Be better.
That’s my message to local drivers and municipal staff tasked with clearing our streets and sidewalks, and their overseers.
I’ll start with us drivers. With Christmas arriving in our laps next week, the streets are very busy these days. I urge all drivers to follow the rules of the road.
First thing: be patient. Leave yourself extra time to get to your destination. More traffic means it will take a bit longer to get to where you’re going.
Use your signals to let others around you know your intentions. The roads can be slick at this time of the year, and with added traffic, it’s more likely someone will be close behind you. Let the person following you know you plan on turning. Don’t suddenly hit the brakes and prepare to turn the corner. That could leave you with some twisted metal on the back side of your vehicle, especially if it is icy.
When you turn onto a four-lane road, do it properly. If you turn left, turn into the left lane. If you turn right, stick to the right lane. It’s the law to establish yourself in the lane you turn into before shifting over, if that’s what you want to do. I mean, unless you like possibly sideswiping other vehicles.
Watch your speed. We’re home to our fair share of aggressive drivers, but also some very cautious ones. Combine the two, speed-wise, and bad things can happen. The slow folks can add angst to the ones who seem to always be in a hurry.
Regardless of what speed you travel, please pay attention on the roads. Have some situational awareness rather than just speed from traffic light to traffic light.
And if it seems like I’m pointing fingers, well, I’ll point one at myself. Last week, while headed to The Chatham Voice’s Christmas dinner, I went straight when the light turned green at the intersection of Park Avenue and Queen Street in Chatham. The problem was, the only thing that was green was the left-turn arrow.
I blew through it, and only realized my folly when I looked in my rearview mirror.
I was not paying proper attention.
However – and this is not a defence for me, as my assumption was obviously incorrect – there should have been no left-turn-green light for traffic heading in the other direction. No vehicle was in the turn lane. I saw that fact and thought, “Well, we’re getting the advanced green.” Except I was wrong.
And I should have known better. I see it all the time elsewhere. At lights where technology is in place to assign advanced green to vehicles travelling in one direction, or left-turn-only green to both directions, too often, that tech fails. Cars are left idling for no reason, as there no one in a left-turn lane to prompt the signal to put up the left-turn-only green for both directions. This just slows the flow of traffic and clusters vehicles unnecessarily.
Yeah, I get it. This is a First-World complaint and in a community where we have rush minutes rather than rush hours. But small changes can add up to big changes in traffic flow, which in turn can reduce the potential for accidents.
Now, can we please have more timely plowing and salting of sidewalks? People are walking on the roadways. I’m not talking about being out for a casual stroll down a back street that has no sidewalks. I spotted folks out on St. Clair Street, one of the busiest streets in Chatham, walking in the right lane. Or on King Street. The sidewalks were just too icy…to the point these people figured it would be safer to walk in traffic.
That’s downright scary.
I also spotted a gentleman walking across the Third Street Bridge last week clinging to the railing. I wondered if he was in some kind of medical distress.
Nope.
He was just trying to remain upright. He left his skates at home. The sidewalk was as much glare ice as it was cement.
I realize the conditions last week were horrible. Wet snow, followed by rain, followed by rapid freezing, but while we drivers enjoyed merely wet roads, pedestrians had a harder time of it.
Shouldn’t we be doing more to encourage people to walk, rather than drive?
