Dear editor,I ride a bike. When I approach the Fifth Street Bridge, I either ride on the sidewalk to the other side or dismount if there is a pedestrian. It takes me less than 60 seconds to cross the bridge when I鈥檓 walking my bike; less than 10 when I鈥檓 riding.I use the quick underpass (which has a bike railing beside the steps) to cross over to the Home Hardware side and continue on my way onto the river walk-and-bike path to the Airpark. Or the Lewis Park side underpass to get into Simms Park.Although I will probably like the cuteness of the proposed little bridge at Sixth Street and I like that the Rotary Clubs are once again coming together for a community project, it really goes nowhere. Either into Simms Park, where I would have to ride on a gravelly path to connect to the Old Island Highway, to continue riding north. Or if coming into downtown, I would have to cross the traffic on the Old Island Highway to get into Simms Park, and once over the little bridge, walk my bike up the Home Hardware hill (can鈥檛 do steep, short hills) to connect to Cliffe Avenue to carry on into downtown.What鈥檚 the big deal with taking less than a minute to cross the Fifth Street Bridge? I admire the biking coalition and service clubs鈥� efforts, and I agree that less vehicle traffic is a desirable goal, as is increased fitness. But do we really need this new bridge when there are many more pressing community needs? We continue to spend money that we don鈥檛 have, and $70,000 could be used more effectively somewhere else. We are witnessing cutbacks, tax increases, and hidden taxes like never before. We don鈥檛 have money to spend on extras any more. We just don鈥檛 get it.L. McLean,Courtenay
