Southbound traffic needs help at Keating
I fully support the much needed overpass from the Pat Bay Highway onto Keating Cross Road. The northbound exit with its left turn across the oncoming traffic has been a major concern for traffic safety for many years.
The industrial park is growing and with tourist buses heading to Butchart Gardens it has long been needed. Maximus (the employer that won the provincial Pharmacare contract) recently announced moving its staff from downtown to the Keating Industrial Park.
What I cannot understand is, why is the southbound route towards Keating not also a concern to be dealt with at the same time? The area consists of hundreds of employees driving through each day.
Keating is also a major destination for trucking and shipping coming from ferries, Seaspan and delivery companies. Those vehicles heading southbound have to exit at Island View Road, and then proceed through a residential area and an elementary school zone until they get to Keating.
It is insane to not include a southbound exit in this project! This would be the perfect opportunity to fix both problems.
Yes, the cost would be more, and some properties potentially expropriated, however, when our children’s safety is of concern, it should be of paramount importance.
Janice LeBlanc
North Saanich
How many collisions at Keating?
Spending $77 million in tax dollars for an overpass at Keating Cross Road and the Pat Bay Highway.
How many deaths or how many accidents have there been there over the past five years?
In same time period how many deaths from drug overdoses, and how much money thrown at that problem?
Georgina Kirkman
Victoria
Victoria’s conditions are simply terrible
Regarding the recent claim that plenty of roadwork is being done in Victoria, that might be true but it’s a drop in the bucket given the enormous amount of work that needs to be done.
It will take years to catch up. Victoria’s roads are in absolutely terrible shape.
I drive them every day and even the major ones are like travelling in a covered wagon on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Bay Street, Shelbourne, Johnson – you name it. Our roads are awful.
I don’t know if bike lanes took money away from budgets for roadwork or not but we have bike lanes in tip-top shape while our streets are in a state of disrepair.
Michael Brooks
Victoria
Hooray for bike lanes, please build more
I agree with the recent letter from someone who uses and enjoys the bike lanes of Victoria.
When I retired from my job I sold my car and just use my bike to get around. I doubt I would have made this decision had there been no bike lanes.
The few nasty and inconsiderate drivers and cyclists are only noticeable because their numbers are small. The majority on both sides are thoughtful and law-abiding.
I would think my one less car on the road should make most drivers happy when they’re trying to get from point A to point B. Hooray for bike lanes and here’s to building more.
Beverly Fox
Vic West
Along with bike lanes, give us better roads
I think that if our city planners had incorporated installing bike lanes along with resurfacing the respective roads, there would have been few who would argue about these changes.
Many of our Victoria streets are like driving over a farmer’s field. The road surfaces could have been improved while the bike lanes were being built.
It is rather paradoxical to encourage people to purchase electric cars but not provide decent roads on which to drive them.
G.G. Mackay
Victoria
Protected bike lanes help to save lives
Recent letters have questioned the safety benefits of Victoria’s protected cycling lanes. A large 2019 study looking at 12 U.S. cities over a 13-year period found an average 44 per cent decrease in deaths and a 50 per cent decrease in serious injury when protected bike lanes were installed.
By comparison, the presence of painted bike lanes did not have any significant impact on the rates of death or injury from collisions.
Significantly, the study found that this decrease in deaths and injuries wasn’t just for cyclists, but for all road users, including pedestrians and vehicle occupants. The researchers found that the presence of protected bike lanes often resulted in narrower automobile lanes and forced drivers to slow down and pay more attention to the road.
This in turn resulted in fewer accidents and less severe accidents due to the lower speeds. They concluded that building protected bike lanes is one of the best things a city can do to improve the safety for all road users.
I’m very thankful that municipalities throughout the region are building more protected bike lanes and imposing lower speed limits on many roads. This will make our streets safer for everyone, and will also help to make walking and cycling a more attractive option for getting around.
Rob Maxwell
Victoria
They are pushing us to get rid of our cars
There have been several letters written about the lack of parking in some of the new developments.
The elimination of parking spots is the “vision” of the leaders of the unelected World Economic Forum as outlined in their article titled, “These outdated mindsets and regulations are holding back urban mobility.”
According to the article, parking spaces slow down the climate progress and “hold back urban mobility.” They don’t really state how it slows climate progress or how it holds back urban mobility.
It goes on to say. “Authorities could even do away entirely with the necessity to build parking spaces.” I guess they figure if we can’t find a parking spot we’ll stop driving cars.
Their answer to no parking is “Shared mobility — such as ride-sharing services and e-scooters — could be key tools in the pursuit of net-zero emissions in our cities.”
The end of the privately owned automobiles, gas or electric, is fast approaching. Remember, “you will own nothing and be happy.”
Bob Broughton
Victoria
There is no ‘they’ living on our streets
Re: “Those tents on the street aren’t full of saints,” letter, April 19.
The letter is full of “they” and “them” words directed at miserable and desperate humans who afflict our quaint little city with their unsightly existence.
In fact, it is “we” and “us” who cause and tolerate this level of misery. The grand design of our entire economy diverts vast portions of our wealth and energies to un-taxed billionaires so they may buy themselves useless trinkets like mega-yachts, private islands, and compliant politicians.
These predatory paragons of greed boast of our nation’s “prosperity” as if it benefits us all. Dream on.
Yet we foolishly believe we cannot afford to feed the starving, heal the sick, house the homeless, and educate our children.
There is no “they” out there on the streets. What we see on the streets is us.
It is a mirror. It is our own society’s unchallenged beliefs in concrete form. Challenge!
Martin Hykin
Victoria
Even sinners deserve housing
Re: “Those tents on streets aren’t full of saints,” letter, April 19.
Even sinners deserve basic housing. Not a luxury condo, a mansion with floor-to-ceiling windows, or anything more than four walls and basic utilities. Every human being deserves housing.
But according to the letter, those who have done wrong deserve not even a tent. Not even a slab of concrete to sleep on.
The letter implied that you must pass some threshold of moral standards to deserve housing. Yet do we not provide housing for prisoners (flawed and unjust as the system may be)?
How could anyone feel welcome to “rejoin society” when they have been so villainized and degraded? Without secure storage, the unhoused have their belongings stolen or trashed constantly.
Street sweeps discard their belongings into garbage trucks. Disencampment effectively makes this theft “legal.” This will only cause more theft as folks try to recoup what little supplies they owned.
What does the letter writer expect them to do? Will the writer be advocating for support and resources to reintegrate the unhoused into “proper” society? Proposing improved access to public washrooms?
No. It’s easier to complain about how they’re all thieves and crooks.
S.N. Pinto
Saintly Sinner
Victoria
A cost effective cougar for Sidney Island
There is only one reason Sidney Island fallow deer have proliferated, and that is there are no predators to keep the population in balance.
Rather than spend $6 million of taxpayers money to ‘eradicate’ the invasive species, the natural, logical and most cost-effective solution is to put a cougar on the island. Natural prey/predator balance restored, problem solved.
Peter Clarke
Victoria
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