City of Victoria needs more car lanes, not fewer

Re: “Another $3 million needed to complete Victoria bicycle lanes,” Dec. 7. With the cost of Victoria’s “separated bike lane network” approaching double the initial estimates, city council is apparently embracing its status as Canada’s most wasteful municipal government.

Victoria’s infrastructure projects are consistently over-budget, behind schedule and often counterproductive to council’s stated policy objectives. Removing lanes of traffic to make way for bicycles won’t make downtown more accessible; it will worsen gridlock. Turning major downtown streets into parking lots for idling vehicles won’t preserve the environment; it will increase pollution.

As for the Johnson Street Bridge (which earned Victoria its infamous wasteful spending award from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation), city hall boasts that “more than 50 per cent” of the $105-million bridge’s deck space will be dedicated to “pedestrians and cyclists.” That’s more than $1 million for each metre of bike lane across a 46-metre span.

Rather than demolishing the Blue Bridge to create a “public plaza space” for future tent cities, we should consider keeping the existing structure for bicycles and pedestrians, and dedicating the new bridge exclusively to cars. As our skyline changes and thousands of new residents migrate downtown, vehicles will need more lanes, not fewer. Jeremy Maddock Victoria