Own an automobile? Then take responsibility

The attempts at making our communities more accessible to bikers, walkers and transit takers ignores one fact: Automobile owners have not been required to take responsibility for their own possessions.

Municipalities struggle to squeeze bike lanes and sidewalks into limited spaces while still making parking spaces on streets for cars.

This phenomenon raises some interesting questions, such as:

1. Why are car owners not responsible for providing parking space for their cars on their own property?

2. Why is there seemingly no limit on the number of cars owned by people living in the same residence if they cannot provide off-street parking for them all?

2. Why should all taxpayers be responsible for providing space for on-street parking for those who own cars?

Even though municipalities purport to want to make other modes of transportation more accessible and safer, the fact is that there are many areas where safer sidewalks and bike lanes would be much more possible and economical were it not for political leaders who bend themselves into pretzels muttering about alternate modes of transport while bending over backward trying to accommodate property owners who have not taken responsibility for parking space for vehicles owned by those who live in their houses.

This becomes even more critical as garden suites and other forms of “multi” accommodation become more prevalent.

Meanwhile, Victoria council is allowing more multiple family dwellings to be built with fewer and fewer off-street parking spaces for cars. Most people are not going to give up their cars, although they will certainly be moving to electric vehicles before long. More clogging of streets ensues without off-street facilities.

This is clearly not a popular idea, but it does raise the question of how it is that storage space for privately owned items became a public responsibility. The auto industry has done a good job of conditioning the public and decision-makers to this way of thinking. And our politicians have fallen into the trap.

S.A. McBride Cordova Bay