Dan McLean is as mad as hell and he\u2019s not going to take this anymore.<\/p>\n
The pull-no-punches member of Calgary city council is fed up with what he sees as the city hall establishment\u2019s War on the Car.<\/p>\n
McLean doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n
The councillor says in this city with more and more congested developments popping up all over town Calgarians more and more are fighting to get around and it\u2019s making people less happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we wonder why there\u2019s so much road rage and so many accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLean blasted out his views at city council this week when the politicians pondered the fate of a six-storey development with both residential and commercial space and little parking in Altadore.<\/p>\n
The community objected. Besides parking issues, the transit there is already crappy. There were concerns about pedestrian safety.<\/p>\n
You could sense it was another losing battle. These folks just didn\u2019t understand city hall\u2019s grand vision.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, McLean wasn\u2019t just blasting. He was bringing in his heavy artillery.<\/p>\n
He talks about the drivers going down narrow roads where one vehicle has to pull over because there does not appear to be enough room for two vehicles to go by each other.<\/p>\n
NOTE TO READER: My street was recently redesigned by the city and it is now a nightmare.<\/p>\n
CITY HALL MOTTO. If ain\u2019t broke, we\u2019ll break it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes you twice as long to get where you\u2019re going so when you do get some open road you\u2019re going to go a little faster. That\u2019s a danger,\u201d says McLean.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be clear, the city councillor is not saying people should be excused from obeying the rules of the road. He hopes people drive better but wants to acknowledge what is frustrating drivers in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is just jampacked almost wherever you go and then you\u2019re in a pissed-off mood. What used to take me 20 minutes is now taking 40 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related<\/p>\n
McLean can\u2019t resist taking a swipe at one of his favourite targets. Separated bike lanes. Little-used separated bike lanes. Like the huge bike lane on 15th Avenue S.W.<\/p>\n
Before the snow, the bike traffic on that lane was slim to none. Bike lane use is not meeting city hall\u2019s own low targets.<\/p>\n
So say the driver is already agitated \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you see this bike lane completely empty except for somebody removing all the snow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not making things better having all these tiny roads and having bike lanes everywhere and the streets are getting narrower and there\u2019s no parking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drivers riled up by the congestion get impatient, are then in a hurry and McLean believes this contributes to higher collision rates in the city.<\/p>\n
McLean also points out what he sees as the issue of greed or, as he puts it, \u201cmilking every ounce of real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Squeezing in as many units as they can get away with and who cares about the impact on the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe developer makes more money, the city can charge more taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then there are the city higher-ups, the city hall brass and, don\u2019t let them fool you, they have an agenda all their own and they are pushing it.<\/p>\n
McLean is convinced in their heart of hearts the city hall bigshots believe in the War on the Car.<\/p>\n
The councillor believes city hall movers and shakers are so far gone they are \u201cclimate change fanatics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or at least they talk the talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the culture at city hall. They all talk a big game. They all talk about how we\u2019ve got to go into more walkable, accessible communities, less driving,\u201d says McLean.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey keep telling us we\u2019re going to have fewer cars on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLean says these city hall bigwigs are hypocrites.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all drive pretty nice vehicles. Trucks. Gas guzzlers when you look at the executive parkade. Or they live out in the suburbs and they tell us we are all supposed to live downtown in little condos and our carbon footprint has to be tiny and we\u2019ve got to save the planet,\u201d says the councillor.<\/p>\n
For McLean it is a case of \u201cdo as I say, not as I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still McLean believes, as many of us do, \u201cthe car is not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, in the end, McLean says the city council majority did give the green light to the development that got the councillor and this column started.<\/p>\n