I can't say I pay much attention to BC Business Magazine.

But it they want to do some hard journalism that will also help to support their case, they might like to start by doing some investigative reporting into the financial background of the groups involved in the Livable Region Coalition and other anti-Port Mann and anti-Gateway front organizations. Who is paying their bills? What kind of income and asset portfolios do these people have?

It's my hunch that average working families with both parents in the labour market at averages wages, and $150,000 or more in mortgage debt, and loans to pay on cars and other durables will not feature prominently in the contributor base of these organizations. Third generation millionaire heiresses with a passion for bird watching? Yes, they'll be in there!

"average working families"

What would this be Budd?

Everyone who earns a paycheque is working.

The median income is around $35,000 / yr.

I doubt millionairesses who do bird watching
would be in amongst those groups.

It's mostly political has-beens, and people who
don't get the big picture that usually congeal
into these groups.

Red Dog, the big picture is pretty obvious. Double the Port Mann bridge and you'll get double the traffic within a year or so.

Budd, your theoretical average working family is more worrried about the impact of climate change than paying more taxes to keep the car dealers and road builders fat.

You don't end gridlock or do anything about bad air by giving the idiots even more opportunities to jump in the gas guzzler.

Quit trying to promise a chicken in every pot and look to the long term. Unless you are going to ban immigration to the Lower Mainland congestion is a certainty no matter how much tar gets laid down.

It's sad how people beleive being able to sit in their "own" car spewing pollution is an enlightened approach to life while the world's scientists are warning it's almost too late to stop climate change.

Red Dog, the big picture is pretty obvious. Double the Port Mann bridge and you'll get double the traffic within a year or so.

This assertion is utterly false. No responsible expert would state such rubbish.

The groups opposed to Port Mann cannot find any reputable academic in our universities, or any other universities or consulting engineering or planning firms, who will make an assertion such as this.

Instead, these advocacy groups rely on other, less well-paid people who do not have have critical, professional reputations they must protect in the intellectual and research community to pen emotional, amateurish ten and twenty page essays which make statements along the lines of what you have offered.

If we get eight lanes of capacity at Port Mann, which is no more than what Bennett and Gaglardi should have built 45 years ago, along with a $2.50 toll, that will be sufficient capacity for the foreseeable future, that is to at least the year 2100.

Any additional need for traffic capacity to the Interior and beyond that might be needed in the next 50 or more years would best be met by constructing a new freeway on the north side of the Fraser, extending westward across Coquitlam and Port Moody and into North Vancouver and the Upper Levels Highway.

"No responsible expert would state such rubbish."

Sorry but many have. The following professors at UBC have either stated so publicly or attached their names to docuemnts that made such statements.

Peter Boothroyd, Professor, University of British Columbia
Patrick Condon, Professor, University of British Columbia
Larry Frank, Professor, University of British

There are also peer-reviesed acadamic papers that make this case. Let me know if you need references.