Edmonton's Mayor Mandel may not be an idiot

A week ago, I called Edmonton Mayor Mandel an idiot for suggesting that the current old metal Walterdale bridge that links south with north over the river could remain next to the new modern bridge and be used to host a restaurant.  It really is an idiotic idea and will block the view of the new bridge from the west.

The first proposal of the new replacement bridge had three one way lanes, which when I first saw it, thought that was definitely idiotic considering there are four lanes of regular traffic and one bus/taxi lane merging onto it and then once over, spreading out to four main lanes again.  It's one of the top bottlenecks in town on workers' commutes to downtown in the morning.


So now, our Mayor has pushed back on the planner's three-lane proposal for four lanes.

"We've asked them to make it four lanes," said Mayor Stephen Mandel.  "It's silliness to build it three lanes.  I can't emphasize how much money we're going to save by doing it now." "You can make it just as wide but have now more space to make the fourth lane work, so it doesn't cost you more money."

Wow, common sense.  Mandel may not be an idiot afterall.