Re: Light rail costly but sensible, Our View, April 29, 2011.
The editorial states that “regional growth is expected to increase most quickly on the West Shore” and “we should build a connection between downtown Victoria and the Uptown hub in Saanich.”
Would this really help anything? Would it really benefit Victoria, Saanich or the other outlying communities? Would the Uptown hub be able to cope with the parking situation created by this or are we just making a change for the sake of change or for a lack of some better ideas?
The editorial assumes all of the people in the remote communities have a desperate need to go to Victoria every morning. Maybe the question should be: “Why does everyone from the outlying areas need to go into Victoria?” Other than customers, the answer would be, “To work of course.”
Let’s just explore another option: Let’s move the location of their work to where they live. What a novel idea?
It would make more sense for the people you want to transport to Victoria each day on the rail system to work in their own locations within the West Shore or North/Central Saanich etc. where they live?
How many other companies in the downtown area could be in a similar win-win situation for both their employees and customers if they relocated to one of the outer regions? Can the banks not relocate their headquarter buildings to outlying areas?
Just think of all the incentives that we could have created for companies and employees that wish to move their jobs away from the congested downtown core area.
Just imagine what we could have accomplished, if we still had the money that we’ve spent building that triple roundabout monstrosity at the airport. Imagine the incentives and savings we could create with a billion dollars.
John Karpes
View Royal