Dear editor,
In response to Rick Kellow’s Feb. 3 letter, (Squeaky bike wheel gets the oil with this Courtenay council):
Is it cyclists who create a bottleneck at 5th Street? I think perhaps it is you in your car, not me on my bike. You complain about traffic, but in fact you are traffic, I am not.
Rick, you say I should walk my bike across the bridge? Why should I not have my small part of the road? I have the right to ride across on the bridge road surface, why should I walk on the sidewalk?
Lastly, you say it’s time cyclists pay their way. I gather you are under the impression that gas taxes go towards road infrastructure? Well, you are mistaken.
“In cities throughout Canada, roads and bike lanes are paid through municipal property taxes. And while drivers pay tax on gasoline, licensing and insurance, none of this revenue pays for city roads. Tax on gas goes to provincial and federal coffers, not the city.” Quote by Scott Lear of The Province.
If anything, car drivers should be paying way more: they need expensive roads to drive on, they cause lots of pollution both air and noise, also the health cost of motor vehicles causes injuries.
What Courtenay needs is less traffic flowing into it. It needs free shuttle buses that can move people around the core area to run errands. We need to stop thinking of driving a car as a God-given right and change our behaviours. Rethink how to make Courtenay accessible but with fewer cars… think of how many parking spots are in Courtenay. All that wasted space to park our gas guzzlers. Stop putting the blame on cyclists and change your habits, rethink and react.
Natalie Fisher,
Courtenay