I have been watching crews install the new supersize fence, to keep people from crossing the highway at Spencer Road. In my opinion, government is sending us a message: rather than build the overpass so obviously necessary, they are determined to throw good money after bad, in an all-out effort to do whatever it takes – cost is no object (after all, it’s only the taxpayer-right?) – to ensure that people are not able to go where they need to go, in a proper and timely fashion.
The extremely expensive landscaping, particularly south of the bridge, is a further remarkable waste of money in a feeble effort to mask the extreme inconvenience of the new traffic pattern, and is little consolation to pedestrians who have been tempted to “cheat” by jaywalking the highway.
Public safety is of course quoted as the reason for all the fencing; however, if there were actual concern for public safety, they would build the overpass, not the fencing.
There are dollar costs as well, particularly for school students living north of the highway. Because of time and safety issues, concerned safety-conscious parents are now forced to spend extra time and money to get kids to school safely.
From the T junction at the end of Spencer, two return trips will be close to eight kilometres per day. It builds up over a year, almost 1,600 kilometres of what should be unnecessary driving.
At current gas prices this is approximately $200 per year added to parents’ gasoline bill.
Parents: remember this every time you take that forced trip or stop at the gas pump on the way.
Dave Conrad
Langford
