Editor:
In her letter to the editor “Bow Valley Parkway closure opportunity for people to enjoy safe use” in the July 4 edition of the Outlook, Ellen Brenner states: “the road is available to everyone to walk, hike, run, cycle. scooter, skateboard, and even skate ski”. But what she conspicuously fails to add – in a deliberately exclusionary manner – is motor vehicles.
She also fails to understand, let alone accept, the fact that the Bow Valley Parkway is not a private road and is in fact, a public road for all to use, including motor vehicles. It does not mean for all but motor vehicles.
As for Bruce Dalton's comments in his letter “Bow Valley Parkway seasonal closure should be expanded” in the July 4 Outlook about using photo radar to enforce the speed limit and possibly reducing it. I am all for it as long as the entire Bow Valley Parkway remains open all year to all modes of transportation to allow everyone including motorists to enjoy the route.
To close the Bow Valley Parkway to vehicular traffic is totally untenable, unfair, unjust, inequitable, and unacceptable – period.
And just for the record, if you care to look, I never used the word “elitist” in my previous letters in reference to cyclists as these individuals seem to falsely believe.
Bottom line, the Bow Valley Parkway is a public not private road for all to use, including motorists. Either everybody should be able to use and enjoy the parkway, regardless of transportation mode or no one should.
I rest my case on being “greedy” when I now read cyclists want to extend the vehicular exclusion zone all the way to Baker Creek. Cue the song “I want it all”. What next? Keep on feeding the dragon.
Mark A, Bowes,
Banff
