Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

Still Think You Don't Need Winter Tires?

Judging from the chaos on the roads today, a lot of people still don't.

I was in a big four-wheel drive SUV which only had no-season tires on it (a sharply-worded e-mail is in the works...) and even that got stuck a couple of times.

I know there's no point in whining to you people (my audience) about all the stupid drivers out there - you know this, and (I hope...) you aren't among them.

But so many people spinning out, everywhere!

I heard from one reader that several ramps off the 407 were blocked this morning because drivers who were presumably still doing the usual buck-forty on that road despite the obviously limited traction and visibility found out when they hit the off-ramp that - hmm-mm, my brakes and steering don't seem to be working as well this morning...

No s__t, Sherlock.

On Highway 25 heading up the Escarpment towards my house this 'prevening', to use Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper's term, there are two lanes northbound, to accommodate the big trucks climbing the hill. But the Jim-Only lane was not being travelled in, hence was still snow-covered, so only the left lane was clear enough for traffic.

That didn't stop several cars - a red four-door Jeep Wrangler, a black Ram pick-up and a black Infiniti EX Crossover among those I personally witnessed - from diving out into the on-coming downhill lane to pass me and several other vehicles, including an eighteen-wheeler which was struggling to, literally, make the grade.

Yeah yeah, brave guys - we all got four-wheel drive too. Remember; mostly what that does is let you have your crash at a higher speed.

Seriously; what is SO important that you have to save four seconds getting home? At the risk of a very serious head-on crash? For which you would be 100 percent at fault?

The best us sane people can do is to back off, and let them go have their crash with somebody else.

Or a guard rail.

Oh yes, one more thing, one more time - just because your dash lights are on doesn't mean your taillights are on. With most Daytime Running Lights systems, they aren't.

So nobody coming from behind can see you. Particularly critical in inclement weather like today's.

Not sure about your car? How about doing a walk-around before leaving home tomorrow morning and find out?

Better still, just develop the proper habit - fire up your car, then fire up your full headlights.

All the lights on, all the time.

Simple.

Safe.

No-brainer...

 

Road Signs for my Present, Your Future

I don't wear these Coke-bottle-bottom lenses on my face for decoration.

Sure, my 'corrected' eyesight is easily good enough for a Driver's Licence.

Even for a Racing Licence.

But do I see as well as I'd like to be able to see?

No.

I'd love to be able to read a newspaper from across the room, as someone once (I think incorrectly) said English racing great Stirling Moss could do.

And I'm too chicken, too astigmatic (and too cheap) for LASER treatment.

I'm obviously not alone here either. As our population ages (beating the only available alternative), our vision is collectively going to get worse before it gets better.

Which makes me wonder why municipalities don't make it easier for drivers to find out where they are going.

One thing they could do is be a whole lot smarter about where they position road- and street-naming signs.

Let's say, for example, you're headed south on Erin Mills Parkway in Mississauga. You see a major intersection way up ahead.

Is that Eglinton Avenue?

Can YOU tell from this photo?

If you can then YOU'RE Stirling Moss - fifty years ago.

Because the sign indicating it IS Eglinton Avenue is located only on the far side of the intersection itself.

By the time you get close enough to realise this, and if you want to turn left, then (assuming of course you're in the right lane where logic, courtesy and the law require you to be) you've got three lanes plus (in this case) two left-turn lanes to negotiate, all in about a hundred meters of 60 km/h road.

Not good.

Why isn't there a sign a few hundred metres back up the road, indicating that this up-coming intersection is in fact Eglinton? You'd have plenty of time to react.

Not everybody can afford a car with SatNav, with Doris of the Dashboard telling you where you are at every moment.

Sure, you'd still want the sign at the intersection itself.

But more advance warning?

It would make a huge difference.

I'm not picking on Mississauga here. Every municipality in the GTA - frankly, almost everywhere in the world - is guilty of this to some degree.

What makes it particularly frustrating is that not half a klick away, just around that left-hand turn, they have done exactly that. If you're headed west on Eglinton approaching Credit Valley Road, here's what you see:

Could hardly be clearer.

Well, they could put a sign on a pole in the centre median too, as they do in some instances.

Here, they've even put the house number range on the sign, so if you know the exact address you're looking for, you know which way you have to turn.

It is clear then that somebody within the Mississauga transportation department (road sign division...) knows how this is supposed to be done.

My question: why aren't they consistently doing it correctly?

Of course, if they'd just eliminate these stupid, sprawling, horribly dangerous, traffic-light-controlled multi-lane intersections altogether and replace them with roundabouts, the problem (and dozens of others) would cease to exist.

But no municipality within the GTA is smart enough to figure that out; I admit, I'm aiming low here, hoping that a few more properly-positioned road signs can at least alleviate the danger.

It would be a start.