Transportation and the Air We Breathe

I live in the South Fraser region of British Columbia and even our own provincial government indicates that we have poor air quality. Do we want to do something about it and if so what? TransLink admits that we have a public transportation deficit and is even going as far as having many small transportation forums to find out what the public really wants.

For the rest of my discussion I am going to directly quote from Readers Digest July 2009.

The ribbon of steel that used to tie us together is almost gone. Now we have the airlines and bus companies, and we pretend to have a national highway. In many places-Northern Ontario or the Interior of British Columbia-it dwindles down to two-lane blacktop, and the local residents will tell you these narrow sections make our national Highway a death trap.

The Americans completed a four-lane national highway system 50 years ago. We are still awaiting ours.

The Europeans have used high speed railways to tie their countries together. After 50 years of studies, we are still considering a high- speed rail link to connect Windsor to Quebec City, Vancouver to Calgary and Calgary to Edmonton.

If we wanted to tie Canadians together, if we wanted to be nation builders, we would start on these rail links right now.

The above are some of the thoughts from Readers Digest, so for a long range plan I would suggest we start on our own public transportation and that in my humble submission would be modern Light Rail. Our provincial government is already building the Port Mann Bridge that will accommodate this and it can run down the side of the freeway. I have come from a railway town and trains are comfortable, affordable, sustainable, and punctual and can keep going even in ice and snow.