The Editor,
Re. "PoCo must stop paying for Coq. residents' roads" (The Tri-City News, Letters, Feb. 20).
In his letter regarding Port Coquitlam's Fremont and Cedar Drive route study, Chris Bradshaw asserts, "All of the proposed routes primarily benefit home owners in Coquitlam while diminishing PoCo residents' quality of life and the environment." He also calls upon PoCo city council to "demonstrate that you are serving your residents first and defeat this proposal."
The proposal in question examines the consequences of growth in Coquitlam, it is true, as projected over the next couple of decades, in recognition that this implies an increase in traffic in Port Coquitlam. It proposes a number of alternatives to address this foreseeable problem while asking for input on these and suggestions on other alternatives.
At the public meeting on this matter, I heard many others expressing the same sentiments as Mr. Bradshaw. But to Mr. Bradshaw and all those others, if council fails to act here, I must ask: Where do you think that traffic will go?
Absent building some kind of Berlin Wall between our two cities - neither practical nor legal -and absent developing an alternative, we can expect to see massively increased traffic on Cedar Drive, as projected.
This road, as argued by many, is already marginal at current levels yet, if Mr. Bradshaw and others have their way, it would receive no upgrades to cope with the increased burden, which can only exacerbate current problems and safety concerns.
What will that do to our quality of life?
The argument that this is about benefiting Coquitlam at our expense also fails to recognize that we have commercial interests in Port Coquitlam that will benefit, too, such as the Fremont Village area, for which we want to encourage such traffic - not to mention our own residents who will, in turn, make their way into and through Coquitlam to do business as well.
This initiative is, ultimately, not about Coquitlam at all but about Port Coquitlam taking a hand in our own destiny for our own benefit.
Ron McKinnon,
Port Coquitlam
