{"id":11562,"date":"2016-01-20T06:04:29","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T14:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=11562"},"modified":"2016-01-29T10:04:55","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T18:04:55","slug":"open-space-victoria-should-pass-on-the-mckenzie-overpass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2016\/01\/20\/open-space-victoria-should-pass-on-the-mckenzie-overpass\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Victoria should pass on the McKenzie overpass"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe daily commute\u201d: a common phrase in modern times. More often than not it means hours spent stuck in traffic in the car. For the commuters who drive in and out of Victoria, this is certainly the case.<\/p>\n

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The possible solutions to the problem have been \u201cin the works\u201d for 30 years. Finally, there seems to be some headway, and construction of an $85-million interchange at Saanich\u2019s McKenzie Avenue and Trans-Canada Highway intersection is expected to begin in late 2016.<\/p>\n

Yes, yes, lots of hand-shaking and nodding and smiling at this, but wait a minute… This project has been talked about for 30 years, and in that time, the world has changed. Thirty years ago, we didn\u2019t have the irrefutable evidence we have today that greenhouse-gas emissions are harming our home. Today\u2014as Canada is painfully aware, having won the Fossil Award at UN climate talks several times due to our lack of progress in regard to climate change\u2014focus needs to be on public transportation and the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This story originally appeared in our January 20, 2016 issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why is our city going ahead with a plan that was concocted with none of those goals in mind? Our city builders and planners should have more foresight into the future than they are currently demonstrating. The areas surrounding Greater Victoria are growing and will continue to grow, and, quite frankly, the so-called \u201csolution\u201d to the bottleneck will only distribute the sheer volume of cars over a larger network of residential roads and will do nothing to encourage alternative transportation.<\/p>\n

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A high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane would. All the city needs to do is add some signs and a little more paint to the road. It would be a heck of a lot cheaper than installing an overpass, not to mention the estimated two-year completion window on construction, which, as we all know, will make traffic matters even worse than they already are.<\/p>\n

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Many cities have successfully integrated HOV lanes into their highways, so we know they work. They encourage carpooling and public-transit use and ensure that those who make an effort to reduce their carbon footprint are rewarded with a speedier commute.<\/p>\n

I expect our local elected leaders to make decisions on infrastructure that are in line with Canada\u2019s goal to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. I don\u2019t see any attempt to reduce emissions in this dated construction plan, which would only enable a larger number of cars to move in and out of Victoria.<\/p>\n

The good old standard of infrastructure planning is no longer good; it\u2019s just old. We need to change how we think about our world, and the best way to do that is to help people make good choices for our environment. So, ride the bus, carpool, or cycle, and demand that this city take climate change seriously.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe daily commute\u201d: a common phrase in modern times. More often than not it means hours spent stuck in traffic in the car. For the commuters who drive in and out of Victoria, this is certainly the case. The possible solutions to the problem have been \u201cin the works\u201d for 30 years. Finally, there seems […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,158],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views","category-january-20-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11563,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11562\/revisions\/11563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}