Post by John Zeger on Mar 18, 2006 12:07:03 GMT -5
Item: Saturday Okanagan, March 18, 2006 "City's growth has drivers all revved up"
The Okanagan newspaper reports on a recent review by the RCMP of the habits of local drivers. "While accidents are down compared with the volume of traffic, [RCMP] Const. Dave Chapman said he has observed that Kelowna area motorists are losing their patience. 'I think drivers are getting more aggressive,' said Chapman. 'You see that at intersections, where they will change a lane without signalling just to move up one car length. What you really notice is that people are getting the big-city mentality. They want to get there ahead of time, and they want everybody to get out of their way.' "
It's ironic to think that many people came to Kelowna to get away from the big-city and the big-city mentality but the reluctance of our planners and politicians to control growth here is turning our city into the places that we chose to leave. In his book Better Not Bigger, urban planner Eben Fodor talks about "The Catch 22 of Growth" namely, the more desirable a community is the more people will want to live there until it is no better than any other community. The only way to avoid The Catch 22 of Growth is to limit our ultimate population size.
The Okanagan newspaper reports on a recent review by the RCMP of the habits of local drivers. "While accidents are down compared with the volume of traffic, [RCMP] Const. Dave Chapman said he has observed that Kelowna area motorists are losing their patience. 'I think drivers are getting more aggressive,' said Chapman. 'You see that at intersections, where they will change a lane without signalling just to move up one car length. What you really notice is that people are getting the big-city mentality. They want to get there ahead of time, and they want everybody to get out of their way.' "
It's ironic to think that many people came to Kelowna to get away from the big-city and the big-city mentality but the reluctance of our planners and politicians to control growth here is turning our city into the places that we chose to leave. In his book Better Not Bigger, urban planner Eben Fodor talks about "The Catch 22 of Growth" namely, the more desirable a community is the more people will want to live there until it is no better than any other community. The only way to avoid The Catch 22 of Growth is to limit our ultimate population size.