“watch for wildlife coming out of the bush and onto roadways”

In many areas the brush is so thick up to the shoulder of the road you don’t stand a chance when one jumps out in front of you. Why are our taxes no longer paying for brush control along our hwy’s? Cross the border into Alberta and see the difference quality makes!

Dragonmaster our taxes are being paid towards brush control, but are being redirected to other things like the “see to die highway”, subsidizing gulf islands ferries etc.

Why do we need brush control. Why don’t we just “Slow the hell down?”
Common sense goes a long way to assist our driving skills.

I think I have to agree with brush control. I was going 20 km under the speed limit and was lucky the deer changed its mind. Seeing an animal in the ditch before it runs on the road can make the difference. Slow, slippery, dark or not.

Hey Grizzly…How slow do you want us to go?? 20, 30 , 5 mph ??? tell me .

Are you a shareholder in YRB Grizzly1?

We do not have brush control because we are not the province with the blue-eyed Sheiks which can afford brush control.

“Cross the border into Alberta and see the difference quality makes!”

I’m willing to bet Alberta has far less brush to clear than BC does.

And I have to agree with Grizzly that people are often going too fast for the conditions. But people don’t like to hear that.

Its common sense when it comes to winter driving sadly a good portion of drivers who drive in the winter have little common sense

Driving too slow when in a snowfall which affords less visibility is also dangerous since cars coming up behind will have problems seeing cars ahead, never mind the animals playing chicken on the sides …

If you feel uncomfortable, unsafe, etc. get off the road until the weather has changed to allow you to feel comfortable and safe again.

The meeting you need to get to can go on without you.

If you are dead on the road, meetings will go on without you more often than just once.

And turn your freaking cell phones off!

Gus. I completely disagree with you about getting off of the road until the weather changes. Where do suppose to go then when you are in the middle of no where? The shoulder of the road? Because the pull outs are very hard to see in the winter night. Especially along Highway 16 between PG and McBride.

It is also illegal to be going to ‘fast’ when the conditions are poor. Including doing the speed limit in a heavy snow storm.

When conditions are poor, SLOW DOWN. The highway speed limits are for IDEAL conditions. not ALL road conditions.

There have been several times when I have been on the highway when I entered into snow storms and heavy fog where the visibility was only 5 feet in front of my vehicle. To avoid any potential hazards, I slowed down and always will. Other wise it is very reckless of me to do so. Especially for my family’s sake.

In Calgary, we have had 4 consecutive snowfalls on the weekends and there were over 500 accidents, with multiple vehicles involved. Most of these are due to not driving to the conditions, mainly speeding. Last weekend, there were almost 100 accidents on Southern Alberta highways, all involving not driving to the conditions. Fortunately, I have not heard of any fatalities.

When you are driving on the road, you need to drive to what that person is doing in front of you, not what you want them to do. You pass them when it safe to do so.

I completely agree that when the road conditions are poor, stay off of them, highway or city. But if you have to drive on them, drive to the conditions. Which means SLOWLY. and with more attention to what is going on around you.

Well said gus, one other thing that will greatly affect handling is tire pressure. Make dam sure they are all even and if you drop them down to say 25lbs your traction will be better than it is at 35lbs. But if you can’t drive in the winter stay off the road and keep everyone safe until you learn how to. Go in a open area and practice practice practice. Wildlife does not obey rules so it is up to you to avoid them, there is no excuse for hitting wildlife. You hit them because of bad driving and poor judgement.

I rarely agree with Johnny Belt, but, there is a big difference in brush control in Alberta. Most of the Alberta highways do not need brush control. There is only grasses that grow to the edge of the highway. Which is about half of the province. The only areas that need brush control is near the mountains and northern Alberta. Alberta spends less on brush control than BC, that is because most of BC highways needs brush control.

I have driven most of BC northern highways and there is brush control on all of these highways. The brush control gets a little lax in the swampy areas along the highway.

Alberta’s ditches are great, BC are deep and dangerous. Without brush control our snow plows cannot get the snow off the highways far enough.. plus wildlife cannot be spotted in time making our highways not safe at all.

Drive the main roads as often as you can, always first plotted.

Super Gus, sometimes people have to get places no matter the weather. Just think if all the truckers didn’t drive when the roads where bad.. We would all be out of supplies in a matter of days . I hope ambulances, police and fire would drive no matter what. But in your little cut and paste bubble reality rarely shows up.

cut and pasted the following from P Val the almighty’s post

“Just think if all the truckers didn’t drive when the roads where bad”

Hold on …. takes me a while to think with the complex thoughts you always produce. ;-)

Think I better wait. I’ll get back to you later ….

If its any consolation, those of you who think that people here don’t know how to drive in winter haven’t been to New Jersey, where I once spent a year. It snows enough that one has to contend with hazardous winter driving conditions, but not enough for drivers to become experienced or to pay for winter tires, or for the governments to be willing to pay for a lot of snow plows. The result is that when it snows, it takes a long time for even major roads to be cleared and people are driving around, often on urban highways, with speed limits of 60mph and frequent entrances and exits, on summer tires, without knowing what they are doing. It is really terrifying to see so many people sliding around the road at 60 mph.