The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 12

A 1 2 llC Un JUNE 25, 1984 S3 ft pedd Some riders won't buy it 04k 1 i it By LYNN BALL While most cyclists on the Stanley Park seawall seem satisfied with new park board regulations that include one-way riding only, not everyone is adhering to them. "It (one-way traffic) is a lot better." said cyclist John Hietenan, riding with Patricia O'Keeffe near Second Beach Sunday. "I said they should do that a long time ago." Collisions between cyclists will be fewer, he said. "There were definitely collisions before there are a lot of fast riders and a lot of blind corners." The two, who ride 50 kilometres a day, are not as keen about other new regulations that may soon result in fines for those who do not follow them. Asked if they dismount at all marked locations, O'Keeffe said no.

"Why get off your bike if there's no one around? We go really slow anyway." The two then rode off albeit slowly on a no-cycling section of the seawall. "It's good except for the twits who don't obey," said Doug, who would not give a last name, of the one-way traffic. As he spoke, riders whizzed by in the wrong direction. "You're going the wrong way," Doug and companion Peg shouted to the riders, who occasionally swore back. "A lot of the cyclists are policing it themselves," explained Doug, who added he and Peg ride the seawall "two or three times a week." Girls in yellow T-shirts are patrol- Pvtor Bottistom photo bicyclists and pedestrians have to help each other ling the paths on bikes for the parks board, he said.

"They were very pleasant. They say they're informing people today, but next week there will be fines." Doug and Peg said they don't mind dismounting at narrow or sharp-turning locations such as Ferguson Point. "It gives your seat a rest," Peg said. But they draw the line at putting bells on their bikes another new rule. "Those silly little dingy things no one hears them anyway," Doug said.

Peg agreed. "With radios blaring and people shouting, they're useless." The main problem they see on the seawall is "racers" cyclists who speed through the park. "I don't think they should look at the seawall as a place to practise or get in condition," Peg said. But the two doubt that all the problems such as pedestrians and cyclists getting into each others' lanes can ever be eradicated. "It's the human factor," Doug said.

"What can you do it's not the biker's fault or a person's fault it's just the seawall. There's so many people using it, it's unsafe." Another complicating factor is out-of-town visitors who cycle in the park, Doug said. One way to reduce congestion and accidents would be to provide bike- ways in other parts of the city, he said. "People would like to bike in other areas but they can't." Bicyclists and pedestrians have to "help each other" in order to reduce accidents, he said. "But I guess we're not a very cooperative people.

We should be more like the Chinese," he said. "It's definitely an improvement," said Kathi Topham, a member of the Seawall Citizens Advisory Committee that made recommendations to the parks board, who was going around the park Sunday to check things out. She saw only two riders going in a clockwise, rather than counterclockwise direction, she said, adding they were not pleased to be told they were going the wrong way. Topham said she understands police will be going "on a ticket blitz" once riders have been given time to get used to the new regulations. "I hope they do," Topham said.

An officer at the mounted policemen's stables Sunday said only warnings are being given for now, until police get direction "from above," outlining the new bylaws. But Topham, who works as a bicycle mechanic, said she believes the only long-term solution is to ban cycling on the seawall. "I see accidents all the time it is so congested." Brenda, who was a pedestrian Sunday, but who is also a seawall cyclist, HOT 1 SEAWALL TRAFFIC said she was "really mad" when she learned of the new regulations. "Then I found out the reason because I like to get all the facts an old age pensioner with 24 stiches in her leg, and a little baby in intensive care." Brenda said she followed the rules to the letter Sunday something she has not done in five years of riding the seawall. "Basically, I've been getting away with it for five years.

I never left the seawall. I never got off my bike. I was totally undisciplined." No one followed the rules because "no one enforced them," she said. "We should have done this years ago." "THE LEATHER PEOPLE" NOW WHOLESALE LEATHER IN VANCOUVER 72 GRANVILLE ST. 682-1681 IN NEW WESTMINSTER 350 COLUMBIA ST.

824-0418 N.W.T. OPENS TO B.C. At Berlitz, we teach our special summer courses in small person-to-person groups. You'll be speaking in the new language right from the start. Call today, space is limited.

T. New road link to north brings end to isolation The first word of your next language. 830 WEST PENDER ST. 485-933 1 Montreal. Quebec City.

Trois-Riviea-s Ottawa. Toronto. Edmonton. Calgary. Vancouver and in 22 countries around the world Special to The Sun FORT NELSON The first all-year road link between British Columbia and the vast Northwest Territories was opened here on the weekend an $81 million, 400-kilometre stretch of gravel that will help change the north.

For tourists the Liard Highway offers access to the Mackenzie River, Great Slave Lake, Nahanni National Park and countless other wilderness regions. The road snakes north from Fort Nelson into the lush Liard Valley, cutting through endless kilometres of virgin forest. Here and there are trappers' cabins or occasional spur roads leading to active mining or drilling operations. But mostly the highway travels through untouched country, as raw and as wild as it was a century ago. The merchants in small communities like Fort Nelson and Fort Simpson expect the new road to increase tourist traffic.

The added commerce will be welcome, but more important, residents of the N.W.T. say, the new Liard Highway is a long-awaited pass to the south. The road provides the first all-year road between B.C. and the N.W.T. In the past, anyone wanting to drive from the territory to B.C.

had to go via the Mackenzie Highway, down through north-central Alberta, or wait until lakes linked in a winter road had frozen over. Politicians took their bows last weekend during official dedication ceremonies, at both the Fort Nelson and Petitot Bridges. But it was the tourists, businessmen and northerners in the crowd who Canada Celebrates were counting their blessings. Merv Townsend, the president of the N.W.T. Motor Transportation Association and owner of a truck company in Hay River, N.W.T., sat on the bridge rail and smiled.

The Liard Highway has cut hundreds of kilometres from his regular routes to B.C. His lumber hauls to Cranbrook will be 1,000 kilometres shorter and the savings will be felt from there to Inuvik. Supplies for the remote settlement on the Arctic Ocean is barged down the Mackenzie River, after being off-loaded from freight trucks. Members of the Fort Liard Dene Indian Band were absent from the ceremonies. They had already used the road to go to Fort Simpson, N.W.T., at the end of the highway, where an annual native sports competition was under way and community organizers were busy preparing for the Pope's visit.

The 300-member Fort Liard community, a cluster of log cabins 40 kilometres north of the B.C. border, now sits on a regular transportation route, instead of on a dead-end road. Business in the economically depressed area is brisk for the first time. The community used to rely heavily on social a s-sistance. During the past seven years, the highway construction period, social assistance recipients decreased to 48 from 211.

The band built a development corporation and with it, a community recreation centre, curling rink, new homes and under construction this summer, a restaurant and service station. The highway was five years behind schedule, but northerners don't seem to mind. John Piety, a member of the Fort Nelson Chamber of Commerce and long-time highway supporter, expects economic patterns to shift from Yellowknife-Edmonton, to within the next five to 10 years. Truckers supply the Mackenzie Valley communities, such as Fort Franklin and Inuvik, can now make deliveries at least a month earlier. They have direct access to Fort Simpson's ice-free ports and aren't forced to unload at Hay River, where barges must wait for the slow thaw at the entrance to the Mackenzie River.

But Florence Wilkinson, Fort Nelson's United Church minister, said the highway has already started to change things in the north. Wilkinson noted that Father Pierre Mary, who used to tour his parish by dog sled and canoe, has now bought a truck. The whole world is invited to join all Canadians in celebrating the 100th birthday of the City of Calgary. In a fascinating The Government of Canada Salutes atmosphere of the Canadian West, Calgary will host year-long festivities befitting the importance of the West. Join us at the Calgary Stampede.

Celebrate with us 100 years of life in Calgary and the Canadian West. Relive a century of western NORTHWEST TERRITORIES I 'fnife 1 F0RT I I 3W mil NAHANI NATIONAL PARK Exhibitions, pavilions, science, technology. Concerts, theatre, variety shows. World class performers. Canadian history.

Discover the marvels of today and the hopes for Canada's future. YUKON Continuous entertainment. SF0RTv -a HAV e2nlVE 1 highwaIi alberta1 I KILOMETRES BRITISH COLUMBIA "rikers bus needy Special to The Sun VICTORIA About 30 bus drivers idled by the transit shutdown in Victoria have joined an emergency service which provides free rides for aged and handicapped people stranded by the stoppage. The idea could spread to Vancouver. Local 3 of the Independent Canadian Transit GAS PRICES SLIP AGAIN Gas prices continued the downward slide on the weekend with Richmond stations setting the pace.

At the Richmond Gulf at No. 3 Road and Granville, gas dropped from 46.4 cents a litre to 45.9 cents a litre at 10 a.m. Sunday after the price changed twice on Saturday. The price remained at 45.9 early today. The Esso station across the street matched Gulf shortly afterwards.

"Domo was the first to drop but we're all holding out at 45.9 for now," said Keith Ramsell, an Esso Has joc key. "Who knows what's going to happen." In the rest of the Lower Mainland, gas stayed at 40.4 cents a litre, down two cents from Friday and 3.5 cents from the regular price. Union has sanctioned volunteer efforts by drivers who use their own cars to take people to doctors appointments or other engagements they could not otherwise keep. Two Victoria service stations are providing free gasoline for the trips and some restaurants have agreed to give meals and coffee to the drivers, Local 3 recording secretary Tony Obersteller said today. The Emergency Handicapped Service was started by Victoria citizen Bob Klassen when the need became apparent after the shutdown June 15.

There are no negotiated developments in the 10-day-old dispute that has halted bus service on the Lower Mainland and Victoria after talks between the union and Metro Transit Operating Co. collapsed. Gerry Krantz, president of Local 2 in Vancouver and Jack Fraser, chief negotiator for the company, agreed there have been no moves toward a resumption of talks. Krantz said volunteer work by idled bus drivers has been done before but nothing has been organized so far in Vancouver, However, he said, "We'll review it today, and if it works out there (in Victoria), we'll have another look at it." (We asked you, D12).