When I look at the trends related to Cochrane’s growth, there is certainly one we could all do without — the alarming increase in collisions.
Many of these are preventable – but lately the spike isn’t just the usual suspects: the intoxicated or distracted driving (cellphone) varieties.
Each week, I’m checking in with our local RCMP officers to report on what seems to be a spike in reports related to impatient driving, traffic congestion and illegal U-turns on major highways (really?).
Week after week, we are observing mounting frustration expressed on social media platforms over careless and perhaps calloused drivers, impatience over the congestion at the dreaded Hwy 22 and 1A intersection and people not anticipating long lines resulting from long weekend or peak time congestion.
I could sit here and pull at your heartstrings, reiterating senseless tragedies that have claimed the lives of Cochranites or travellers passing through on a Sunday afternoon.
I could self-righteously spew some cliché over how laws were in fact, not meant to be broken. But I have made many a critical error in judgment while behind the wheel and it has taken me a few close calls to wise up to my own bad driving habits.
Instead, I just want to take a moment as I prepare to head out on maternity leave for the better part of the next year (I think this baby is on its way any minute now and I guess I better stop writing and pack a bag or something) to remind you that Cochrane is no longer that ‘quiet little western town’ on the edge of Calgary.
We are bustling and booming with 23 per cent growth in two years (whoa! I know…) and with more people comes more cars.
And by the time I’m back to my daily reporting once again (I have all intentions to return), I’m certain we will have grown another five to 10 per cent.
As the town continues to vie for the attention of the province to deal with intersection and highway twinning concerns, accidents are becoming not a weekly, but a daily concern — sometimes multiple reports in one day all within a 20-km radius of this official populous just shy of 24,000.
I completely relate to the epidemic of the busy, modern working parent with the never-ending to-do list, blessed with a short fuse and a case of too little time. But I have tried (and am trying) to learn that patience is not a virtue bestowed to most of us at birth — it is learned through trial and error and a great deal of effort.
Allegedly according to Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’ (note: this is according to pop culture; I have no way to substantiate this quote, but it does sound catchy).
Are we not, collectively as drivers, just a bunch of insane circus rats if we continue to avoid patience behind the wheel, exhibiting awkward displays of road rage and forgetting that we can’t rip from one end of this town to the other in four minutes?
Cochrane has changed and so must our driving habits. We really do have to take an extra few minutes to arrive on time — and if this perpetually late reporter and mom of soon-to-be three can at least try to accept all of the above, I’m pretty sure it will help me to avoid a few close calls and could have the same results for you.
Good luck, my fellow drivers. There are worse things than being two minutes late.
