Maybe it would be correct to say that it was bulldozed thru one of the then noted beautiful original Avenues in this Kelowna of ours. As a result, what was once an attractive residential avenue was changed into an international Highway 97. Kelowna City Hall lost control of the road and hundreds of feet each side of it.
Since then, many decisions that needed to be made by our own City Planners and Politicians, have been heavily influenced by Victoria. Millions of dollars have been spent on this road way, trying to reduce the traffic pollution now evident. The environmental pollution has increased and if left as is, will increase even greater.
Now, with the continued demand that this central British Columbia Highway is placing on our local Communities, we must make a positive change. This needs to happen NOW not in the distant future. The traffic count on the Bennett Bridge is now flowing about 63000 a day at a peak time. That is up considerably from the traffic peak on the old bridge. The last accurate traffic flow thru to Gordon Drive was about 49% of what was counted crossing the Bridge. These counts are based on what I was able to glean from the Ministry of Transport. No matter how much pressure is put upon people, we will continue to use a vehicle to get around...altho a smaller vehicle.
For the record, funding support for a change has been available for many years.
Also, both senior governments, that is Federal and Provincial, will not initiate the action we are proposing. Their stand is that Kelowna must initiate the process for making a change.
Some years ago John Woodworth 'Bachelor of Architecture' PROPOSED THIS:
A RAISED UNOBSTRUCTED X-PRESSWAY OVER HARVEY AVE.
This is what we would like Harvey Avenue to look like. A People Place...becoming a part of the family of roads that will be developed in the Down Town core.
A raised roadway is a very expensive method to reduce traffic along a highway. The amount of concrete and steel used to do this huge. How about look at another method like Personal Rapid Transit which uses less concrete and is quick to assemble. Allowing Kelowna to seek what they are really looking for sooner rather then later.
ReplyDeletePersonal Rapid Transit is electric and gets 400 mpg also can use solar power to make the system pay itself back faster then a raised roadway.