage is not Victoria’s problem
Why is it necessary for the city of Victoria to increase its housing supply?
Now that we have disbursed all the government drones to work from home anywhere in the province, other communities can supply the necessary services and reap the benefits of increased population.
As has been pointed out, our city has finite space and by limiting density we can continue to provide a pleasurable locale to visit.
Doug Mallory
James Bay
More people, less land, and hundreds of years
I was slightly amused by the April 13 article regarding some BBC reality show contestants complaining about the lack of transportation options available to them on Vancouver Island as compared to their experience in Britain.
It was mentioned in the article that the group was more used to the density of population in the U.K. where extensive transportation options are available.
To put this in perspective, Vancouver Island has an area of about 32,000 square kilometres with a population of around one million people, virtually half of whom live in the Capital Regional District.
In contrast England by itself has an area of 133,000 square kilometres, about four times the size of Vancouver Island, but is occupied by 56 times as many people.
England’s transportation system has developed over hundreds of years and is highly centralized to deal with millions of commuters each day. Trains, buses, subways and other modes of public transportation rely on mass density of population in order to operate economically and efficiently.
It is impossible to make such a comparison.
Bev Highton
Oak Bay
Great to see shore power, but let the users pay
The April 12 Times Colonist says the province will pay $9 million for engineering designs for shore power at Ogden Point. Also the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority estimates that installing shore power will cost $24.8 million, hoping that the federal government will pay at least part. That implies total costs estimated at about $34 million (which will be more likely to grow than to shrink).
As a James Bay resident living close to Ogden Point, I am delighted that the ugly and unhealthy exhausts from the cruise ship industry may finally be terminated. It’s overdue.
But why should taxpayers like me (and all TC readers) be expected to pay for such costs? Let the users pay directly, by including all these necessary costs in their travel fees.
Brian Grover
James Bay
Biden has shown support for the United Kingdom
Some members of the Unionist Party in Northern Ireland have been triggered by Joe Biden’s visit to the Irish Republic to declare the U.S. president ”anti British.”
They should review a YouTube video of his interview with Barbara Frum during the Falklands War. He expressed unqualified support for the U.K.’s efforts to reclaim the islands; more, in fact, than came from Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Steve Weatherbe
Victoria
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