Dear Editor:
I have noticed in recent weeks that there have been many letters and articles printed concerning driving habits, speed cameras and accidents in our area (many at Cox Creek unfortunately). There has also been a lot of debate about these subjects on social media and a common element of these discussions and articles has been whether or not speeding is the main issue or is it road design, infrastructure, population growth, cultural or a combination of factors?
This year, we changed our insurance provider and as an incentive to save premium costs, the new provider asked us to download a “safe driving” app that monitors driving habits and can potentially further reduce your insurance premiums. To save a few bucks, we agreed, and after downloading the app, learned that they monitor three areas: speed, smoothness (braking, acceleration) and focus (distracted driving). Upon driving with the app, we quickly learned that driving anything over the speed limit was recorded as an “unsafe speed” and was ultimately a negative impact on your overall driver rating and potentially on your insurance premium. So, we began to use our cruise control to set the speed limit according to road signs (which almost became a distraction itself given the amount of times speed limits change on our roads).
We’ve been using it for almost two months now and what it tells me so far is that the majority of drivers do not drive the posted speed limit. We drive to Guelph on Highway 6 a few times a month and every time we set the cruise to 80, we have drivers behind us waiting to get by and as soon as we enter the passing lane section, virtually everyone passes us.
We were also recently visiting our daughter in KW and as we drove through a school zone with the cruise set to 40, every single car behind us, passed us (fortunately for them, there was no speed camera in this area).
As an experienced driver of more than 50 years, I know that generally, people drive to the speed of traffic flow, which is usually faster than the posted speed limit on most roads. But once you slow down to the actual speed limit and have drivers literally driving as close as a metre behind us, passing us in unsafe areas and throwing their hands up in the air because they can’t pass, has started to feel we are at risk. As a result, we have started to stop using the app as it feels unsafe to try and drive the speed limit on some roads and safer to just “go with the flow.”
Let’s hope we continue to see infrastructure and roads improve but in the meantime, drive safe everyone and please slow down.
Edward OShaughnessy,
Fergus