Dear Editor:
RE: Bike lanes great, July 29.
Throughout my petition, I have never gotten personal with anyone who had an alternate opinion. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but just because I have one that “appears” to go against the bike community, I am now labelled as “the older community”, “someone who does not ride a bike”, “someone who has self important blinders on” or “someone who does not have a right to have a say”.
I am not against bike lanes and as an active daily walker and occasional cyclist, I do support active transportation. My petition is not about saying no to bike lanes, it is about “saying no to bike lanes on St. David Street” because local business owners and residents had expressed their opinion in a public survey and the media, that this was not an option they supported.
My family and I have lived and worked in Centre Wellington for 32 years, our kids went to school here and we have been tax paying residents, volunteers and positive contributors to the community for all of this time. People who know me, know that I am not self important and that I am someone (along with my family) who works to better the community we live in.
I would dearly love to see bike lanes in the community connecting our east and west trails and to downtown Fergus as outlined in the township’s Master Transportation Plan, but St. David Street is not the best place to start this; 80% of people who completed the public survey and 982 people who signed my petition agree with this.
And I believe they all have a right to have a say.
Ed O’Shaughnessy,
Fergus