Editor:
When I moved to Gibsons in 1969, the talk was all about a proposed fixed link to the Sunshine Coast from Horseshoe Bay, via Bowen Island and Gambier Island. This, we were told, would do away with the ferries to both Langdale and Snug Cove. So here we are, 47 years later, with a new fixed link plan. The main problem, however, seems to be that we are now putting the cart before the horse.
I thought of all this last Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 25, as I sat in our car that took 45 minutes to get from Wilson Creek to Sechelt Elementary School, because of the water main work being done in Selma Park. Of course, none of the hundreds of cars in this two-way lineup had any alternative route to use. The traffic jam trying to exit Sechelt looked equally as bad, if not more so, since they were backed up into every part of the town, including in the crosswalks. What a mess!
Proponents of the “new” fixed link talk about opening up the Coast to a bigger population and more businesses, as well as a greater number of tourists, but right now, all I can visualize is an even longer line of cars stopping every few yards along Highway 101.
The new plan, as outlined, does nothing to ease the traffic on the one highway we have that passes through the existing towns and rural areas, the places which, conceivably, the new residents, businesses and tourists will be struggling to reach.
Could the huge amount of dollars identified as needed for the new link not be better directed towards an alternative access road for the Coast?
Colleen Elson, Gibsons
