Editor:
I'd like to make comments on two articles from the Aug. 11 edition of the Outlook.
The first is about the horse trail near the Banff Recreation Grounds. The elephant in the room is why the council at the time thought taxpayers should be paying $182,000 to build a trail for a private enterprise. If the Town doesn't want the horses near the new pedestrian bridge, the stables should be responsible to find an alternative. How about using a horse trailer?
As to the present use of the trail working, the trail is being chewed up and the manure is cleaned up in a half-serious way. Earlier when we were getting rain, the path was a nice mess of mud and manure. Now there is a huge dust cloud every time they go by, ending up on cars and in homes which have open windows in the summer.
The second is the article about the lane reversal on the bridge. The trial run was supposed to help with northbound traffic by having two lanes across the bridge. But the article says having an additional lane such as adding a second permanent northbound lane would have a limited impact. Obviously having an additional northbound lane would make a difference. The problem is getting onto the bridge and that causes backups on Spray and Cave avenues.
The lane reversal results in people travelling southbound and turning right onto Cave Avenue, being held up to allow pedestrians to cross and hence holding up all southbound traffic. The solution is to make the bridge four lanes wide. As to narrowing the sidewalks impacting pedestrians, there will be two other pedestrian bridges but no other bridge for vehicles.
Instead of eliminating parking on a section of Spray Avenue and other Band-Aid measures, the problem can only be fixed by adding a fourth lane to the bridge.
Gord Duncan,
Banff
