Car Free Days are hardly car free
I am all for supporting the community and building neighbourly relationships but I think that doing this under the guise of Car Free Days is false advertising.
I live one block east of Main Street and, yet again, the car-free-ness is completely lost on me. Granted, increased traffic through the side streets is expected, thanks to closing down Main Street for the festivities, but I have never seen the side streets so busy or jam-packed with parked cars, save maybe for last year’s Car Free Day.
The common joke is “if you drive to Car Free Day, you’re doing it wrong!” Yes, it’s funny at a glance, but when the majority of people just laugh as they finish parking their cars on their way to Car Free Day, something is terribly wrong.
This is a huge inconvenience for people who actually live in the area. Street festivals are a great and excellent way to foster community support. But don’t sugar coat it, it needs a new name, as “car free” it is not.
Maxim Kinakin, Vancouver
Car free on Father’s Day
What a kick in the crotch for older fathers: hold a Car Free Day on Father’s Day!
Not all fathers are in their 20s and 30s; some are even grandfathers! Could it be that the organizers don’t know their fathers?
Mac Savage, Surrey
Editorial is silly
Your editorial on Vision’s bike agenda is a bit silly and misinformed. I can’t imagine a worse example of the “straw that broke the camel’s back” than the 200-block of Union Street.
Drivers have 12th, Broadway, Great Northern Way, Terminal, Venebles, Hastings and Powell for major east-west travel in the area. Union street, 10th, and a path on the shoulder of Great Northern Way are the east-west bicycle routes. In no way does increased cycling safety this short bit of Union impede the major flow of traffic.
Charles Freeman, Vancouver
Vision has bad priorities
It seems that Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Visionaries have made downtown and the West End their pet project.
From the bike lanes that choke traffic with idling cars, to butchering Comox Street for an unnecessary bike lane, to “greening up” our laneways and adding laneway homes, all the while extinguishing much needed parking as they go along with their anti-car agenda.
Now they’re expanding to Union Street, and they are still contemplating putting in a doomed bike-share program in Stanley Park paid by taxpayers, while likely wiping out bike-rental businesses.
Many probably don’t know they are putting electric-car charging stations on English Bay because God knows what we need more than more bike lanes are chargers for all those “e-cars” we have in Vancouver.
Maybe someone out there can pry the secret city financials out of Penny Ballem’s overpaid hands, so we can see how deeply in debt Vancouver truly is. Yes people, we can fight city hall, if only they would give us more than their usual two-week notices.
Debbie Moreau, Vancouver
Bike lanes are passe
Bicycles are in the past. We need rollerblading lanes.
Chris Houghton, Surrey
Quit slagging cyclists
Your editorial board has used every opportunity to slag the cycling community.
For the most part, cyclists are responsible citizens doing their best to reduce the impact on health and the environment caused by over reliance on automobiles. I would like to understand the reason for your antipathy; perhaps a bike protest delayed a pub booze-up for your staff.
Bikes are the logical alternative to the mayhem caused by inner city traffic. Despite your continual carping, cycling is on the increase. Get used to it.
Edward Simpkins, Burnaby
Anti-car agenda
It’s about time that Vancouver voters took notice of the Vision war on cars disguised as promotion of the use of bicycles.
Bike riders can use any route or street without restriction and most options are safer than utilizing even the barricaded routes promoted by Vision.
In addition, what cyclist would go blocks out of their way to use the bike lanes on arterial routes, which are designed to move heavy vehicular traffic efficiently.
The Point Grey Road proposal is a two-fold diversion — a sop to landowners who want more privacy while meeting the demands of the cycling crowd.
Voters can now assess their true intent, i.e., a naked ambition to gridlock the city.
Rick Angus, Vancouver
Money well spent
Media and citizens have been going crazy over the cost of the three bike lanes: $3 million. Here are some more costs to put into the equation: The left-turn lane at Knight and 33rd cost $3.4 million, and the Highway 1 widening project cost almost $2.4 billion.
After looking at these numbers, I must conclude that this investment in healthier people and more lively community for an area with over 2,000 bikes a day is a bargain.
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