Today, while driving to work listening to the news, I hear of a plan to put pace cars on the roads in Langford thereby ensuring everyone does the speed limit and is safe. There has been a grant approved and one of the champions of this initiative is a fire fighter from Langford. I, for one, applaud him for his efforts to keep our streets in the CRD safe. Lord knows he has seen his share of tragedy in his career as a first responder.
The pace cars will be driven by volunteers. This program is a waste of resources and money. What is the difference between a person driving their own car at the speed limit, which will slow down traffic, and driving a specially marked car and slowing down traffic? I suppose one would argue the optics and making drivers more aware. My argument is that’s great for the first couple of cars behind the pace car, but what about the freight train of traffic behind that? What happens when a speeding driver passes the pace car? Probably nothing, unless there is an RCMP officer around. So what is the difference?
If you really want to make a difference in driver behaviour, perhaps putting speed trap signs up would be a wiser idea. All drivers will see their speed, if you are over the speed limit it flashes your speed in red. I see the speed signs, check my speed and slow down. More enforcement perhaps, nobody likes a ticket. Increasing the speed limit will only make it worse as the majority of drivers go 10 km/h over anyhow. Reducing the speed limit? The majority of drivers are already speeding and will probably speed more.
Speeding is indeed a problem that needs to be addressed. This one idea is not in the best interest for the volunteers that will be driving these cars as road rage will surely come their way. Nor will it stop the aggressive driver in the freight train of traffic behind the pace car. It is an idea, but not the best one.
Rod Holt
Sooke