so, to cope with the price (recent reported figure was about $3 billion) of building a new bridge…a toll fee will be added. yes, $3 each way…i guess the morning starbucks for all those drivers coming westbound will just have to be forfeit. how is this going to decrease congestion? well, one way comes to mind…most people won’t drive over the new bridge…yes, they’ll probably either skytrain (i guess that’s the only ‘good’ outcome out of this) or use the other bridges…i can only imagine the extra gridlock coming from surrey towards either new westminster or richmond. let’s not forget, the other bridges take drivers way out of the way, increase the amount of stopping at red lights, drive slower, and most likely cause a nice pattern of a ‘stop-&-go’ traffic….in simpler words…at least based on my current understanding of the situation.. it will definitely increase combustion emissions. so…decrease congestion on hwy 1 (with apparently the intention of decreasing our carbon footprint) will probably not happen.
let’s return to the $3 toll…so, hwy speed around these parts is 90km/h. driving to work at that speed (one would only wish) and the have to stop at the bridge, take out the $3 and pay the fool that works there. i guess it will increase job opportunity in this financial crisis by 6 jobs? maybe? oh well, at least the goverment is creating jobs (oh wait…our unemployment rate is just over 7% at this point…about a year and a half ago…was around 3.5%). that’s not going to create congestion though, require everyone to stop, take the coins out (and probably receive change given we don’t have a $3 coin) and then start up again. thus, forcing people to stop will decrease congestion…our liberals never fail to impress us with their logic… probably some people will decide it’s too much, and if they won’t want to take other routes…which will not only waste more time and gas…but indirectly increase the chance of accidents (hey…look at that icbc will probably have an increase in profit for the next few years…yet again)…
they’ll probably skytrain. damn, but wait there’s only 1 line out of surrey…park-and-go around the stations is usually limited if at all available…and the skytrains (even though they run quite often) are usually pretty full. again, thumbs up to the liberals…try to force people to use another undersized public service (ahh…and there we are again…translink will probably profit from the increase as well)… but wait, if people will refuse to pay, refuse to drive out of their way…or simply refuse to use public transit…they’ll probably have to either move closer to work, find work close to home…or work from home. moving closer to work (thinking they might move towards vancouver)…will probably…actually most likely help increase home prices…stunning!…financial crisis, lowering home prices, banks losing since people are not buying…and the liberals find a way to indirectly ‘suggest’ that we should move closer to work…i’m just waiting for the environmental pitch for the move…b/c i’m sure it’s coming…
so…yet again…elections coming up…shortly…the liberals find another way to help business prosper…make another decision with ‘the public’s interest’ in mind…and i’m just ‘guessing’ here…that they’ll win again come spring?
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Most likely there will be a tag system (either RFID or license plate pictures or both) like they do in the east provinces (i hear Toronto has a hole bunch of toll roads), so the bridge shouldn’t slow down traffic much
while i agree that such a system will not cause a slow down in the traffic over that particular bridge…you must wonder how many drivers will chose to use any of the other two bridges…which will indirectly cause a slow down in the traffic there. also it will cause more traffic through surrey’s already busy roads.
anyhow, there is simply no need to build a new 10 lane bridge, when the hwy leading to and from has either 2 or 3 lanes (depending on direction and side of the bridge) on either side. why not simply expand the bridge by 1 or 2 lanes? so instead of wasting the money on a completely new bridge, spend that money on fixing or upgrading the other bridges, given one’s infrastructure has most likely been damaged by the 2 recent fires.