The following letter was sent to Sechelt Mayor Darren Inkster and copied to Coast Reporter.
Dear Mayor Inkster:
Connecting upper and lower Laurel Avenue does not address the real problem that Highway 101 is totally inadequate as the Coast's main north/south corridor.
Supposedly Laurel Avenue will be used to relieve the pressure of inevitable 101 closures. Relieve pressure? What about south of Davis Bay, all the way to Gibsons? We have first world taxes and third world solutions. Kick the phantom bypass highway into high gear. Everybody on the Coast should be frustrated by this lack of action.
Closing Chapman Road with an ugly barrier was no vision either, loading even more traffic onto Bay and Heather. Couldn't Chapman Road be used as a one way onto 101? Meanwhile, bicycling along 101 continues to be a suicide sport. Oh yes, and the stop sign that was added at Geer and Chapman: drivers blow through it on a regular basis. It's more dangerous now than before since there's an expectation that drivers will stop.
Laurel is a narrow road with lots of kids and pedestrian traffic. We have a ditch on one side, no sidewalks, no bike lane, and we feel that council's intent to pave a 50-metre strip hardly qualifies as a vision.
John Bucholtz
Sechelt
