Re: “Saanich ‘vision’ goes against public opinion,” letter, Sept. 29.
The letter-writer quotes Saanich survey statistics that 58 per cent of people favour continuous bike lanes on Shelbourne Street.
Does the writer really believe that 58 per cent of the people who use and live around Shelbourne Street actually want to see traffic lanes lost to bike lanes? I suggest that if a proper survey, or better yet a plebiscite were held, the number supporting loss of traffic lanes to bike lanes would be more like 15 per cent in favour.
How does it make any sense to build a major bicycle system in Saanich or the Victoria area in general, when we experience dark, cold, rainy, foggy, frosty weather four to five months of the year?
We have an aging population that is unable now, or will soon be unable, to ride bicycles any significant distance.
The environmental impact of a few people riding their bicycles is more than cancelled out by cars sitting in gridlock traffic while the drivers look aimlessly over at the empty bike lanes, especially on those cold, wet, winter mornings and evenings.
Our politicians are not doing what the population wants and needs by making automobile travel more difficult in this region, but are instead capitulating to the small, vocal bicycle lobby.
The tail is wagging the dog, and this needs to change direction.
Bill Wilson
Saanichton
