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LETTER: Freeway expansion not the long-term solution

Letter writer Aaron Ritchie questions those pushing to four-lane the highway east of 216th Street.
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Dear Editor,

Firstly, there’s a lot more to this story [Widen the freeway now, Langley chamber insists, Feb. 15, Langley Advance]

The idea of spending taxpayers money (if that’s where the funding truly comes from) widening an outlived highway for outdated technologies (petroleum/gas/cars) is absolutely rediculous.

The true reason why these people on boards or in politics want and push for such tunnel-visioned projects is to boost their ego and to have their names attached to such projects.

It has nothing to do with truly solving the congestion problems, issues, and coming up with valid logical long-term solutions.

It doesn’t take an engineer or board member, nor an acting egotistical politician, to look no further at other countries technologies that could easily be seriously addressed to solve such a problem.

With growing population charts projecting such high numbers in the coming years, it is an absolute mind boggling scenario that the people who constantly come up with “solutions” can’t fricken figure out the real answers that don’t involve their ego and have some foresight on what truly needs to be done.

This brings me to my point.

There’s no question at all that an LRT line should be built (at a fraction of the cost of a skytrain) down the center of the highway. A highway widening project is a patch job at best. A Band-Aid short-term solution to a long-term problem.

Think ahead. Truly think ahead. Cast the ego aside and critically think about this.

Enough with all the bureaucracy, it’s time Vancouver truly gets with the times, sees to the future and plans ahead.

If those on boards and in political chambers are serious about “going green,” then they would do what is needed long term – not what they can make money off of.

The whole current fiasco with the Georgia Street viaduct/no actual highway into Vancouver was caused by a lack of foresight into community planning.

Those in the past didn’t think a population explosion would happen here….Well guess what it did.

Think ahead.

Aaron Ritchie, Langley