By Matthew Visser

Bypass the other day with my best

friend and somehow the topic of
the government spending of tax dollars
came up. The conversation then led to
the large amount of construction which
is happening throughout the Lower
Mainland on roads and bridges and
transportation. My friend, who drives a
one ton for a living, driving throughout
the Lower Mainland dropping off goods,
drives through the thick of traffic which is
caused by both the effect of too many cars
on the road and not enough lanes, and
from the large amount of construction.
But the construction which is taking place
is only happening because of the amount
of cars on the road. It’s one of the largest
catch 22s that I know of. And boy, does
he hate this part of his job. I don’t blame
him.

I am absolutely amazed at how much
the provincial government has achieved in
the past three years of transit construction
on both the new seven lane Pitt River
bridge, which has made the flow of traffic
seem nonexistent, and the new six lane
Golden Ears Bridge, which has connected
Langley, Abbotsford and Chilliwack. But
the catch is that to cross the Golden Ears
Bridge you have to pay for it. And now
construction has begun on the Port Mann
Bridge and HWY 1, which from what
I understand is ahead of schedule; just
like the two previous bridges. But how
can a bridge not be ahead of schedule
when it has $2.46 billion behind it? And
apparently there is a labour shortage in the
province, um I think not, if there is that
much money behind one single project.
There can’t be, can there?

But this 2.46 billion is only a small

[= driving along the Mary Hill

portion of the 14 billion dollars being
poured throughout the province until
2020 into road construction. I cannot
even imagine where that amount of
money could be spend but I looked up the
Provincial Transit Plan online and here is
what I found; This $14 billion plan calls
for:
¢ $10.3 billion investment in
four new rapid transit lines
in Metro Vancouver—the
Evergreen Line, the UBC Line,
the upgraded Expo Line and
the Canada Line (for which
$2 billion was previously
committed)
¢ $1.2 billion for a new, cutting
edge, energy efficient, high
capacity RapidBus BC service
along nine major routes in the
high growth urban centers of
Kelowna, Victoria and Metro
Vancouver
¢ $1.6 billion investment in
1,500 new, clean energy buses
and related maintenance
infrastructure to provide
communities around the
province with improved bus
service
° increased security measures to
enhance transit safety and use

This is only a small sample of where
all the 14 billion is going but it is gives
a small idea of where tax dollars are
going. And this is all great but where
does this help the person who does not
drive a car and lives too far to catch a
bus to get to the sky train or the West
Coast Express? This is where I feel the
provincial government loses a few points
and needs to take another look at where
it is spending our money. When looking

back at the catch 22 which I have talked
about before, how is all this construction
and rebuilding of infrastructure helping
to lower green house emissions which all
cars contribute to?

Greenhouse gas emissions are rising;
in 2008 the province saw an eight percent
rise from 2007 to 68.7 megatonnes of
CO2. And J ask, how will the widening
of roads and highways and bridges,
which are being built for the future,
help contribute to the lowering of green
house emissions? The thing is that they
won’t. They will only encourage more
people to buy cars and drive them. It’s
almost as if the provincial government is
asking people to drive their cars to create
congestion and problems on the road for
everyone, even people who don’t drive,
to employ Minister of Transportation and
Infrastructure-Shirley Bond with a job.

But all of this does has some
positives through employing people. And
employing people helps the economy,
which is a hot topic for any adult living in
the province. People who have jobs tend
to spend money and buy things, which
then help other people. Now this is what I
call a good catch 22.

But in my opinion a part of that 14
billion dollars could be spent on things
such as extending the sky train system
further out into Surry, Langley, North
and West Vancouver, Port Coquitlam,
Pitt Meadows, and Maple Ridge.

Just think about a Lower Mainland
connected and united together by one
transportation system. I think this would
be an amazing accomplishment by the
province and would put other city’s
transportation systems, such as Toronto’s
and Montreal’s, in the rear view mirror.
Another option is to bring light rail into
play.

 
 

ow
(Pincus

Railway tracks are everywhere and
already in place. All that would need to
be done is building carts and creating
a system that worked. Another idea is
to have more busses running which are
environmentally friendly. Hydrogen
fuelled busses are coming to B.C. with
the province already having 20 busses
running throughout the province, the
largest amount worldwide. Although
these busses are not cheap, the total cost
for the hydrogen bus fleet [is] will be
$89 million. Is this high amount of cost
for more environmentally transportation
needed? Maybe, maybe not.

The fact of the matter is that there
are way too many drivers and cars on the
road. This causes traffic and congestion
which then raises green house emissions
from cars. This then causes the provincial
government to build and add on to already
existing roads and infrastructures to
allow the cars to get to their destination
faster; thus, spending more tax dollars
over time on not only the construction
but also maintenance on these projects
and opening more lanes for more cars to
drive in.

And all this could be prevented
by building and making more public
transportation available and allowing
people who wish to ride their bikes to
work or to do errands to do so feeling
safe on the road. J am not saying that
the construction is not necessary for
the future, because as we all know, the
Lower Mainland is just going to become
more populated as time goes by. But the
province needs to think about offering
other ways of getting around to people
who live in the valley to get to the GVRD
and making getting around better for the
environment; because, sadly, you can’t
stop progress.

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