Re: "$3M safety upgrade for high-collision intersection," April 16.
While I am always grateful to see money being spent to retrofit our roads to make them safer, I would sooner see more money spent initially to build the roads properly in the first place.
The issue at Sayward Road is symptomatic of the larger belief that it is reasonable to have intersections on highways.
Most jurisdictions seem to have embraced the overpass.
When driving the Trans-Canada Highway, drivers journey through 40 traffic lights between MacKenzie Avenue in Greater Victoria and Northwest Bay Road near Parksville.
While intersections are no doubt expedient (read: cheaper) in the short term, I would be interested to see a significant study of the costs of extra fuel, lost time in shipping, added congestion, driver frustration, driving infractions, accidents, injuries and deaths caused by having our only transit route stifled by 150 kilometres of stop-and-go traffic.
It is, of course, too late to do anything about the existing road, which will only get worse as the population of the South Island grows and access roads appear every 500 metres.
Perhaps now is the time to begin the discussion about building the actual highway that we will one day require.
Bruce Collins
Victoria
