Good luck to all who are travelling by road this season. Better to arrive late than never at all. Take it easy.

WOW that’s new. Ice in winter, on roads?

Sand not being used to make our taxpayer funded roads safe to use isn’t new!

It’s pretty sad when people’s lives are worth less than a few hundred pounds of sand / salt . The lack of road maintenance in this province is bordering on criminal .

DriveBC, another government entity designed to protect people from their own lack of common sense.

Merry Christmas to you all! Please enjoy this season with your family and friends.

Travel safely following a few simple things:

1) Check your vehicle, is it ready for the trip?
Fueled up?
Oil Checked?
Washer Fluid?
Tires inflated properly, tires in good shape, studs all happy to serve you?
No studs? but you have chains in the trunk or box in the cab.

2) Your trip is planned and you have called folks to let them know you’re on your way.

3) You checked road conditions and have an alternate route or funds for a motel room.

4) You’re all fed up, fat and happy tummy, coffee in the thermos for the trip.

5) Cell phone is charged up and ready to go.

6) You have checked your head lights and tail lights they work and are free of snow
even the license plate is clean and unobstructed.

7) You’re ready to head out, take your time and arrive when you get there, time will wait
for you, take advantage of the daylight hours. Enjoy the drive.

8) Running longer than your planned time, pull over and make a call, let them know
you’re safe and on the way.

Came back from the Peace River area today. Lots of compact snow, very little clear pavement. Lots and lots of ice, especially from Mackenzi Junction to Prince George!

Take it easy, headlights AND taillights on please!

Merry Christmas!

Posted by: Ogre1 on December 21 2012 1:57 PM
It’s pretty sad when people’s lives are worth less than a few hundred pounds of sand / salt . The lack of road maintenance in this province is bordering on criminal .

I agree, what will it take to get some sand and salt on the roads, especially when so many are travelling this time of year.

People, it is to cold out to use salt. I am going by memory, but highways wont put salt down unless the temperature is -5 or above. Below that you get a certain amount of meltage, then it turns into glare ice very fast.

As for sand, well, once again our whinny selves have created allot of problems there. When highways use a larger sand size, say 1/4 inch, we all bitch and complain because we get cracks in our windshield and paint. So we force them to use smaller particles, they we see the fresh sand, drive to fast and blow it off the road after about 3 cars go by.

Ever notice the sholders all nice and brown and the highway has no sand? Ever wonder why?

The province does a good job with forest fires.

Imagine if the province instead divided up the forest districts and awarded contracts at set rates for private companies to do the work of the forest service in fighting fires. All would have to stay within their individual budgets, so could only fight as much fire as is in their budgets. Setting budgets for the government would then be easy, and politicians could shift the blame for out of control fires to the private companies that aren’t doing their job. If the politicians needed more money for other priorities they could then demand the private companies do the same work for 10% less and pat themselves on the back for coming up with the savings.

Of course this would be ludicrous if we used the highways maintenance model for fighting forest fires, but it must make sense on some level for the safety of our highways… after all climate change doesn’t fit well into a private companies limited budget, but they say the job gets done anyways….