Stephen Rees's blog

Two neat letters in the Straight today

Solving the Port Mann traffic jam is simple

1. No twin bridge
2. Four or more occupants, no toll
3. Three occupants, $2 toll
4. Two occupants, $10 toll
5. SOVs, $30 toll
6. All moneys to rapid transit and computerized ride-share program
7. Container semitrailer hours: 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Slow climate change now; end the twinning.

Lance Read / Vancouver

Re: “The two faces of Gordo” [Oct. 4-11]

At the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, Gordon Campbell said: “As Einstein so clearly stated, the world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created this situation.”

But his actions remind me of Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting the results to be different.

For generations, cities have tried to cope with too many cars by expanding roads. Over and over, the results have been loss of homes, farmland, wetlands, and forests. Toxic emissions and road accidents are leading cause of death and injury. Car dependency consumes income needed for housing and education and weakens communities in numerous ways. Ironically, the cities that have invested the most in car infrastructure suffer the worst congestion and longest commute times.

The Gateway program would perpetuate this insanity by increasing single occupant vehicles while delaying and impeding development of a comprehensive transit system.

Carole James recognizes the futility of trying to move masses of people with cars, and characterized the program as “yesterday’s solution for tomorrow’s problem”. This is not quite accurate: it epitomizes yesterday’s nonsolutions, and why we are in a global environmental crisis today.

Ned Jacobs

Vancouver