EDITORIAL — What’s it gonna be on the Coquihalla?

EDITORIAL — Things are getting confusing on the Coquihalla.

Last July, Transportation Minister Todd Stone announced that the speed limit was going up from 110 km/hr to 120 km/hr as a result of the Rural Highway Safety and Speed Review. On several other highways in the region, speeds increased to 100 from 90, or to 110 from 100.

Advocates of higher speed limits cheered the change. An editorial right here, however, questioned it. “That’s great news for proponents of higher speed limits who say lower limits actually create accidents because they interrupt the smooth flow of traffic,” a KAMNews editorial said.

“They say modern automobile technology demands faster speeds. That sort of thinking runs contrary to the number of serious accidents reported every year on the Coquihalla due to excessive speed.”

One of the problems with the Coquihalla is that people drive too fast. The Coq looks like a fast highway, and people drive it fast, winter or summer. They think four-wheel drive vehicles inoculate them from danger, but four-wheel drive doesn’t help you much when you’re trying to stop on ice or snow.

Friday, Stone told reporters the province will spend $24 million to install electronic speed limit signs at three pilot areas, one west of Revelstoke, one on the Sea to Sky Highway and one at the Coquihalla snowshed.

They will be controlled from a ministry office in Coquitlam, which can dial down the speed limit when driving conditions are poor. Stone said the 120km/h limit on the Coq might be too high when there’s a lot of snow.

There’s a song that repeats the lyric “What’s it gonna be?” several times, and it might be appropriate here. To be fair, experimenting with variable speed zones was broached in the rural highway review, so it’s not as though Stone and his ministry are changing horses on the speed-limit issue.

But spending $24-million for special signage so those limits can be reduced from time to time is a clear acknowledgement that speed really does kill when conditions are bad. What hasn’t been proven yet is that higher speed limits in good conditions are safer.