Re: If you build it, they will come (News April 3).
Some politician’s proposals are so small minded and ill-considered that they don’t deserve comment but those reported in your article cry out for a response.
I have lived and worked in Oak Bay during the past five decades and have logged thousands of kilometres on my bicycle in Greater Victoria, not to mention elsewhere.
I have crossed the Foul Bay/Haultain intersection as a cyclist on more occasions than I can possibly remember. There is nothing wrong with the pedestrian crossing at Foul Bay and Haultain for cyclists and there is certainly no need for something more at that intersection for them.
If necessary, it takes no effort or time at all for a cyclist to dismount, if she or he wishes, to cross that intersection and to proceed across as would any other pedestrian.
In fact I use that intersection to cross Foul Bay because of the ease with which I can cross that intersection as a cyclist.
Any changes to the traffic control at that intersection that would ostensibly be for the benefit of cyclists would not be an improvement that would increase the number of cyclists using the streets. To install something more would be a useless waste of money.
Bald proposals without evidence to support their need are a useless distraction.
Way finding signs would also be a useless waste of money. Again, what evidence is there that any of them make any significant difference?
Travellers to Oak Bay from other parts of Greater Victoria do not arrive here from outer space. We don’t need signs to direct people to the few points of interest or commerce that we have in Oak Bay.
If anyone needs or wants to know about those few places in Oak Bay, there are a multitude of ways that they can inform themselves of those locations before or during a visit here. Has Coun. Kirby ever heard of a road map, and the judicious use of taxpayer’s money?
Bruce Filan
Oak Bay
