Editor:
Re: Bridge vote sought, Sept. 26.
Instead of replacing the George Massey tunnel, why don’t we keep the tunnel and use it and the new bridge as a one-way system?
I am all in favour of a new bridge. Use the bridge for all southbound traffic and use the tunnel for all northbound traffic or vice versa.
I am an immigrant from London, England. The Dartford-Thurrock Crossing was created as part of the M25 motorway to alleviate a major bottleneck. The solution they came up with was to build a bridge next to the tunnel. The tunnel was northbound, the bridge southbound.
Also, in addition to having transponders for payment, they had a cash bin so that you could toss your payment in as you drove by, alleviating people avoiding tolls so they don’t get a large bill in the mail.
There is a nominal charge during the day and free in the evening.
I am also in favour of putting tolls on all bridges, so the problem we incur at the Pattullo doesn’t happen elsewhere. If there is the same toll on all bridges, everyone pays.
However, the brainless bureaucrats that came up with the $4.25 toll on the Golden Ears Bridge – obviously the same morons who came up with the Highway 99 HOV minimum six passengers several years ago – might want to rethink the toll to maybe a loonie with an option to pay cash. Minimum-wage workers who travel those bridges are not in a position to pay $200 a month in tolls and cannot afford $150 monthly passes.
I would like to point out that I am not a communist. I am a business owner. I voted Liberal in the provincials, but let’s give our head a shake and make it easier for lower-paid workers to get to work.
Jim Delaney, Surrey