Given how little knowledge I have of the current state of area issues...

[camwyn]

Those of y'all who live in western BC, I have a question for you. Think they'll ever build that big-ass bridge between the BC mainland and Vancouver Island? When I was there last there was talk about it, but all the talk was negative. Something about a $50 toll and years and years of engineering and geological fault lines and environmental impact and blah, blah, blah, not worth it as long as we've got ferry service.

I ask because I'm working on the start of a hard SF novel whose protagonist was born and raised in Nanaimo, which I dimly recall was pegged as the most likely location for the Island end of the bridge, given that Victoria is too far south for a straight Vancouver-Victoria link. Granted, only the first scene of the novel- hell, the first scene of the first chapter- takes place in Nanaimo, but it's something I'd like to get straight in my head.

Comments

[ahmeemee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they've been talking about that thing for ages. Personally, I don't see it happening. What's probably going to happen is that they'll decide that if the ferries are working, they'll just improve on it and build these superfast, supersleek things that'll make the trip shorter in theory, but in practise only shave about five minutes off the trip while causing a whole bunch of other damage on the way.

Oh. Wait.

hahahahahaha...

[whobunkyboo.livejournal.com]

PLOP! (falls off chair holding split sides...)

Yeah...proud to say that MY MP was responsible for the selling of the fast cats for less than the value of scrap...

[lwood.livejournal.com]

It's science fiction. A bridge like that would be a big ol'thing, so I think you should say it happened. You're the author, after all.

However, what you may want to consider is what they did to cross the Chesapeake: a bridge/tunnel combination with a nice restaurant in the middle. You could even have a scene in the restaurant where your characters watch a pod of orca swim by!

Well, actually, they could watch the pod of orca on the ferry as well (it happened to me), but still...

-- Lorrie

[camwyn]

Tell you the truth, all I really wanted the bridge for was morning traffic. Our Hero is trying to transport a (well-shielded, well-cushioned, well-concealed) model rocket across town to pick up his friend and co-designer so they can take the rocket out of town for a test flight. He's unaware that the rocket will reach 2,351 meters altitude and explode with the force of your finer class of surface-to-air missile, of course, but what can you do?

Very little of the story beyond that takes place in Nanaimo, or anywhere on Vancouver Island for that matter. Ira will be heading over to Quebec to study towards his degree once the whole matter of the Big Bada Boom is sorted out.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

So is that a rocket in your pocket, or are you...

[camwyn]

Given that what happens to the rocket is the equivalent of Really Incredibly Utterly Premature Payload Deployment, then I'd have to say 'way more happy to see than is healthy for anyone concerned'.

the bridge over the straits

[whobunkyboo.livejournal.com]

No.

NO.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

We don't want it (we being those of us who live on the Island) IF they build it, they would come. (THEY being all the lemmings who still live on the far side of the water.)

I moved HERE because I could no longer stand to live THERE.

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!!

Re: the bridge over the straits

[camwyn]

Gosh, tell us how you really feel...

Seriously, though, I wasn't gonna do more than mention 'bridge traffic', assuming I had the bridge built in the book at all. I figure I can change that to ferry traffic without much trouble. *spares moment for growly cranky memories of being stuck in bus waiting for access to sodding boat back to sodding Vancouver*

Re: the bridge over the straits

[whobunkyboo.livejournal.com]

HEE...

okay, I must admit, I'd probably use it if it was there...

Once or twice a year I get a twinge of sentimental feeling for the Mainland, and think "I should go back there and do (fill in the blank)."

I usually lie down with a cold cloth on my head until the feeling passes... ;-)

[ocean-song.livejournal.com]

And it's this level of detail and thoughtlessness that is one of the reasons why i love you so.

But personally, I hope they never do. Still, in *your* universe, why the heck not. I like the idea of the restaurant in the middle and watching the orcas go by. heh

[camwyn]

Well, the tunnel may turn up eventually, just not in Ira's story. Ira's off the planet by the time he's out of university, and his few visits back to the surface before going on a colony mission will be plunking him down in Quebec and Ontario more than anywhere else in the country. Wayne Zhuang, on the other hand, is in the same universe- and time frame, except that he's a little bit older than Ira. Getting the frell away from the seething mass of weirdness that is the Greater Vancouver area, well, that's big on his list of 'ways to stay sane'.

haha..

[whobunkyboo.livejournal.com]

having moved to the Island for exactly the same reason, I can definitely relate.



Of course, living on the Island brings with it its own seething mass of weirdness, but that's a whole 'nother story! :-)

Re: haha..

[camwyn]

Well, see, Wayne is my whipping boy for weirdness. The story of getting the dog? That's the simplest thing I've ever put him through. The poor sod has also had to deal with a string of murder cases inspired (in my head, not in the context of the story) by a Far Side cartoon, with being the subject of a songfic based on "Another Postcard" by the Barenaked Ladies, and with ... well, just plain being there when I need a target character to thrash with frustration or weirdness.

I really don't think there's anything on the Island that can compare to the stuff I do to Wayne for my own amusement.