We all lose with the Traffic Bridge

As the expensive, redundant and oddly named Traffic Bridge nears completion, let’s consider how we got ourselves into this situation so that we can do better next time.

Not one of the reasons in favour of the Traffic Bridge carried water. Traffic studies conducted by Stantec in 2010 and more recent ones by the city showed that we do not need the Traffic Bridge. In the last seven years we’ve had no carmageddon. The 49 per cent who favoured a new Traffic Bridge got their way while again the 30 per cent who favoured a non-motorized pedestrian bridge didn’t. But we all lost.

We lost a magical megarecreational space in the heart of the city. We missed out on a tourist attraction of enormous proportions. We lost the chance to promote and support active transportation. Without the Traffic Bridge there would still (soon) be 32 lanes crossing the river. With the Traffic Bridge we will gain on average seven seconds per vehicle turning left onto 12th Street at the top of the Broadway Bridge but we will also experience increased congestion at Third Avenue South and 19th Street. That’s a lot of tax money for little return when we could have had something of much greater value.

We can still make the best of a bad situation. We can close the bridge for special events and reduce the speed limit to 30 km/h. But next time (if we get another chance) let’s just keep calm and walk or bike on. Marcel D’Eon, Saskatoon