Dear Townspeople,
You’ve probably seen me around town before. I’m everyone’s favourite stretch of asphalt. The name’s Ryan . . . Ryan Road. What makes me so likeable? Could be my sweet scent of exhaust, my dazzling LED streetlights, or the unbroken din of rumbling engines—take your pick.
I’m writing this letter to warn folks about something I’ve noticed. They’re trying to change us roads. They want some of us to become “shared use.” Someone told me that means making room for foot walkers and cyclists.
Nuh-uh. Not me. I was born in 1970, back when roads were roads. The engineer who designed me rolled out a map. He skillfully marked downtown Courtenay on one side and the Canadian Forces Base in Comox on the other. Then he took out his ruler and sketched the shortest distance between the two points. I was designed to be efficient, and neither tree nor stone would get in my way!
The history and purpose of Ryan Road
The whole reason I’m here is baked in the geography of the place. CFB Comox was, and still is, the biggest employer in the area. Most military and civilian personnel live off base. So, you humans needed a shorter connection to where the homes were, across the Courtenay River. The only bridge at that time was at 5th Street.
They don’t build roads like me nowadays. The grade on my hill is too steep and the roadway too narrow for sharing with non-motorists. There’s no available real estate to accommodate others. You’ll see the odd person here and there huffing it up the single cracked sidewalk, but mostly this is car country.
The engineering marvel of Ryan Road
Next time you’re driving up my hill, marvel at how they built me. Bulldozers cleaved 16 metres off the ridgetop, then shoved it down the hillside to build my long ramp. Before I showed up, the landscape was useless forest and farm fields. Now, we’ve got sun rays bouncing off windshields and heat rippling on parking lots.
A few radicals have pointed out that many of my intersections (with Lerwick Road, Back Road, North Island Highway, and the Old Island Highway) have the highest number of collisions in the Comox Valley. Listen close: roads don’t cause accidents. People cause accidents. It’s got nothing to do with my design.
A road fit for royalty
I’m perfect. When I was less than a year old, back in 1971, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip drove down my new blacktop. I like to think my construction was hurried along just for her. Ever since, the other roads have been jealous.
Look at their new “improvements.” Have you seen what they did to 5th Street? Shared use. It makes me sick to think about. A mother cycling home from the farmers’ market with veggies sticking out of the basket and two kids on the back. Pretty cumbersome, if you ask me. You know they make perfectly good SUVs these days, right? And the pedestrians, darting this way and that to all their appointments, interrupting the flow of traffic. Maybe they should just close that road down forever.
I’ll never be shut down. I’m one of only a few major east-west connections around this town. Thing is, I was born in the country, and the city grew up around me. If I’m not your favourite stretch of asphalt, you’ll just have to deal with it. I ain’t going nowhere.
Sincerely,
Ryan Road
