Regional transportation planning needed

This summer, every time I’ve been to social gatherings, the subject of traffic congestion has come up. All agree there has been a woefully inadequate response to our region’s transportation needs from municipalities and the B.C. government. The time taken to make changes and improvements has been painfully slow and the scale of changes much too small.

There appears to be no sense of urgency, and we all wonder if there is any long-range regional transportation plan. Without a 25-to-50-year plan, the public cannot expect proper cost-effective land acquisition, financial planning, co-ordination and scaling for growth and eventual provisions for a mass-transit system. The few main arterial routes are inadequate and inefficient.

Congestion causes increased greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles sometimes forced to a standstill. It also has a commercial cost for businesses. Tourism is important here — the main routes should be scaled to handle increasing traffic.

We do not yet have the population to warrant the cost of a high-level rapid-transit system and buses can only accomplish so much. If commuters wanted to use buses more than they do now, they would be doing so.

The government should be responding to the needs of our population. There will always be those opposed to changes, but transportation efficiencies are important and can be accomplished with inclusion of bike lanes, noise-reduction strategies and other features if we work off good longrange plans. David Kinloch West Shawnigan Lake