Editorial

The traffic monster

These days in Slave Lake it’s entirely possible to sit waiting for several minutes to make a left turn onto Main St. from one of the side access roads. The traffic seems endless.
While sitting and waiting, one tends to think about traffic and the things about it one doesn’t like.
Among them is the possibility of somebody getting killed or maimed for life. It seems only a matter of time before this happens at one of our newly busy intersections. Speaking of which, Aspen RHA Health Promoter Tim Horsman made exactly that prediction about the Hwy. 12 and Main St. intersection at a recent meeting.
“I’m convinced of that,” he said.
Horsman favours a reduction in the Hwy. 2 speed limit from 80 to 70 to 50. This may in fact come to pass with enough lobbying, and it would be a good thing, in spite of the inconvenience it poses for some drivers.
Further reflection on the state of Slave Lake traffic leads to the matter of fuel prices. At some point, you would think that high prices would tend to provide an incentive for people not to drive if they don’t have to. But whatever that threshold might be, it has not arrived yet for the drivers of northern Alberta. Nothing short of a total lack of fuel, it seems, will make us decide to walk for 15 minutes instead of driving for four and-a-half.
The OPEC countries are doing their part. Last week’s headlines blared: ‘OPEC thinks there’s too much oil out there’ over a story about a proposal to cut oil production by half a million barrels a day. You know what that means: higher prices.
The terrorists (whoever they are) are pitching in as well. An attack on a huge Saudi Arabian oil refinery (the first ever, apparently) sent the price of oil up by a couple of bucks. There’s a lesson there for anyone bent on bringing the evil industrialized West to its knees.
Or out of its SUV and onto those things at the end of legs that can be used for walking, as the case may be.
Then there’s the matter of cell phones and God knows what other gadgets that distract drivers these days. Sometimes while waiting for a gap in the Main St. parade, you might see every fifth driver or so on the phone. Some of them are also smoking. It is not uncommon to see a driver holding a phone while trying to light a cigarette and drive all at the same time.
None of this stuff is necessarily deadly on its own. But in a situation of increasing traffic volume, and in an economy that has so many people in a hurry so much of the time – well we’re asking for it.
You could say if you don’t like it, move to Saltspring Island, where you can’t go for a walk (let alone a drive) without getting approval from the local environmental/safety committee. This is Alberta, after all.
Yes, this is Alberta, where we have the chance at the best of both worlds. The chance to make a really great living and the chance to stay alive long enough to enjoy it.

Questions of morality
Is there a moral difference between killing a fish and killing a seal? If not, protesters of the annual seal hunt off Newfoundland should consider all the fish they are condemning to death by keeping seals alive.
Another question for Sir Paul McCartney and other celebrity anti-fur crusaders: Is there any morality to be considered in putting people out of work? In stifling a centuries-old way of life?
How about asking the trappers of Canada’s north about that. They and their ancestors have been killing animals for their fur since time began. At what point did it become evil?