During last week’s City’s public forum on proposed downtown parking changes and the realignment of Lorne Street and First Avenue only one common sense suggestion in regard to the parking was put forward: modify the existing meters, raise the parking fees and use the increased revenue to pay for a new system, thus saving the City $2 million in interest payments.
No matter how the City tried to present the financial figures, the only institutions that would benefit from installing kiosk-type meters would be the lenders and the vendors of the equipment.
The parking problem will not be solved this way, since there would be no increase in available parking, and the “plugging” of meters by employees would still be ongoing.
Now to the re-alignment of Lorne Street and First Avenue after viewing the information boards and listening to the presentation by City Hall staff, it became apparent that not all alternatives had been explored.
One of the attendees, Horst Broscheit, came forward with the idea to construct a roundabout similar to the one on Lorne Street. Mr. Broscheit backed his thoughts up with a fairly detailed schematic.
This roundabout would ensure a smooth traffic flow along Victoria, Landsdowne and Lorne streets and First Avenue without the costly installation of two traffic light systems, which would only back up traffic along all streets involved. In closing I would suggest that both these proposal will be looked at by City staff, as the savings to tax payers could be substantial.
PETER H. BARTEL
Kamloops
