Dear editor,

As a taxpayer in Courtenay, I have watched with interest and some dismay at the expense that we as taxpayers have been required to pay to award the squeaky wheels riding bicycles.

For a start, we should look a the bottleneck at the top of 5th Street caused by the narrowing of the roadway with bike lanes and piles of dirt. Not only was this an expensive exercise in futility but it has caused a very expensive cleanup and gardening expense for us taxpayers. Not only when it was built but the cost of the ongoing work required to keep the dirt in place and not dropping out on the roadway. You may ask why this comment today, well sir it behooves me to wonder why a four-metre (13 foot) wide 6th Street bridge is not large enough (Comox Valley Cycling Coalition advocates wider 6th Street bridge, Jan 27 Record).

First, there should be a requirement that all cyclists should walk their bikes across the bridges both 5th and 6th street but also the 17th Street bridge. Now we come to the important item in the letter, it is time that cyclists pay their way as we who drive autos pay our way: It is time to licence all bicycles. In conclusion, the coalition argument about getting people out of cars is irrelevant as our government says all gas guzzlers will be replaced by electric autos. Nuff said.

Rick Kellow,

Courtenay