Dear editor,

Regarding the smoke in the air.

I am reminded of summers in Toronto where the sky often looked liked it does right now: smog - air pollution from car exhaust, smoke etc. I bet there鈥檚 a lot of folks nodding their heads in agreement as they have moved from, or have lived in a big city. Now, however, they live here and out of sight, out of mind, no smog in the valley, why worry about it?

I recently saw a beef about the empty buses. Perhaps if more people took the bus, and there was a schedule to encourage greater ridership, they wouldn鈥檛 be empty = less cars = no smog in the valley.

I鈥檝e also recently returned to biking to work (Cumby to Comox), and I have to say that most drivers are very good about making room for me (thank you!). I thought I would just pass on some info to drivers to remind them about what bikers deal with. When riding on the shoulder, there鈥檚 construction debris, pylons and signs; garbage; cars; people and deer. If there鈥檚 no shoulder, I have to ride on the road and there鈥檚 cracks, holes and bumps that we don鈥檛 notice driving cars, but I have to avoid. Yup, I drive a car too, but I try to do as little as possible to cut down on the gas use: saves money too, and decreases exhaust = no smog in the valley.

Sabine Schill

Cumberland