Road Maintenance

I exchanged Tweets last week with a commercial truck driver who was less than impressed with the winter maintenance of BC's highways. There is no doubt in my mind that when your livelihood depends on being able to keep your truck moving road maintenance is a subject near and dear to your heart. My question is, was this gentleman speaking from emotion or was he being realistic?

It's probably safe to say that most municipalities have a bylaw regulating the removal of snow from sidewalks. This case involves the City of Vancouver's Street and Traffic Bylaw, Harold Gutovich and the sidewalk in front of his home at 1121 W. 16th Avenue.

Question: We have too many blind corners in our communities says a correspondent. They have seen many near misses because of fences, trees and hedges blocking the view of drivers who are attempting to turn onto a street.

A recent study by Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI) concluded that the average city spent about 1 percent of its infrastructure budget on sidewalks, even though walking accounted for 11 percent of residents’ trips every day and pedestrian fatalities constituted 17 percent of all traffic deaths. Walking (including wheelchair, scooter and handcart use) is the universal travel mode. Improving walking conditions can provide many benefits

"The Ministry builds and maintains safe and resilient roadways and infrastructure, plans integrated transportation hubs and networks, provides affordable, efficient and accessible transportation options for all people in British Columbia, partners with Crown corporations and other entities to deliver transportation services, develops and implements transportation policies, and administers many related acts, regulations and federal-provincial funding programs."

Have you ever wondered if our B.C. provincial highways are being maintained to the proper standard? Just what are those standards? The B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union web site contains that information in a short video explanation. The video explains who is responsible and how to advise them that a problem exists so that it can be remedied.

TranBC is introducing Automated Flagger Assistance Devices (AFAD) to B.C. Drivers. Apparently those drivers pay more attention to the AFAD than they do to a human traffic controller! In addition, if an AFAD is "killed" in a collision, it is simply replaced.

Spreading solid salt on the highway to melt ice takes some time as it has to dissolve in water in order to do the job. Applying salt in the form of a brine solution speeds up the process. This video from the Mainroad Group, one of B.C.'s road maintenance contractors explains about the use of brine instead of rock salt.

No one likes to spend significant effort to clean the snow off of their driveway only to have the plow come by and fill in the highway end of it all over again. Most of us grumble and get to work, but an Errington man decided to stand in the way and prevent the grader from doing this to his driveway. In what almost became more ways than one, he didn't have a leg to stand on.

QUESTION: I am aware of the sign posted at the construction sites about double the fine, but have been told that the fine incurred is actually excessive speed if the speed is too high. Is there an actual regulation about double the fine or is this sign  just a deterrent?