Albertans And Bad Roads

[reevesr1]

Due to the quality of the roads, my wife and I decided to not let my son drive back to U of A yesterday. While they were marginally better today, we decided the best thing to do was for me to lead him up convoy style. While he is a pretty good driver, he is 17, and mom was just too worried about him.

 

There was evidence everywhere of the carnage of Sunday. Still plenty of cars in the ditches, up on the cables on the median, and you could see many, many places where cars had been drug out. Once you got to just before Leduc, the real fun started. Roads there were still pretty crappy, and I have no way to guess how many cars had gone off the road. And the snow was deep! Every car that was still in the ditch had it's windshield wipers sticking up where the snow must have come up over the hood and pulled them up or ripped them off. That and many cars had obvious axle issues, with tires sticking in odd directions. Scary stuff, but we made it no issue. Just kept the speed down, gave everyone lots of room and no issues at all. Really, other than the Leduc to Edmonton corridor, around Lacombe, and between Airdrie and Crossfield, the roads were ok.

 

So with all this carnage evident, you would think everyone would take the hint and slow down, particularly in the icy/snowy sections. Well, in fairness, many, or maybe even most, did. But I was absolutely amazed at the number of people just flying down the highway. One memorable time is when a 18 wheeler flew into a 50 KM/hr zone, established due to the 5 or 6 emergency vehicles pulling another 18 wheeler out of a ditch. And I don't want to just blame the big trucks. The pickup truck crowd seems to ignore bad roads as well. I used to have a big pickup. I didn't really notice that they were all that super stable on ice. But I guess I was wrong judging by the speed.

 

One of the things I've always heard about is how southerners can't drive on ice. Well, that's true. We don't have any practice, and are not experienced enough to drive to conditions. But here? What is the excuse? Everyone knows what ice is like. Slippery! I guess many think it just doesn't apply to them. A couple of hundred cars and trucks in the ditch on the QEII this yesterday would tend to disprove that. Amazing.

[bigbowtrout]

I drove up on New Years day and back on the second. Same thing in the same places up near Leduc. That section can get real bad real quick.

Bad drivers plus lack of good tires = Ditch and tow.

 

The wiper thing is to tell everyone that the car has been cleared of any people. Most of the time they use yellow tape and tie it to the wiper but with all the nasty wind it could have blown off or maybe they just ran out with the amount of cars in the ditches.

[midgetwaiter]

I used to do Edmonton to Calgary and back every week, there are spots in between Leduc and Edmonton that can be really bad. There is one corner just by Nisku that is usually icy and knowing this I always slow down there but I still ended up in the ditch one night, it was just too icy. You made the right call for your son.

 

I agree with your other observations though, I drove back convoy style with a buddy on the second and we saw some remarkable morons. I will never understand why some people can't see the danger, wispy snow blowing across the highway = BAD.

 

 

[Ricinus]

You can't stop Stupid. The QEII from Leduc to Edmonton is really slippery, you can see the ice glistening on the road but some people just don't get it. As far as one type of vehicle being worse than others, I didn't notice it--everything from SUVs pickups and young girls in their Civics were driving like it was summer. Guess my Insurance will go up again to pay for these bozos.

 

Regards Mike

[Bigtoad]

What I don't get is the stupid cable fence that they have the entire way down the QE2. I realize that it is there to stop people from crossing the median and going into oncoming traffic but couldn't they just have put one cable fence down the middle in the meridian? It would have been half as expensive in the first place and:

 

- there is now no room to move over if you have to fix a tire or other emergency issue ( I realize you should go to the other side anyway but sometimes it's safer just to pull into the nearest shoulder/ditch).

- cars now, instead of sliding unharmed (or very little damage) into the ditch will hit the fence and wipe out at least one entire side of their vehicle.

- cars could hit the fence and bounce back onto the road like a giant pin-ball.

- those posts look like big freaking spikes to me. Maybe they've even sharpened the tops so that when there is a rollover- the impaling will be quick and effective.

- In a bad storm, from here (Lacombe) to Edmonton I've counted over 20 vehicles in the ditch on the Northbound alone. If half of them are on the fence side, that is 10 places that they are going to have to fix every storm. Over the course of the winter, I bet it would be close to 30 places they are going to have to fix. AND, they won't be able to fix them until the ground thaws in the spring! If they had put the fence in the middle of the median, it still would have stopped cars from crossing but only a handful of vehicles would have skidded that far, so limited repairs come spring.

-oh, and when they do fix them, they are so close to the road that they will have to shut down the left lane where they are fixing it and back the highway up a few miles on the Friday before the May long weekend!

 

Looks to me like a make-work-and-continued-work project to me, that is very unsafe, expensive, and mostly unnecessary.

 

Cheers.

[reevesr1]

While the fence certainly guarantees major car damage if you hit it, I personally like it. It keeps people from coming into my lane from the other side of the highway. These fences go a long way toward eliminating head on collisions on the highway, which are quite likely to be fatal. If someone damages their car hitting the fence (or even if I damage my car hitting the fence), so be it. I think it is an acceptable price to pay for avoiding potentially deadly accidents.

[ham]

Hey rick dont quote me on it but I'm pretty sure the windshield wipers you saw all up are a sign that the RCMP have checked the car and theres no one in it, its to differentiate between new cars in the ditch and ones that have been there for a day. I believe they also flag them with either Blue or Yellow tape on the wipers thats up for some other reason as well.

[reevesr1]

Hey rick dont quote me on it but I'm pretty sure the windshield wipers you saw all up are a sign that the RCMP have checked the car and theres no one in it, its to differentiate between new cars in the ditch and ones that have been there for a day. I believe they also flag them with either Blue or Yellow tape on the wipers thats up for some other reason as well.

 

 

Well there you go, learned something new today. I saw the tape, but did not think of them actually raising the wipers. I just figured with the snow as deep as it was it pulled the wipers up as the cars were engulfed in snow.

 

 

 

[Taco]

I wonder what percentage of the ditchdrivers were 20 yr plus residents of "don't like the weather? wait 15 minutes" Alberta?

 

[birchy]

The wiper thing is to tell everyone that the car has been cleared of any people. Most of the time they use yellow tape and tie it to the wiper but with all the nasty wind it could have blown off or maybe they just ran out with the amount of cars in the ditches.

 

That was new to me as well! Makes perfect sense though..

 

As others have mentioned, I think tires play the 2nd biggest role in these accidents (next to people not slowing down). I know I've said it before, but it amazes me when walking along sidewalks, or in parking lots, how many vehicles have BALD tires. Back in Nova Scotia, it was pretty much impossible for this to happen because you need to have your vehicle safety inspected every single year (at least you did before I left in '99). Bald tires would cause the vehicle to fail the inspection. I suppose the only way around it would be to have a buddy that does inspections and give him a case of beer or something..

 

I could be mistaken, but it seems to me they don't take vehicle safety inspections as seriously here.. get it done once, and you're good. About the only time you need to have it done outside of that, is if you're buying a car that's >12 years old.. some insurance companies require a safety inspection before they'll insure it.

 

Proper tires make a night and day difference in this weather! Winter Tires > Winter rated All-Seasons > All-Seasons (3 seasons) > bald tires.

[Ricinus]

I wonder what percentage of the ditchdrivers were 20 yr plus residents of "don't like the weather? wait 15 minutes" Alberta?

 

The classic-- the city sent graders etc down each residential road to clear a path for everybody. Instead of clearing the windrows from their driveways, some thought they could drive thru them with cars with 6" of clearance and all seasons and ended up high centered. I was going to stop and help but decided if you're that dumb, you can wait for a tow truck.

 

Regards Mike

[bigbowtrout]

Hey rick dont quote me on it but I'm pretty sure the windshield wipers you saw all up are a sign that the RCMP have checked the car and theres no one in it, its to differentiate between new cars in the ditch and ones that have been there for a day. I believe they also flag them with either Blue or Yellow tape on the wipers thats up for some other reason as well.

Well there you go, learned something new today. I saw the tape, but did not think of them actually raising the wipers. I just figured with the snow as deep as it was it pulled the wipers up as the cars were engulfed in snow.

 

Goes to show that Rick never reads my posts

[darrinhurst]

Rick, what I think everyone is dying to know is, how did the Ridgeline do?

[Avalanche]

young girls textingin their Civics

 

Fixed...

 

The biggest issue, in my opinion, is people who have no idea about what to do if they go into a slide or skid. This is something that isn't taught at driving school and no one is tested on. Today, coming off Memorial Dr eastbound turning onto Crowchild Tr southbound, I hit some nasty ice right where you enter Crowchild. The tail wagged a bit. I corrected and let it slide into the strip of sand(gravel) between the two lanes and carried on my merry way, no harm done. The guy in the pick-up behind me came around the corner, the tail came out, he over corrected and nearly caught the guardrail with the back end before shooting across 3 lanes of Crowchild and into the pile of snow that kept him from hitting the middle guardrail. He was incredibly lucky he didn't take someone out on his way across and incredibly lucky someone coming up that lane didn't nail him. Somewhere in there I think he dropped his phone. This could all have been avoided if he (1) had been watching what was going on in front of him and would have seen me slide and (2) had any idea what to do when he started to slide and (3) wasn't focused on his phone call. I see this stuff all day, every day, when the roads are like this and can do nothing but shake my head and hope one of these idiots don't take me out...

 

[Tungsten]

Bang on Dale,people panic and do all the wrong things when they hit ice.

[reevesr1]

Goes to show that Rick never reads my posts

 

You say something?

 

Darrin, Ridgeline was great.