Orleans Weekly Journal
Published: Friday, November 30, 2007 

Winter's blast emphasizes dangerous habits

Once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget … or so the saying goes. Too bad it doesn’t apply to winter driving. Last week’s 15 cm of snow – a piddly six inches – predictably produced in excess of 100 fender-benders, ditched cars and spinouts.  It baffles me that folks forget to go slower, clean off their lights, leave more room to brake, top up their washer fluid, remove the caked-on ice from their roof and still drive with bald and/or all-season tires.

Sadly, it’s symptomatic of the fact that we increasingly take the danger, complexity and responsibility of driving for granted. Our vehicles are not harmless toys. They are complex examples of engineering excellence that, when handled improperly, can hurt, injure and kill.

Driving has become so automatic that we hardly give it a second thought. Cruise the 174 daily and you will find folks applying makeup, typing on their Blackberries, or reading a book. This behaviour is stupid and inexcusable.

Next up is the issue of merging, be it from Charlemagne onto Tenth Line or from any on-ramp to the 174. Folks, the merging lane is 400 metres long for a reason. It exists for you to speed up and join the flow of proceeding traffic.

Slowing down and stopping at the first five metres, signaling and then attempting to merge from a standstill is ludicrous. And for those of you in the mergee lane, share the road and let your fellow drivers in. Ditto for lanes that are ending 100 metres to 500 metres up the road. Go to the end then merge into the reduced lane or lanes in an alternating fashion.

Finally, drivers need to be mindful of pedestrians. As a fervent Orléans jogger I am always amazed that most cars forget that traffic flows both ways. When turning right from your side street onto another, yes you must look left to ensure it is safe to turn.

But it is even more important for you to look right so you don’t sideswipe a jogger, walker or cyclist. This is why the stop sign is placed before the sidewalk. Oh and FYI, the white line around the stop sign doesn’t make it optional or that rolling stops will suffice. Stop, look and look again!

And yes I was the jogger at the corner this summer that smacked the crap out of your trunk as you blindly and blissfully turned without a care in the world. Better me than your neighbour’s kid huh? Smarten up!

To be fair, pedestrians, joggers and cyclists must do better as well. Walkers, when crossing the street, especially in the winter, take off your hood and be aware. Joggers, you need to run against the grain of traffic when a sidewalk is not available or accessible, not with it. And cyclists, once it snows and the ground is covered in white, it’s time to put the bike away until April, period. Let’s all be aware and stay alive.