Personally, I would much rather pay policemen to be out patrolling for bad drivers than having them investigating yet another traffic fatality.
They would probably rather that too.

“In recent years police agencies have moved away from the old practise of patrolling the highways to ensure that drivers are obeying the rules of the road , to a new approach. The result is that we have fewer officers trying to cover more of the territory.”

—

That may be true, but the Police cannot be everywhere on the highway making sure everyone is following the rules. People simply have to take responsibility for their driving and the decisions they make while doing so. There are too many people who believe that nothing will happen to them. That attitude needs to change.

What does that “new approach” look like?

Shouldn’t they be out there patrolling highway 97 regularly like the Quesnel RCMP detachment is doing it?

I don’t know, I travel north of here on a fairly frequent basis and I seem to see cops on the highway all the time. As much as I remember in the past anyways. I don’t think it is a coincidence that our highways are getting fatal again as technology increases. TVs in vehicles, GPS screens in vehicles, Phones in vehicles, etc. It is going to be the drivers fault 99% of the time as opposed to mechanical, but adding all that technology and putting it in front of irresponsible people doesn’t help. Start by getting rid of visual distractions such as GPS screens, TVs and make it so phones somehow are rendered useless once the vehicle has started. Put a filter in it that causes too much static if it is inside a running vehicle or something.

I don’t think more cops on the highway are going to make a difference. I see just as many cops now as I have in the past. I think I see just as many idiots on the highways as well. They aren’t always the people in the accidents although I’m sure their time is coming. One thing I think has changed is the number of vehicles on the road. There are a lot more commercial and personal vehicles on the highways now. People are more impatient, always in a hurry, add icy roads, and you have a deadly combination.

Interestingly the country as well as the USA have higher populations, thus are driving more in total per year.

We likely have fewer police enforcing laws on the highways.

BUT, the rate of crashes, injuries and deaths have gone down.

Where they may not have gone down is on 2 lane national and provincial highways that are starting to see more large rigs on the roads.

Sort of like dogs. Pit Bulls may not bite as often as Dachshunds, but when they do, you can feel it and may just lose a limb or two or a face.

I would much rather have money go to 4 lane hwy. 16 that will save lives cars can’t cross the center line I its divided. I drive the hwy. everyday and see cops everyday. They can’t be everywhere. But a concrete divider can be. Mr. Rustad needs push for this hwy. to be divided from Alberta to the Pacific. There is lots of money coming thru here from mining, gas and soon there will be oil flowing thru here also. I know it will take time but we need to start working towards that goal.

I challenge everyone to walk around town without a car for just one day. You’ll be amazed at how bad motorists are. It’s part entitlement and part ignorance – many drivers don’t think twice about the impact their actions will have.

Funny, three guys say they see cops all the time, and I drive these highways frequently and see them rarely. Maybe instead of going on anecdotal evidence Opinion 250 could ask the RCMP, how often do you patrol the highways, and is that greater or less than say 10 years ago.

I had a guy tailgating me on Chief Lake road until we saw the police lights for the nose dived logging truck, then he backed off, and as soon as we cleared the accident, he was back again. How do you deal with people like that? And I was doing 85 on the 80 section and 65 on the 60 section, so I wasn’t some white knuckled granny holding everyone back.

I drive around town with a car. I am know how bad drivers are around here. I am no longer amazed.

It is not entitlement, in my opinion. The simple fact is that street/road designs in cities, at least this city are not the best in the world. On top of that, anyone can get a license.

Things are becoming too complicated.

The reasons why rates of crashes have gone down is because there are improved roads in most places (4+ lanes as well as wider two lanes with frequent and improved marking, etc.) and cars have some features which will assist in reacting to emergencies.

There are more cats’ eyes on the sides of roads and in the center lines of roads in the south of the province than there are here.

Saw the driverless car they are working at. They use the lines on the road as well as other sensors to guide them. The sensors can be blinded, as can the driver, if the road is wet and the sun is at a low angle. The whole road becomes one glare.

The seat shakes when that happens to let the driver know that he/she needs to get hands back on the wheel.

Well, there is no seat shaking in today’s environment. Today, very few will slow down when that happens. If they do, and there is someone sitting in a higher seat in a vehicle behind, they will have to hit the brakes, if they can and are not just finishing a sandwich while driving.

Those are real case scenarios and are the cause of some crashes.

Most of the recent fatalities have been on HWY 16. Since November that means winter driving.

There was some discussion recently about upgrading HWY 16 from a ‘B’ to an ‘A’ designation which would bring it into a different bracket for road care and funding from the provincial level.

That would most likely mean more plows and sand trucks on the highway more regularly.

I believe HWY 97 is already an ‘A’ designated highway.