I would like to say how very much I and others are enjoying the Ocean Boulevard and Esquimalt Lagoon now that barriers block it from being used as a thoroughfare. Other walkers agree with me that with no cars to avoid, just being there is a peaceful and lovely experience.
I understand that a referendum about keeping it that way was voted on and the cars won out, with the result that at some point in September the barriers will be removed and drivers will once again push us park users, walkers, joggers and cyclists to the edges of the road.
Folks, much as I hate using the word in any context, commuters should not trump families, parks are for people not cars – particularly as this one is also a bird sanctuary. It isn’t as though commuters have no other route to take and no other choice to make.
Everyone I’ve spoken to is just loving the way things have been since the barriers went up and I would like to call for a second referendum to be presented, this one with a lot more publicity than last time, and I think you would find the end result to be in favour of peace and quiet, not for pollution, noise, speeding and verbal abuse.
Please reconsider.
Doreen Langmead
View Royal
