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Thursday, June 25, 2015

Carmudgeon

I do my best to drive defensively, though like any other driver I make mistakes due to distractions, fatigue, incomplete planning and the occasional bad judgment call.

So it puzzles me when many of the drivers around me speed through construction zones as if they don't see the signs at all. The phenomenon is especially bad on Highway 2 between Edmonton and Leduc; there's been an 80 km/h construction zone in place there for months, and yet I daresay most drivers barrel through at speeds between 100 and 130 km/h.

I honestly don't understand this behaviour. If it were one or two drivers, I could chalk it up to fatigue or distraction. But when it's almost everyone, I start to wonder if somehow I'm in the wrong, if I've missed some important secret driving rule. Is there ever a time when it's okay to race through construction zones as if they don't exist? What am I missing? 

1 comment:

Stephen Fitzpatrick said...

It's a toughie; I think people feel entitled to speed when there are no visible construction workers, and can rationalize their behaviour by thinking the lowered speed limit signs were probably intended to be taken down.

I share their frustration to some degree, but really, if we all slowed down to 80 for that patch, it would add less time to the trip than a couple of red lights would.

On the gripping hand, however, I also don't want to be the trigger for someone else's road rage, and will often find myself speeding to keep up with the flow of traffic. It feels like a real no-win scenario; the Go-by-fastly Maru, perhaps.