So here we are in the middle of July with all the blessings that July gives us – beautiful warm weather, long days, visitors to our area – and most of that is good, very good. But with the blessings come some of the foibles as well.
Like highway traffic on our roads that are not the four-lane variety that we now appreciate in the Kicking Horse Canyon. Take Golden to Donald, for example. Not that great a stretch of road in July. Two lanes. And those two lanes carrying a significant amount of the province’s visitor traffic.
Of the east-west traffic between Alberta and B.C., the Trans-Canada Highway through our area carries a big percentage. Sure, the Crowsnest, Highway 93 through Radium, Highway 16 through the Jasper/McBride corridor and the Peace area highways also carry lots of traffic, but Highway 1 through here must have the heaviest traffic of all of those.
And yes, it’s the provincial government’s fault, all of the past provincial governments, for it not already being four-lane. But there is only so much money to go around, and highways in B.C. are not cheap; if anyone knows that, we should, in Kicking Horse Canyon country. And since we have no idea when the Golden-Donald stretch will be done, we know we will be driving on the existing road for some years. Which then means that the only hope for safe driving on that road is enforcement of driving rules.
Am I asking for more speeding tickets?
Not really.
But I would sure like more tickets for passing on double solid lines.
I know that speed certainly causes lots of accidents. And since I don’t see accident statistics, I don’t know how many accidents are caused by passing on double solids. But it seems to me that the risks taken by drivers passing on double solids surpass the dangers taken by simply speeding. I agree they are both dangerous and inexcusable, but even if passing on a double solid was considered equally dangerous as speeding, and received somewhat more enforcement attention, I’d be satisfied.
Things always take on a greater impact in our minds when confronted with specific situations, and a couple of years ago I was waiting to turn left onto Anderson Road, the first left turn just west of town, and when a break in traffic occurred, I could turn. But for some reason – just driver’s instinct, I guess – I looked in my rearview mirror to find a semi, well in the process of passing, like halfway past me, to a point where if I had turned, I would have turned right into the front of his truck and would most likely have been killed.
There wouldn’t have been any second chances. And the whole episode was on a double solid line, with good visibility, so the truck driver knew what he was doing. He had to have known it was a double solid area.
If it had just been a rare occurrence, that would have been one thing, but I don’t think it was. I know I’m not the only one who has similar stories at that intersection, and there are many dangerous locations on our highways. But every situation where there is a double solid line is a place where there is significant danger. And many drivers pay little attention.
I know that writing speeding tickets is likely an easy ticket to write. I’m sure that they could be written all day long, every day. But the real purpose of traffic tickets is to save lives, and I don’t question any government’s or any police force’s realization of that. But just like everything else we do, it’s probably easy to often just do the ordinary things. Like writing speeding tickets.
We all see danger on the highways all the time. But I know that when I see double solid passing, I know I’m seeing danger that exceeds the danger levels that I see when someone is driving 110 km per hour rather than 100.
I wish our Minister of Highways would take a look at it and increase the enforcement on some of the other serious dangers, in addition to only enforcing speed limits.
