The Editor,
I read with some interest the recent newspaper article about the plans for an Olympic museum at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
The first thought which comes to mind is $6 million is a lot of money to spend to display some pommel horses and jerseys. Then one thinks about the $4 billion in revenue the International Olympic Committee (IOC) collects in a four-year cycle and how, if they really wanted to, the IOC could afford to locate a museum in any city in North America, except they haven't.
Then one thinks, if sponsors are prepared to donate the money and if the city ensures a bond is posted against cost overruns and if someone offers a personal guarantee the operating costs will not be borne by taxpayers, there's probably no reason not to go ahead.
But, what if, instead, city council took those $6 million of donations and used them to hire a qualified traffic engineer and did something about the poor state of traffic control in Richmond?
Council and property developers have many grandiose plans for increasing the resident population, for developing the lands which need developing, but there are evidently no plans to improve traffic flow from city hall to Bridgeport Road.
Traffic engineering seems limited to erecting barriers, lights and pedestrian-controlled crosswalks. There are many traffic hotspots in Richmond. If these $6 million in donated resources were allocated to help drivers navigate freely to their destination, perhaps the city could name some landmarks after the benefactors, maybe name the numbered roads after them.
Reinhard Pekarek Richmond
