You’ve probably seen this guy. He’s wearing a yellow retro-reflective jacket and an orange construction hat, holding a stop sign on Sooke Road, by the alley behind Sooke Health Fitness.
You’ve probably wondered what he was doing.
We, too, wondered the same thing.
And like many of you, we’ve also asked him.
His name is Don Wilkinson, and he works for Shadow West Security, traffic control division. He is a part of the team building the new road, joining Church Road to Townsend.
You may also have noticed that turning left in Sooke is, at the best of time, challenging. Your success hinges on the kindness of strangers, or sheer luck.
Having the construction vehicles depend on luck or kindness could add months to the road construction. So, Wilkinson, on seeing a construction truck coming down from Anna Maria Road, stops the traffic in either direction on Sooke Road, allowing for a timely exit for the construction crew.
Wilkinson is impressed with the congestion on Sooke Road. In a 10 minute period between 1-2 p.m., (not even rush hour) he counted the number of cars passing him by for a period of 10 minutes. He got to 350. That’s 2,100 in an hour, and in a 10 hour span, that’s 21,000 cars.
He’s also impressed with the surprising number of drivers who assume that the sign is intended for the person behind them, but not themselves. Indeed, there are those who drive right through.
Wilkinson works from 7:30 a.m. to about 5 p.m. If you see him standing in the road holding a stop sign, please comply. It might slow cause you a two or three minute delay, so adjust your travel time accordingly if being on time really matters to you. He’s not a forever fixture, but he will be there for the next couple of weeks.
For you, it’s a couple of minutes of the day. For him, it’s well over nine hours. Be nice.