By Andrew Clark - from the Globe and Mail
In 1971, bespectacled John Denver sang “Country roads, take me home, to the place, I be-long …” If the singer-songwriter’s behaviour behind the wheel was anything like the driving one finds on most Canadian rural highways, then that place was jail. Rural driving is terrible.
Yet, while millions are spent studying urban road blight, our country cousins don’t seem to be given the same treatment despite the fact that some of the most insane driving stunts imaginable occur on country roads.
In 2005, researchers at the Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research interviewed 212 of the province’s rural drivers. The study found “that it is common for rural drivers to break or ‘negotiate’ traffic laws if it helps them in their work lives or in fulfilment of their immediate needs. They judge some traffic laws as unreasonable and question their effect on safety. Hence, they do not feel committed to universally honouring traffic laws.”
I don’t have a study but i have identified five different culprits of “Rural Road Menace.”
1) The Dusty Pickup. Stick a couple of Australians wearing 1980s shoulder pads, face paint and sporting Mohawk haircuts in there and this vehicle would fit perfectly in The Road Warrior. This guy is local. He knows the roads. His ice fishing buddy is chief of police. You’re doing 90 in an 80 km/h zone and the Dusty Pickup appears in a flash and blazes by you doing 125.
2) The Retiree. His eyesight is fading (he’s legally blind) but it’s okay because his wife rides shotgun and tells him when to stop. He only drives when it is absolutely necessary – like when he needs or wants anything or is simply bored and wants to go for a drive. Treats No Frills parking lot like bumper car ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment