Editor:
If you are one of the 99 per cent of the citizens of Ladysmith who does not ride or walk down Bayview to Coronation Square, you should spend a little time to look at the expanded pathway that runs along the highway.
There, you will see your tax dollars at work.
What was once a quite adequate single path for pedestrians and bikes has been made double wide. Let’s not think about the cost.
Men and machines laboured on this project for two whole weeks. The lamp posts were a bit of a nuisance — where they stood conveniently by the side of the single path, now they would stand in the middle of the wider path. The solution? Well, one was actually moved two feet; another had the path widened more to go round it and another was left in the middle. You take your chance with that one.
This path goes with the new cycle path going down from Stevenson to the highway. I am sure the half-dozen cyclists a week that use this route will appreciate these changes. That still leaves though an equal distance over the Holland Creek single lane, so what was the point of the double laning?
I’m told this is the first part of the council’s plan for a town-wide bicycle path system. If you haven’t seen this plan, then go to the town’s website and key in Bicycle Path Plan or go to Town Hall and ask for a copy. It is an amazing and extravagant and useless waste of our tax dollars.
Perhaps council is caught up in a sort of Field of Dreams mindset. You know, “Build it and they will come.” Somehow, I doubt it.
Brian Bradshaw
Ladysmith
