We’re rolling down the same failed road cycling went in Europe
There seems to be a deliberate move towards making our streets more pedestrian and bike friendly no matter what the community prefers.
The experiment in Europe has come full circle where pedestrians and bikers were considered to be the second lowest and lowest priority on lane ways and through the evolutionary process were elevated to the priority level of rights of way. This choked off the flow of consumers from shopping venues and it was ascertained that people who walk and ride bikes aren’t the biggest spenders when it comes to consumer products. Europe has returned to the old regimen whereby pedestrians and bikers are once again at the bottom for considerations of traffic flow.
Dogwood is an example of how screwed up a thing can get when lights do not react to the major flow of traffic and give equal consideration for one or two vehicles showing up on side roads never mind the 20 or 30 units that have to wait for a timed interval.
The pedestrian crosswalks are another irritant. Lights are set to flashing for one walker and remain flashing for 20 seconds for some unknown reason and when they are about to change another pedestrian shows up to re-activate the lights once again forcing another 20 second wait. I’ve seen this sequence repeated as many as three or four times. The lights should have a five second time out with a reactivation freeze for 30 or 40 seconds. The multiples of new four way stops that have popped up are ridiculous, several of them are within a 20 second walk to an existing controlled crosswalk. Planning your route to allow ease of access is a choice that can be made before you find yourself in an impossible situation trying to make a left turn. Exiting the Tyee Plaza parking lot can be made easy if you consider before hand a right turn out of the north west exit or a right turn at the south west exit or again a right turn at the south east exit. Lots of choices here people. You don’t have to have 8 stops on the main street to give people multiples of choices when they are fully capable of planning their route before hand.
Ray Fortier Sr.
Campbell River
