The so-called Humpback Connector will not be completed in 2012 as the Capital Regional District claims.
It will be missing the most critical piece – the expensive part along the E&N Railway between Millstream Creek and Selwyn Road.
There will still be no safe, convenient, direct route for cyclists between downtown Victoria and Langford.
It’s analogous to not having a Johnson Street Bridge between Esquimalt and downtown and expecting motorists to detour through Burnside (only they don’t have to pedal) and still call it a “Downtown Connector.”
You don’t have a connector if it features pedalling a long, steep and tedious detour.
Only recreational cyclists have the luxury of being able to meander all over the place in their spare time. The Galloping Goose route, for example, adds 45 minutes to my commute.
It isn’t always a pleasure to be out there; sometimes it’s pitch black with sleet.
Cyclists need to get to work efficiently and with enough energy left to put in a day’s work, or get home and make dinner like everybody else.
People who object to money being spent on bike lanes have a point. The whole exercise is in vain if you have sections that make would-be cyclists give up.
Cynthia Brossard
Langford
