The Road Crew That Cried Wolf

We, the great unwashed public, get screwed because road builders are lazy. They don't remove the "under construction" road signs and speed limits when they're finished or within a reasonable time, so people get to the point where they simply ignore the "construction speed limit" signs as there is no construction going on; and then the cops show up to enforce.

Worse, when people learn to ignore the signs in one place, they tend to ignore them in all places - and that simply is NOT A GOOD THING! It leads to accidents and deaths; deaths that can be directly attributable to the watering down of the "danger" stigma of construction signs in general.

We got a new bridge here in Pitt Meadows recently - in fact we got two, but I'm only talking about the one over the Pitt River at this point. We'll get to my problems with the speed limits on the other one later.

The building crew were nice enough to open at least part of the bridge early - before the bridge was finished. Yes, the 60kph "construction" speed zone was reasonable at that point, and for quite some time afterwards too. But the past several months there has been ZERO construction on the actual bridge and approach roads, and the "construction" speed zones are still there. A relative of mine (I've been lucky) has been tagged with a $300+ fine and multiple points for speeding in this zone when in fact there was no reason for the speed limit to be set so low.

Nobody drives at the posted 60kph speed limit - nobody! In fact, the road crew is "crying wolf" and causing drivers to learn to ignore their warnings! This is crap!

Just to the West of the new bridge there's a spot (in the East-bound lanes) that recently has had construction almost daily, but they put up and take down their signs daily too. This is how it should be.

Road crews and construction companies that put up signs and leave them up when there is no actual construction going on dilute the public's concept of the potential danger of any road construction sign. Yes, active road construction areas should be properly signed and people should obey them; no excuse!

But when day after day and month after month we drive past "construction speed zone" signs with no ongoing construction, who can blame us for growing skeptical of their validity and simply ignoring them? And having learned to ignore the set on the bridge, some people will ignore them all.

Those of us who have receive tickets should contest them on the grounds that they are "entrapment"

And all of us should tell our MLA that the road crews and construction companies should get a ticket and fine for leaving up their "wolf cry" when it is not necessary.

richard