Get the Message

Ever travelled south on Hwy. 427 in Toronto’s west end? As you near the end of the highway, a large overhead sign says to use the right lane to take the QEW to Hamilton, or stay in the left lane to go to the Gardiner Expressway.

QEW? Gardiner? All you know is you’re late for a meeting downtown and don’t know which way to go. (You want the Gardner. Take the QEW — the Queen Elizabeth Way — and you might sooner end up in downtown Buffalo than Toronto.)

Vague signage is one reason for all those “hail Mary” lane changes by people who don’t have all the information they need to make the right choice, and put themselves and other motorists at risk every day with their last-second decisions. It’s also an example of how the information we need to drive safely sometimes is misinterpreted or missed altogether because it’s not presented to us in a way that we can easily understand. C’mon. The Ontario government should fill in the blanks at the bottom of the 427.

Sometimes critical information is lost in the translation — literally. East of Montreal on Hwy. 20 there’s a sign that warns, “Risqué de brouillard 1.5 K.” If you can’t read French, you don’t know you’re being alerted to a high risk of heavy fog in the area. Think about all those professional drivers from south of the border, or uni-lingual drivers from elsewhere in Canada, who can only wonder what that sign means. Now think back to Sept. 3, 1999, when fog on Hwy. 401 near Windsor, Ont., contributed to a massive multiple-vehicle collision. I wish Québec would make an exception to its strict signage laws and put warning signs in both languages.

Not every example of poor communication happens on a road sign. I recently visited two different provincial government Web sites and checked out their transportation safety information. Both, under their recommended safe driving practices for the general public, state that drivers should maintain a two-second following distance between cars. This, too, is an example of a flawed safety message. Most defensive driving professionals today don’t consider a two-second following distance to be a safe minimum. Yet it’s out there on two government web sites for all to read.

Then there are examples of poor communication by motorists at large — failure to use something so simple as turn signals, for example. Eventually, this bad habit will lead to an accident. This is a very simple and basic process that every driver was tested and evaluated on prior to being licensed. Should this be a targeted enforcement item? I’d swear vehicles are being sold today with turn signals as an optional item.

On the other hand, drivers are sometimes bombarded with too much information. When I read accident reports and statements from drivers, witnesses, police, and adjusters, one contributing factor that often fails to get noted is a driver’s momentary lapse of attention to his most important task: driving.

Drivers face more distractions than ever. I’ve seen people eating, drinking, smoking, and steering all while moving at 100-plus kilometres per hour. I’ve seen drivers reading maps or the newspaper. When I spy a driver on a cell phone, I move away. Even mundane tasks are hazardous when you’re driving: changing a CD or a radio station requires you to take your eyes off the road. Driving is a full-time job. Don’t give it part-time attention.

Finally, I picked up a pamphlet the other day from my local police department — the Peel Regional Police in Mississauga, Ont. They run a program called “Road Watch,” which encourages the public to report poor or reckless driving. You write down details of the event and then fax, mail, or drop off the report to a police station, and they’ll check it out.

No matter where you live, get involved with programs like this to help police identify drivers with behaviors that need adjustment. Your drivers are witness to the best and worst on the road. Open a line of communication and help get the irresponsible drivers off the road.

Road safety is something we must all take ownership in, because if not us, then who?