From Ian:
The Main Street Poodle (partly paid for by TransLink as a public-art requirement) cost $62,000.
The Port Mann Bridge loses $79 million/year.
The bridge losses could pay for a brand new poodle on a pole every seven hours.
.
Critic of Main Street Poodle: Jordan Bateman. Promoter of Port Mann Bridge: Jordan Bateman.
And yet the ‘No’ side has successfully co-opted the Port Mann Bridge error as somehow being Translink’s fault.
Maybe “poodle” can be a new unit of measurement.
1 poodle = $62,000. Therefore, the Port Mann bridge is approximately 1274 poodles.
I’ll allow it.
Sorry, that is to say, the Port Mann loses 1274 poodles each year. A warning to dog owners to stay away from the bridge!
More poodle math:
The Port Mann bridge project capital cost = 51,613 poodles (before debt servicing costs), or over 1/5th of a poodle per capita in the Metro.
The Bridge serves as a critical, earthquake-resistant link that connects the region, and provides multi-modal transport of goods, services, food, emergency services, swift access to workplaces, leisure, recreation, education, entertainment and enables significant tourism income.
The only thing a 7-foot metal poodle stuck 3-storeys high does is virtually poop on passerbys. It’s a metaphor of Translink.
Providing multi-modal transport of goods, services, food, and emergency services would relate to the reported 8% of bridge traffic that was truck traffic. And why would we need 10 lanes to accomplish that?
The bridge isn’t a metaphor of government waste, it is a solid example. Beats a metaphor any day.
The bridge is probably an example of road pricing more than anything else.
On the other hand one is a critical piece of infrastructure and the other is a rather pointless piece of “street” art elevated several meters above the street. Why was it even required? There’s no transit stop on that block.
Why so overbuilt? A complete waste of precious infrastructure dollars that can only help to promote … sprawl. Where ever more motordom will be perpetuated.
As to who pays me. Amazingly, for someone who works as a freelance writer, it’s the editors of the places I write at that organise how much and when I get paid. And Forbes pays very well, thanks so much for asking. Significantly better than if I were on staff at the Telegraph or Guardian.LikeLike