Paving Paradise To Put Up A Tunnel Parking Lot

I just finished completing my income tax return a few days ago. It got me angry seeing how much money I had to pay in taxes and comparing it with what I was getting back in return.

When I add in together my income taxes, property taxes, education taxes, GST, PST, gas taxes and who knows what other taxes I am paying, it is quite a chunk of money out of my pocket annually.

How can I get Government to start saving money? Well the obvious topic for this Blogger is not to spend so much on the border. I have ranted about the billions for a new bridge but how about saving a few dollars, say 30 million of them, at the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel.

If I can convince the powers-that-be that what I am saying makes sense, then we can take that $30 million, add it to Eddie's "wiggle room" money and build a super-duper Arena!

I have written before about the Tunnel and its grand vision for a Tunnel Plaza "March 06, 2006 "The Tunnel Plaza Is Mickey Mouse." Everyone I talk to about the Plan admits that it does not move one single vehicle through the Tunnel more quickly. It is really money for a gigantic parking lot. (Of course, we all know that it is only Phase 1 of Eddie's Master Plan for the Tunnel which only he knows and which he is not prepared to reveal to taxpayers! He thinks he is fooling the Senior Levels too but they are on to him). I wonder then why we are moving forward on something that makes no sense.

I heard about a Presentation given by the Tunnel about what they can do to move vehicles through more quickly and at a very low cost. The key word is LOW!

One obvious step in the Presentation I was told was to increase the number of booths. Gee, what an earth-shattering idea! Isn't that what the Bridge Co. did. Four new booths eliminated the truck backups and the cost was pennies on the dollar compared with what others wanted to spend. (NO, I am NOT going to talk about the Schwartz short-term solution costs)

I heard the Tunnel could open up at least one more booth at a cost of around $500,000 and thereby increase flow-through dramatically.

Hmmmmmm $500K to get traffic moving compared with $30M for a parking lot....I know which one I would choose!

Then I heard that for a few dollars more, the truck volumes at the Tunnel could be increased by some knocking down of walls in the Detroit Plaza to make it easier for trucks to make turns. I guess revenues could be increased too by increased truck volumes. What a novel idea: making more money.

Finally, I heard that there were some discussions with the Bridge Co. about taking some novel steps for moving traffic such as collecting one-way tolls, as is done in several other border crossings. When combined with the use of the latest electronic tolling equipment throughput could be improved dramatically.

My understanding is that the Bridge Co. agreed to the concept but nothing has happened on this initiative so far. I can guess why not. It is not convenient right now for certain people.

The reason why this concept is so exciting is that the Tunnel could tear down the toll collection booths on the Detroit side and put in new Customs booths just like at the Bridge. Think of the volumes that could be handled. We would not need to spend $30 million on a parking lot if traffic was never backed up would we?

Of course, nothing has been done about that idea either.

You have to ask the obvious question. Why isn't the Mayor/Chair of the Windsor Tunnel Commission taking immediate action to bring about these steps which would be much less expensive than building the Disney parking lot at the Tunnel and which would help solve the Tunnel and City roads back-up problems.

Oh well, the concepts are not proprietary. It would not surprise me that the pressure would mount once people realized cheaper solutions are possible. The plans would be used in a few years time. In a few years...isn't that when the DCTC contract is over.

I wish I knew but then again, our Mayor has not chosen to let us mere mortals in on his Plans.