Editor:
Regarding speed limits on Highway 101, I'd like to point out that any time savings produced by driving at the existing 80 km/h (rather than the proposed 60) between Flume Road and Lower Road are minimal at best. Time saved is measured in seconds, not minutes, and hardly worth the increased gas consumption or the greater risk of collision. The saving is theoretically 90 seconds, but probably less than a minute, considering the number of times you need to slow or stop anyway, along that stretch.
In fact, we could lower the posted maximum to 60 km/h all the way from Gibsons to Sechelt (that is, Elphinstone to Wilson Creek) and it would still add less than five minutes to the entire trip. Maybe that's the conversation we need to be having.
As for the perennial complaint drivers have of being late for appointments and meetings due to slower traffic, try this: leave five minutes earlier. Just assume there will be roadwork, or an accident, or a Winnebago from Wisconsin to slow you down, and include it in your trip plan. I'm sure you'll enjoy the drive a lot more.
But realistically, I'm afraid that there are still plenty of drivers who find that driving faster just gives them a nice feeling. Wanting to go faster is not actually about saving a minute or two here, or a few seconds there; it's about the feeling it gives us. The advertising industry calls it "zoom zoom".
And all the rational arguments in the world about the benefits of slowing down aren't going to change that. It may not make any practical sense, that urge to drive faster, but when you're behind the wheel, faster just seems better, doesn't it?
Jon Hird, Gibsons
