The Victoria city council and Capital Regional District both seem to forget that the city is essentially at the tip of a peninsula. Funnelling more traffic right into the centre of the city through a new Johnson Street Bridge (the result of a rebuild) just guarantees more gridlock.

Doubling the Point Ellice Bridge would allow the Esquimalt and Vic West traffic more ready dispersal into the city via Bay and Blanshard.

The Johnson Street Bridge from my engineering and U.K. vantage point will easily last another 100 years at a maintenance cost way below that of a new bridge.

Public transit is likely to be coming much more the norm as the oil crunch becomes more apparent. Consequently, another aspect might be light, rapid transit, using the E&N track for the Langford-Colwood run into Victoria over the rail bridge.

Alternatively: The rail section of the bridge could be used as a road bridge to help ease congestion. It is already there. Morning in, evening out. The railway station could readily be sited on the Vic West side.

I spent some three months, way back when, trying to get all the municipalities, B.C. Ferries, and the province, to consider high-speed, light, rapid transit between Langford and Colwood, Victoria, the airport, and Swartz Bay. The old railroad routes!

But I was way too early. Zero response. What else did I expect?

Michael McGrath

Brentwood Bay