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Alternate route needed

Letters

Editor:

There have been substantial increases in residential, recreational and commercial traffic on the Sunshine Coast in recent years and vast growth across the board during the past decade since many of the Transportation Improvement Studies were conducted.

With the continued increase in residential and commercial developments, the situation on Highway 101 will only worsen.

2008 studies forecasted that Highway 101, especially through the Davis Bay to Sechelt corridor, would be at 100 per cent capacity by 2018. The studies were clearly correct. This particular area is a bottleneck. All traffic proceeding to Sechelt or beyond must travel through this residential area. In the event of vehicular accidents, fallen trees, downed power lines, construction on Highway 101 for any number of reasons, traffic will come to a standstill. Emergency vehicles have a difficult time getting through.

Should the aging bridge at Chapman Creek fail, everyone north of Chapman Creek-Davis Bay will be isolated. There is no roadway for the movement of product or people. There is no alternate route.

This is an area along the highway that is near impossible to upgrade, overwhelmed with traffic and a major artery to more than 50 per cent of the population. Proposed improvements from as far back as 1996 have never been done.

We need a permanent alternate route for all traffic in the future.

Commercial truck traffic, logging trucks and semi-trailers would not need to travel through these residential areas. Its construction would not interfere with the current highway users, as any construction along Highway 101 does. The original 101 could then be a local road, a “scenic drive” with a more moderate speed and more welcoming to tourists and locals alike, including cyclists and pedestrians.

It would be nice to think that public transport could solve the issue or that we could reduce the use of vehicular traffic on the road. In reality, be it fossil fuel or electric vehicles, there is a steadily increasing traffic volume on Highway 101.

We need action now, not another study to reveal what is already known.

Wayne and Sue Antifaoff, Davis Bay