Funny how evolution happens.
In the Giraffe, the nerve going to his voice box goes down to his shoulders and then back up that long neck to his larynx.
Why would this be so, you might ask. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense for the nerve to go that 30 centimeters from the brain directly to the larynx, instead of the three to four metres that it now goes? My guess is that it just kept adding length as the neck evolved from a short neck animal to a long neck giraffe over a few hundred thousand years. It's not like any animal can look at the inefficiencies and decide on a new wiring job.
Snap forward to the twentieth and twenty-first century. Another form of evolution has taken place right here in Prince George. By looking at Google earth, I figure that the closest route to the airport terminal, from First and Victoria, is about 14 kilometres via the Yellowhead. The other route via Sintich Rd. and Hwy. 97 is a lot closer to 20 km. and that is the route that most people take. Just ask any cab or shuttle driver.
So what is the point I am trying to make? Well, some years ago we decided that a new terminal was needed and so one was built, right where the old one was, on the south side of the east-west runway.
We had an opportunity to change an evolutionary mistake and shorten the trip from downtown to about six or seven km., by building the terminal on the north side.
Someone did not have the foresight to make this decision, and we will have to live with that for the next 20 or 30 years.
Now if we figure there are several dozen, if not hundreds of trips made to the airport every day, by trucks and cars, and the extra gas and tires that it takes to get there, we may have built a new terminal a few times over by now.
"So what?", you say.
We are endeavoring to make our lives and transportation more efficient. A conscious effort is being made to save fuel and other costs as prices increase. We are going to pay so many times for this shortsighted boondoggle that it would blow the mind.
Maybe some university student may take it on to crunch the numbers and come up with some answers, or maybe the city planners already know what those extra costs are. Someone should be doing efficiency studies out, 50 to 100 years maybe. Isn't that what planning is all about?
Unlike the giraffe, we can change the information highway.
Robert Clayton
Prince George
