Editor: I have just finished reading the comments in our local newspapers from Metro Vancouver mayors regarding tolling the Port Mann Bridge and “free alternatives,” (The Times, April 10. Boy, they should give their heads a shake.
These communities are the home of working families or the so-called blue-collar workers. We have to drive over the Fraser River to work from Surrey, Langley, Aldergrove, and Abbotsford. Some of us pay parking fees and now we will have bridge tolls, plus gas, transit fees, plus car maintenance and insurance.
Perhaps we should all go on welfare out here in the suburbs, because we certainly will not be able to afford to drive.
Yes, I think we will all try the so-called “free alternatives,” even if we have to get up earlier and drive out of our way — as our money only goes so far. I agree with letter writer D. Atkinson (The Times, April 10) that the Port Mann is part of the national Trans-Canada Highway and should not be tolled. This will be the only tolled section from Vancouver to Sydney, Nova Scotia.
I also want to know, where is the toll on the new Pitt River Bridge? Why was the airport bridge not tolled? Why was the zillion-dollar Sea-to-Sky Highway (taking the rich to their weekend ski chalets) not tolled? How about the new Kicking Horse Pass Bridge near Golden — where is its toll?
Help, we are drowning out here in the “working Joe suburbs” with bridge tolls, no transit but plenty of transit fees, high gas taxes and incompetent mayors giving themselves raises.
Ras Gosse,
Langley