Editor:
The City of Surrey is planning to implement rapid bus service from Newton Station to Scott Road SkyTrain Station along 72 Avenue and Scott Road, which the city planners expect will result in “growth” (densification) in the Scott Road/West Newton area.
I highly recommend against doing this.
The last thing we need in Newton is densification, which will only lead to increased crime and reduced livability.
Secondly, unless the plan is to widen Scott Road through West Newton by two additional lanes (an apparent impossibility) vehicle traffic will be reduced back to one lane in each direction – the situation it was in before the road was widened some years ago.
My recollection from before the road widening was that there was continual traffic snarl all along Scott Road through West Newton/North Delta because one lane in each direction could not accommodate the amount of traffic at that time.
Today, the amount of traffic is far greater, so even more traffic snarl can be expected if this plan is implemented.
Currently, with the existing road-share system, both cars and buses share the right lanes on Scott Road, thereby utilizing them to maximum efficiency.
Buses travel at the same speed as all other traffic.
The “logic” of replacing this system with one in which the right lanes will be used only sparingly by buses, while drivers will have to wait in ever-lengthening lineups in the centre lanes, would seem to be indicated by recent history.
This appears to be another manifestation of the anti-car agenda that has clearly been in play with the City of Surrey planning bureaucracy for some time.
The last iteration of this agenda was the plan to run at-grade light rail trains down multiple roads, which the last council quashed, and rightly so.
Hopefully, Surrey’s new council will see the insanity of the new rapid bus plan and quash it also.
If Surrey is going to have rapid transit, it must be either above grade or below grade, because at-grade rapid transit will only make traffic worse.
Kenneth Lawrence, Surrey