Causes of congestion
Re: Bragging rights gone (Letters, Sept. 27). Tim Kwiatkowski's argument that diamond lanes and red-light cameras have caused increased commute times in Winnipeg is completely illogical. There are two real causes of this, in fact.
One deals with drivers. There are more cars and trucks on the roadways than ever before (a high proportion of which are driver-only, i.e. without passengers), more impatient drivers who are cutting others off and getting into accidents, and drivers who are (still!) illegally operating a cellphone and adding to the accident rates.
The other cause is city planning and outward migration. The uncontrolled and accelerating suburban sprawl (despite a low rate of population growth) without consideration for public transportation makes it next to impossible for people to take the bus, further clogging the roads with more cars and trucks.
Kwiatkowski's argument is completely off-base. The reason driving times have increased is because of increased automobile traffic, not because of a few buses or cyclists.
Stephen Berg
Winnipeg
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Bragging rights gone
There was a time, not too long ago, when most Winnipeggers could brag about the pleasure of being able to get from any Point A to Point B in less than 20 minutes of driving. Those days are long since gone.
Thanks to the advent of diamond lanes and red-light camera intersections, we now have much longer, smoggier and costly commutes to and from work. We can see the bottlenecked effect on our roadways daily.
I could see putting up with the costly bumper-to-bumper traffic if the changes implemented were practical and cost-effective. But such is not the case. It doesn't make sense to force all road traffic into three-quarters of available traffic lanes during the busiest periods of the day, just to maintain a free lane for the occasional transit bus, bicycler or pedestrian on roller blades. I thought this is why we had restricted parking during rush hour.
Furthermore, would it have been difficult to implement a yield to transit bus law to expedite the bus traffic? And we know that the red-light camera intersections are not influencing an over-all decline in traffic accidents.
I feel that reasonable forethought was not given to these issues. I can say that the current administration has not secured my vote in the upcoming civic election. I know my pocketbook is hurting and our bragging rights are gone. Maybe it is time for change?
TIM KWIATKOWSKI
Winnipeg