Dear Editor:
You may not have to turn your head to see those electronic billboards, they are so in your face. But you do have to focus your eyes to read the print. The images, too, changing every 10 or 15 seconds, bright flashing colours - all compel the eye and mind while navigating bridges.
That makes them a traffic hazard, especially on the narrow, busy Queensborough and Pattullo bridges. I avoid TV, but these commercials now invade my consciousness whenever I cross any bridge.
They say high-density development is good for the city's economy. Yet we seem to depend on traffic hazards, consumer hype and social problems from gambling to provide our capital infrastructure. These social costs, along with regular tax increases, seem to be the price we pay to overcrowd our city.
Every council seems to forget that many new people require much new capital cost.
If population growth were the answer to economic health, the world would not be on the brink of global economic collapse.
Hilda Bechler, New Westminster
