The following letter was sent to Minister of Transportation Shirley Bond and copied to Coast Reporter.
Back in 1996, there was a flurry of activity at Langdale ferry terminal, including improved parking and a new four-lane highway going straight up the hill. Unfortunately, it is a mere two kilometres long - about the same length as the road across the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver - and then it comes to an abrupt end. At this point, the highway turns left and is a mere two lanes wide, causing a bottleneck. After a little over a kilometre, the old road from the terminal joins it, and that traffic has priority, worsening the bottleneck.
Some time ago, the highway was widened to four lanes from Reed Road to Pratt Road, which provided a little relief and allowed traffic to move at 60km/hr. Since then, there has been absolutely no highway construction.
This year, to everyone's opposition, chagrin and disbelief, the local highways department embarked on a "traffic calming" project, obliterating the road markings to create new markings that reduced the road to two lanes again, albeit with cycle and turning lanes, thus prolonging the bottleneck for over 3.5 kilometres. I thought the purpose of a highway was to facilitate the movement of traffic not to impede it.
This idea may have merit on a normal highway, but this highway is anything but normal. Every two hours, a ferry disgorges some 300-plus vehicles, including heavy, slow-moving traffic, and in no time at all our little stretch of highway is plugged up solid.
I strongly challenge you to drive to the Sunshine Coast, especially in July and August when the ferry is fully loaded, and experience for yourself the frustration of being tied up in traffic proceeding a little more than a walking pace.
Thomas Wood
Sechelt
