Highway of Death.
Over the long weekend Mrs. Evil and I went to visit my mom in Penticton. It was a nice visit, walked a lot, bought a whole lot of tasty fruit and vegetables to bring home. The trip home was interesting to say the least. There's a lot of construction along the Trans-Canada Highway in B.C. at the moment. The primary reason is to reduce the number of accidents along this road. Now after this weekend I would suggest that a less expensive way would be for people to actually follow the rules of the road. Many cars were speeding at a rate in excess of 30km/h over the posted speed limit. I saw several instances where someone would pass not just when it wasn't safe, but when it was illegal (double solid line or solid line in their lane). If people simply drove the posted speed limit and only passed when it was safe and permitted, the number of accidents along this route would plummet.
Suffice to say that the worst offenders seemed to fall into two categories of motor vehicle, the pickup truck and the sports car. I've had a theory for some time based on observations of drivers here in cowtown. When it comes to pickup trucks, the larger the truck, the smaller the brain of the driver. This was highly evident on the road this weekend. There were several trucks that passed us like we were standing still, sometimes in a place that was illegal to do so. I often wonder what goes through the head of the average pickup truck driver. Nothing, I suspect.
Sports cars were another culprit on the highway, though much fewer in number. I also noted that they were generally only guilty of speeding, tending to pass when it was legal or waiting until the passing lanes appeared. Still not good, but a generally better record than the trucks. At least you expect someone in a sports car to speed.
In all this I saw law enforcement exactly twice. Once on the way out and once on the way back. Either the traffic was too heavy to make stops safe or the RCMP made their ticket quota for the month within the first couple of hours of their shift and were off to other police duties. More enforcement along this stretch of highway would probably do wonders for the safety.
All in all, the taxpayers of BC (and Canada) will be on the hook for improvements to the highway that are there because people are impatient idiots. Admittedly the volume on the highway will justify the improvements, but safety will only improve if people stop checking their brains at the door when they get into their cars.