The Transportation Authority That Cried Wolf

Road speed limits are meant to be broken it seems. The question is, why do we break them so consistently, and why are they set the way they are in the face of this fact?

Maybe it's because at least some of them are set too low; low enough that nobody thinks they're reasonable. Let me tell you about two examples (of the many) around my area.

Back about 17 years ago, when we first moved to Pitt Meadows, the Mary Hill bypass (route 7B) that parallels the Pitt River from the Coquitlam River to the Pitt River bridge, was set at a speed limit of 80kph. Shortly afterward, signs went up at 70kph with "Construction speed zone" under them, and the road was changed to include cement dividers between the lanes. The number of head-on collisions on the road had finally drawn a response.

Then the signs were again changed - the "Construction speed zone" was removed. The speed continued at 70kph and is unchanged today.

Nobody obeys this limit unless they're following a police cruiser. In fact I've followed police cruisers at 85+ (with their lights off.) I've commented to one of our local police's newspaper column about this silly speed limit, and he's agreed that it is silly.

This is a cry of wolf! The speed is artificially low on a limited access, divided highway.

There's another, newer example of this, and the speed is even lower!

The other new bridge Pitt Meadows got recently (see my previous article on the Pitt River bridge) is the Golden Ears bridge across the Fraser River to Langley. The highway on the Langley side connects to Route 15, the major truck route to the US here in the Lower Mainland (aka Greater Vancouver.)

The bridge itself is set to 80kph, a speed that is (almost - would prefer 90) reasonable considering it is a divided, 3-lane highway. But!!! The approaches are set at 60kph, which is ridiculous, especially the portion from the bridge to 176th/R15. This stretch of road, starting on the bridge deck itself, is divided and limited access. The curves are all "super elevated" (banked) and there are only 3 light-controlled cross streets and one off-ramp in the whole stretch. There are no driveways or uncontrolled intersections. The one major flaw is that the 3 intersections don't have "pre-warn" lights before the intersections; likely a cost-saving at the time of construction.

Contrast this with 176th/Highway 15. It is 80kph for much of its length yet has driveways and uncontrolled intersections and no median. What gives????

The RCMP love to sit at the 192nd cross-street and pick off the speeders. This is entrapment! Even if there is no pre-warn, the road could have graduated speed limits close to the cross-streets and at least 80kph on the long stretches in between. This is similar to what is done on the Island Highway North of Parksville, where the speed limit near lights on the highway is dropped from 110 to 90 prior to the pre-warn. There's no reason the speed could not be dropped from 80 to 60 near the intersections; but better would be to put the pre-warn lights in instead; my (your, our) time is worth it.

Maybe, just maybe, we're being manipulated by Translink - the "Authority" that is responsible now for road infrastructure here in Greater Vancouver. You see, they also push public transit. In fact that's what they were originally chartered for.

Add to this the fact that there is a perfectly good on-ramp on the Pitt Meadows side of the bridge that is "Transit Vehicles Only", yet is perfectly placed to allow the general public to otherwise not have to pass 2 parks and a school to get to this bridge; and which is used so seldom by buses that I've only seen one actually use it in the many months it's been open, and you have a wonderful conspiracy IMHO.

Low speed limits. Under-used on-ramps.

It's our money that pays (tolls, taxes, carbon taxes, gas taxes) for these roads and bridges and we're the ones getting screwed

Enough!

Tell your MLA you're not going to take it anymore.

richard