Victorians not pulling their weight

Re: “Shop downtown minus your car, campaign urges,” Dec. 5.

Unfazed by the public backlash, decreased parking availability, increased traffic jams and driving times, and consequent increases in pollution as a result of the “Biketoria” spending projects, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps has doubled down, encouraging (read: frustrating) us taxpayers into solving the city’s problems for her, by altering our own lifestyles to match her ideological transportation vision.

Clearly, the problem isn’t the systematic elimination of public parking despite a rising population, or the logic-defying projects such as moving parallel parking spaces on Fort Street from the curb into the middle of the road. The problem is that you thoughtless ingrates keep trying to drive around.

Can’t you just bus your family to five or 10 different stores for Christmas shopping? Can’t you just bike those Christmas presents home in the rain, in December? Can’t you drive your neighbours to and from downtown? Come on, Victorians, you’re not pulling your weight. We’re trying to solve our traffic problems here.

In the spirit of Helps’ progressive plan to exasperate people into begrudgingly lowering their expectations and adapting to forced scarcity, I propose a new slogan for our city: “Victoria — Bike it or Not.”

Jared S.C. Faber Victoria