Wider Sooke road would be more dangerous

Re: “Mayors call for action for safer Sooke Road,” Jan. 10.

If you think a description of Highway 14 as a race track is a bit dramatic, take a drive and find out for yourself. Start in Colwood around Slegg Lumber.

Ascending the four-lane stretch, you might see in the right lane, travelling at the 80-km/h posted speed maximum, a B.C. Transit bus, an ambulance and a few cars with seniors behind the wheel. In the passing lane will be scores of vehicles, driving and tailgating at 100 km/h, and accelerating, in a drag race to Sooke.

When the road narrows to two lanes and a 60-km/h maximum, speed falls to 80, and to 60 in areas where 40 is the posted limit. Anything to knock five minutes off your travel time to Sooke.

Who doesn’t know that road-straightening, adding passing lanes and widening shoulders will simply increase speed, with predictable consequences, if ICBC crash data are to be believed. What road in Victoria, Langford or Colwood is designed for the traffic of today? Are safer roads the end of having ever more and wider roads? Are bike lanes on a rural highway a helpful suggestion?

If the extent of current lighting, road shoulder markings and line painting on Highway 14 are the result of provincial standards, then revisions are desperately needed. For a road that is safe to drive at posted maximums, that’s a far better and cheaper approach than spending hundreds of millions to make Highway 14 even more dangerous than it is.

Brian Nimeroski Sooke