Get Moving BC

For Immediate Release

September 13, 2007

GET MOVING BC RENEWS ITS CALL FOR A BALANCED TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

Vancouver, BC – Get Moving BC has renewed its campaign in support of a balanced transportation system for the Lower Mainland with a re-launching of its website www.GetMovingBC.com

Get Moving BC believes that a balanced transportation system – one that places equal emphasis on new and expanded transit options while also improving and adding to our network of major roads, bridges and highways – is essential for solving the Lower Mainland’s traffic gridlock problems.

Burnaby’s Mike McBratney is a member of Get Moving BC’s citizen Advisory Board and a frequent user of transit and cycling.  He says it’s vitally important that we find ways to encourage more people to take public transit, car pool, and even cycle, but he also understands the importance of building new roads and bridges to help alleviate traffic congestion.

“It’s critical that we build transportation infrastructure that provides people with many options and alternatives,” says McBratney, “and that we do so in a way that is both economically and environmentally sustainable – one cannot be exclusive of the other.”

Sheri Wiens is a busy “soccer mom” living in Mission with her two active teenage sons.   Like McBratney, Wiens is also a member of Get Moving BC’s Advisory Board and she commutes to work in Downtown Vancouver on a regular basis.  She says she has “firsthand experience” of the frustrations so many others face in dealing with traffic gridlock.  

"I spend most mornings, evenings and weekends chauffeuring my boys between sports tournaments and social commitments, and a great deal of this chauffeuring time is spent sitting in traffic,” says Wiens.  “If Mission had more transportation options, particularly options allowing transit to other municipalities, they could “go green" and have the flexibility of making their own way to their many games and competitions held throughout the various municipalities.” 

Jordan Bateman is also member of Get Moving BC’s Advisory Board, as well as being a Township Councillor in Langley.  He says we can’t lose another generation to gridlock and believes “we need more of everything” when it comes to transportation infrastructure in the Lower Mainland.

“Transportation is the most important public policy issue facing municipal leaders today,” Bateman says, “and what we do--or worse, don’t do- will have lasting effects on our children and grandchildren. We need more of everything in this region: roads, bridges, light rail, transit, cycling lanes, HOV lanes, and walking paths.”

Get Moving BC is inviting members of the public who support a balanced transportation system, one that pays equal attention to roads, bridges and transit, to join the Get Moving BC campaign by visiting their website at www.GetMovingBC.com.

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Get Moving BC was formed to provide a voice for the majority of Greater Vancouver residents who support improving our roads, our bridges and our transit systems and is dedicated to holding governments accountable for a balanced transportation system.

For more information please contact Get Moving BC’s media desk at 604-678-5567 or by email at info@getmovingbc.com

Online References and Attachments:

·          www.GetMovingBC.com