Time to think beyond twinned highways

Boy, the world view has changed since 2000 when former Premier John Hamm managed to badger the federal government into co-sharing the cost of twinning Highway 101 to Ste. Croix. In making his case for a strong transportation system, Hamm told Ottawa that Highway 101 in the Annapolis Valley was reaching peak capacity and safety was a serious problem.

Today, a strong transportation system doesn't just involve highways and it’s time government started thinking about not twinning the 101 past Avonport. I was a university student when the battle was on for the route through Annapolis County, so I remember the late Tory MLA Gerald Sheehy trying his damnedest to keep the pavement off farmland. Even his party connections didn't help.

Wwe really need to question every large expenditure of our tax dollars in the green light of sustainability. I've been cringing for six months watching the overpass going in at the West Brooklyn Rd. The spate of killer collisions at Ben Jackson Rd. made that interchange necessary, but two expensive overpasses so close together? That we didn't need. Surely folks in Avonport could’ve driven down and around.

The highway is on the drawing board for twinning as far as Coldbrook. Let's start questioning the necessity.

DalTech engineering professor Larry Hughes is already on the record. With his Genuine Progress Index colleagues, he has been looking at Nova Scotia's stance in terms of Transport Canada’s Sustainable Development Strategy. In fact, Hughes believes provincial departments are breaching their own guidelines if they favour the twinning of Highway 101 in the Annapolis Valley.

In 2000, Hughes estimated that if a commuter rail line removed 15 per cent of the rush-hour traffic, over 9,000 fewer litres of motor oil would be consumed daily, reducing the province's greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the demand on the health system by improving the air quality. I know three people who used to commute on the old Dayliner, but by the late ‘80s the railbed was in such bad shape they couldn't read for bouncing on the train.

All of seven years ago Hughes suggested that much of the additional traffic on Highway 101 has been caused by the development boards of Kings and Windsor-West Hants counties trying to expand their tax base by encouraging people to move to the Valley and converting valuable farmland into residential properties. Many of the people who have moved to the Valley are employed in Halifax, meaning they commute on a daily basis.

Overlooked three key issues

The advocates of twinning have overlooked three important issues, according to Hughes. First, Nova Scotia has an aging population that’s growing in size. Many of these people will require modes of transportation other than the automobile, regardless of the number of lanes on Highway 101.

Second, we can’t ignore the health implications of automobile emissions. The focus of twinning advocates has been on those involved directly in road accidents, not upon those who are forced to breathe motor vehicle exhausts. The cost to Nova Scotia's health system is estimated to be well over $200 million per year.

Then there’s the rising cost of crude oil and its impact upon the driving public to consider. As oil prices increase, people should start to reconsider non-essential journeys. Since any fall in the price of oil will be only temporary, it’s time the provincial government began to develop environmentally sustainable transportation alternatives for the citizens of Nova Scotia, Hughes says.

The Dal prof recommended that Nova Scotia develop a comprehensive transportation policy that recognizes the province's changing demographics, the need for a healthy environment and the rising cost of crude oil. He’s an advocate of only funding highway upgrading on those sections of the province's highways where they’re needed most, for safety and not political reasons. He has also called for lower highway speeds to 90 km/hr for safety and environmental reasons.

Province a silent partner in aiding abandonment

In the light of recent history, it's interesting to read the 1980 decision that allowed for CP Rail/DAR to abandon the Valley line. The consensus of the various towns, boards and municipalities was that customers withdrew from using rail because CP wasn’t willing to invest in providing efficient service and the rates became prohibitive.

Furthermore, the effect of the abandonment of rail on the highway infrastructure was seen as a major concern for the province. Besides adding more and heavier loads on the highway system that would accelerate damage to the highway, greater quantities of hazardous material would be travelling the road network with greater frequency, thus increasing the risk to safety of the travelling public.

The New Democratic Party of Nova Scotia stated that far more dollars were spent on the provincial road network than rails and unlike the rail system, roads in the province are heavily subsidized and this should be redressed. It also testified that by accepting federal money for construction of highways, the province was becoming a silent partner in aiding abandonment.

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees had a fascinating perspective, noting that trucks weren’t a suitable alternative since it was estimated that they use 8.7 times more energy and produce nine times more pollution than to move a given quantity of freight by rail.

We had those insights almost 20 years ago in one case and seven years ago in the other. Surely the alternative perspective should hold some water now that the rail line west of Hantsport is in trouble. Since the Windsor and Hantsport Railway plans to cease operating freight traffic to New Minas, let us begin to think beyond twinned highways.