X does not equal X

by Brandon Mayer

Small towns talk, and they love to talk about bad drivers. Sure, people who live and work in large cities can’t drive either, but the small town vibe is different. Bad driving in a community where everybody knows everybody gets a lot more personal. Residents here also have a perceived sense of “ownership” over their streets and roads, so the arms tend to fly up in a classic “what on earth are you doing?!” gesture when they see someone going too fast. A popular sentiment is, “if you run over my child or dog speeding down my street, the police will be the least of your worries”. I agree!

Many are of the opinion that a speed limit of 40 km/h is appropriate in any residential neighbourhood. It is already this way everywhere inside Kemptville town limits and I agree that this does make for a safer area in places where people are constantly moving around and children are at play. There will always be people who find it too slow, but I’m not one of them – not for inside town limits. A lower speed provides additional reaction time and minimizes the severity of any collisions that do occur.

When it comes to outside of towns and villages, and specifically on our county roads, my opinion differs. The speed limits and some other traffic control features in some parts of these roads make little sense to me. One consideration when determining a speed limit or the type of intersection that will be used in a particular spot is whether the measure will be TOO controlling. This is not just because it would impede traffic flow, but because it tends to diminish drivers’ overall respect for rules of the road. Isn’t that fascinating? If we, as motorists, see a few seemingly pointless stop signs or a section of road with an unnecessarily low speed limit, we stop taking driving rules seriously altogether. And of course, in that case, driving becomes more dangerous