So this is what $940,000 gets us?
The Ministry of Transportation must be kidding when they thought the residents of the Sunshine Coast would be happy with the Gibsons Way safety project plans that were unveiled Monday night.
The MoT proposes to squeeze a 1.5 kilometre section of Gibsons Way into two lanes. Yes, you heard that correctly, two lanes. The idea is to take a four-lane section of Highway 101 from North Road to Gibsons' western boundary near Pratt Road and Payne Road and convert that to two lanes with a median, a partial bike lane and some left turn bays - all controlled by a traffic light at Sunnycrest Road.
Now while computer models touched on at the meeting by MoT officials may show traffic will be safer and there will be less accidents, it sure won't make traffic congestion any easier to manage. In fact, if you think congestion is bad now, just wait until these plans get implemented. The traffic coming off the ferry in Langdale, combined with the exisiting traffic will make this area a snarled mess. MoT officials were quick to point out that their mandate is to lower the accident rate in this section of road, not to ensure good traffic flow? Huh? What type of cop out is that? How will more snarled traffic and angrier drivers lead to less accidents? That's like trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole - it just doesn't work people.
But the news gets better. Under this MoT proposal, as the road width narrows towards Pratt and Payne roads, the bike lane will end and join a "shared use lane" for both bikes and cars. So now bikers will have to share the road with cars. Bike lanes are already virtually non-exisitent on the Coast and now in what will become an even higher-traffic area, bikers will be forced to share road space with cars? Yep, MoT officials are really thinking about safety first with that idea.
And what about the idea of an extension from the current bypass to Highway 101 near Payne Road - shot down again by the MoT officials. Too costly they say and the traffic just isn't there. I guess none of these MoT officials travel Highway 101 during the summer, never travel the highway when the ferry off-loads. The Coast has several major housing developments planned or under construction. Take Silverback for instance which calls for some 1,600 homes. Lets take a conservative guess and say that could add 800 more cars to the highway. Sure, the traffic numbers might not add up now, but when the housing build-up is complete in the next few years what will we be left with? More cars, more traffic, more angry and frustrated drivers and a highway system that won't be even close to being adequate.
Yep, MoT has a real winning plan here.
