The safety of Hwy. 101 is under scrutiny by many in this community after several recent accidents.
Many are calling for changes. A ferry-to-ferry cycling network, wider shoulders and fixing some of the dangerous curves - all excellent suggestions and ones we hope to help the community champion for. But there are a few things we all can do in the interim to make our roads safer - go back and study the basics of Driving 101.
How many of us speed up and down this highway? How many of us tailgate? How many of us honk our horns when someone in front is driving the speed limit, but we're in a hurry, so they should be going faster? How many of us get frustrated in Selma Park when someone is turning off the highway, so we pull out on the shoulder and pass them, shooting up a cloud of dust? What happens when someone does this and doesn't notice the cyclist or someone walking and hits them? It's going to happen!
All of us have done one or more of the above at one time or another. Nobody's perfect, and we're all just as guilty as the next.
Two major accidents have occurred involving young people, one with tragic consequences, yet, despite all of that, drivers still don't seem to be getting the message.
We've seen some things this week that continue to boggle the mind.
While travelling to Gibsons Monday, we were approached by someone on a motorcycle travelling at a high rate of speed. Had we been forced to stop in a hurry, the rider would surely have gone through our back windshield. The driver, not wishing to wait for traffic, sped up, weaved in and out of cars and veered back into his own lane, just before an oncoming truck came around the corner. It was pretty close and could have ended in another bad accident.With summer here, more and more visitors are coming to the Coast. Our population will swell over the next few weeks, and while that's great for our tourism industry, it means more cars on the road, more drivers who don't want to follow the rules and a higher probability of more accidents.
There is no question Hwy. 101 needs some work, but you can't always blame the highway. Part of the responsibility rests on our shoulders to drive with some common sense.
Would you rather be safe and maybe arrive a few minutes late to your destination, or would you rather be in an accident with far greater consequences? We'll let you think about that for a moment and answer that question for yourself.
