Editor:
The urge to “do something” is at the heart of the recent recommendation to “upgrade” the Sunshine Coast Highway by cutting a new route from the top of the bypass through to Pratt Road.
Improvements on the existing highway are needed to make it safer, sure, but the current recommendation is just avoiding those issues and shifting traffic from one neighbourhood (township) to another (regional district).
This recommendation was made with no apparent understanding of the negative impact on our resident populations of wildlife that use this as a corridor that has been increasingly encroached on over time. No longer is it as feasible for these animals to move naturally from mountain to the sea. The recommendation is to build yet another highway right in the middle of their mountainside to seaside route.
Millions of dollars spent to save five or 10 minutes of commuting time, once every two hours in the winter, perhaps once every hour in the summer if the current ferry schedule is maintained. We need this?
There are already routes that people take when commuting to and from the ferry besides North Road and Gibsons Way. The addiction to road building to save a few minutes is threatening why we all live here.
I don’t need a faster commute. If I did, I would live closer to my destination and race up the bypass in the right lane as fast as possible and then cut in to the left lane at the last possible moment.
Bruce Carleton, Elphinstone
