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GranFondo 'blockade' decried

So the Fondo bike crowd is trying to find a means of paying off Squamish because they disrupt us with a bike ride (“GranFondo youth program eyed,” Chief, May 15). Coun.
Fondo letter
Riders roll up Highway 99 in Squamish during the 2013 GranFondo Whistler. A Chief reader says more needs to be done to minimize the impact from traffic closures during the event.

So the Fondo bike crowd is trying to find a means of paying off Squamish because they disrupt us with a bike ride (“GranFondo youth program eyed,” Chief, May 15). Coun. Heintzman hopes to alleviate that distortion by finding a means to let us go between our separated-by-the-highway parts a “little smoother” than past delays which prevented us from the east side of the highway getting to the west side and the Brackendale Fall Fair at the opening time of 10 a.m.

Unless the bike traffic will be governed by traffic signals and therefore the highway is left open to normal traffic, that smoothness will not be accomplished. Even so, local traffic is not the only thing amiss. Anyone — and there are many who want to be in the Lower Mainland earlier on that day — must leave Squamish by 5 a.m. or as some did, go down the day before. This bike ride is the wrong thing to do. Our highway was clearly not made for bicycles. There is no room for them. This is well known. Even so many do it anyway as the Fondo riders did on Sunday by riding back with traffic.

Shutting down the car traffic, and there is lots of it, from a road that was made for cars is a stupid idea. There is no reason to make this bike ride at all. Unless the Squamish highway is made for bikes and cars to coexist (and there is no likelihood of that), then the GranFondo should be forbidden, which will not prevent cyclists from riding, just not on 99 North.

This blockade of the Squamish highway for a bike ride could not happen unless all municipalities involved and the provincial government said OK. Doing so as they have is irresponsible, nor is there any reasonable right to disturb the usual traffic on the road we have. Let’s hear all governing bodies speak and rule against this misappropriation.
Terry Smith
Garibaldi Highlands