Yes, we're in gridlock, but maybe we need to slow down
By Paula Carlson - Jun 09 2006
There is something soul-renewing about leaving eight hours in a
temperature-controlled office behind, settling into the car for a trip
home via the highway, and finding as your companions two eagles circling
high above your car.
Or watching as the slow and rhythmic flap, flap, flap of a large blue
heron – following ancient feeding regimes – cuts a graceful diagonal
swath across the sky.
Or the gift of seeing a pair of deer, the whites of their tails flicking
and their heads raising and lowering in the grass alongside Highway 91,
while the traffic inches northward towards the 72 Avenue intersection.
There are hawks perched on light standards, red-winged blackbirds in the
tall trees and frogs in industrial park ditches that still sing their
songs – like an echo from childhood.
Their presence is comforting, a sign that all is in balance.
It’s not, of course.
Last week, armed conservation officers were on the hunt for a bear near
Fraser Heights Secondary School.
Prior to that, a Leader photographer came across a deer in a Newton
neighbourhood, its long, lanky legs and puzzled Bambi face looking
utterly out of place amid the manicured lawns and family sedans parked
in concrete driveways.
As letter writer Eva Winterlik aptly pointed out, “this deer is on the
street and in this urban neighbourhood because five months ago it lived
across the street in a 10-acre wood with over 2,000 ‘protectable-size
trees,’ according to Surrey’s tree bylaw. That wood no longer exists.”
With all regions in the Greater Vancouver area set to embark on major
infrastructure construction courtesy the province’s Gateway Program and
other transportation projects, more displaced wildlife sightings – or
worse, the absence of wildlife sightings – are in the cards.
But it’s not just animals chafing at the changes. From the Eagleridge
Bluff protesters to the Do RAV Right crowd along Cambie Street to the
residents of Sunbury in North Delta, citizens are questioning the
rationale of laying down vast slabs of concrete when more
environmentally friendly options exist.
The idea of tunnels has been raised for stretches of road in both West
Vancouver and North Delta. In West Van, the method would preserve old
groves of arbutus trees and the variety of fauna that live in the
bluffs; in Sunbury, the plan would keep neighbourhoods people-friendly.
Prior to the construction of Nordel Way, long-suffering North Deltans
put up with “rat-running” Alex Fraser commuters speeding through their
neighbourhoods to get to major thoroughfares. Now they face the return
of speed demons looking to duck the Port Mann tolls and avoid the
outdated Pattullo.
But the tunnels are deemed too expensive by transportation minister
Kevin Falcon, even though other options – such as pushing for more
federal funds for the South Fraser Perimeter Road, which will help move
goods from the ports across the country – haven’t been fully explored.
And what of buses, light rail and commuter trains? Vancouver has cut the
use of cars by increasing transit options – a system that appears to be
too successful, as buses are packed to capacity.
Granted, regional gridlock and the way to deal with it should have been
tackled years ago, but just because the Olympic Games are coming doesn’t
mean future generations should be saddled with rushed plans for rush
hour.
Some things, such our incomparable natural environment – the one we’re
inviting the world to see – are simply priceless.
And I for one would miss my wild travelling companions.
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