We had a variety of weather, from rain, to wind gust of 105km/h, to super mild (15c) to super cold (-15c) to snow to freezing rain; we had it all.

With all this wacky weather we had it made for some very interesting driving conditions. A couple of mornings while on the road I crept up on the plow and I actually thought the plow was making the road conditions worse. The roads went from snow-packed to a glistening ice with intermittent snow. The plow was also not applying any sand or salt.

I’m not really sure what the solution to this is but I do think I would have been safer if the road was left snow-packed as opposed to plowed.

It is Christmas day today and I just wanted to send out a reminder to respect the roads. Environment Canada predicts that the entire country will be blanketed in snow for the first time since 1971, which means we need to respect the roads.

Here are some simple driving tips to make sure you arrive safely to your destination…

• Drive according to the conditions - slow down if you have to. Arriving for dinner 10 minutes late is better than not arriving at all (there are always too many accidents on Christmas Eve and Day).
• Make sure you have enough windshield washer fluid - Visibility is essential to safe driving, make sure you clean your windshield as necessary. Keep an extra bottle of fluid in your car.
• Carry a good ice scraper - make sure you completely clear your front and rear windshield as well as your lights. By clearing the lights you can see where you are going and people behind you have a better chance of seeing your brake lights
• Keep blankets in the car - with our extreme weather these days you never know when you will hit a storm and get stuck. Make sure you have blankets, gloves, extra clothes in case you are stuck on the highway somewhere
• Be polite - it’s the holiday season be cheerful and joyous and wave to people as you pass them

I hope everyone has a very happy holidays, however they chose to celebrate.

Snow Removal…

The Quebec plows don’t mess around, if you are in the way you get hit AND it’s your fault! Out in the rural areas on the highways the plows drive at about 100 kilometers an hour right up against the snowbank pushing the snow further and further over. As a runner trying to get back to my chalet it was frightening at times (no music then I had to be fully and completely aware of my surroundings).

On the highways in the urban areas a plow is followed by 6 or 7 dump trucks that pile the snow up and cart it off. They block entrances, exits, lanes … and no one complains and the snow is efficiently and effectively removed.

On the city streets smaller plows and dump trucks work in conjunction with each other to clean the streets. Again cars know to just get out of the way of the plows. But the plows are extremely respectful of the pedestrians, always giving them the right of way and looking out for their safety.

Ice Maintenance…

My first day in Quebec was 8 degrees with rain followed by a deep freeze. It made for some very slippery conditions and the thickest ice I have ever seen on the roads. I was out at Mt Ste Anne (about 50km east of Quebec City) and the plows only used sand. I was just amazed at how well it did at clearing the ice. The sand was left on the salt and later on the plow followed up and cleared the thick ice off the road. By the afternoon the roads were safe again for running, so they must have been safter for driving!

Quebec, particularly eastern Quebec, recieves a significant amount of snow each year (they had almost 7 meters last year). They have to be efficient at removing the snow otherwise the cities roads and highways would be paralyzed.

Over the last 24 hours there has been some exciting announcements on 680 news with respect to accidents and trucks.

Drivers Should be Held Accountable in Bad Weather

This was the statement from Police Chief Julian Fantino (here). He stated that he believes and the statistics support that 40% of accidents in poor weather conditions are due to irresponsible and reckless driving. With the latest snowfall in Ontario over the weekend there were more than 3000 crashes between Friday and Monday morning; Fantino claimed that 99.9% of them were avoidable.

Fantino’s plan make these irresponsible drivers responsible for the damages. Fantino has put forward to legislation a bill that would make the reckless driver responsible for paying the bill for the accident not the insurance company. This is no radical idea, several US jurisdictions have a similar policy, including Wisconsin.

Speed Limiters for Trucks Hit Ontario January 1, 2009

Do you sometimes feel like the truck beside you is trying to race you as you try to pass it? Well those days are hopefully over. Come January 1st, trucks will be required to have governors installed limiting their maximum speed to 105 kilometers per hour.

But some are opposed to this. As reported by Today’s Truckingthe Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) thinks this law violates the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The OOIDA vows to fight the rule in an effort to have it revoked.

I guess the OOIDA doesn’t understand that safety is paramount. I reported back in October when my friend passed away in that horrible accident on the 427 that I believe that change had to come from the top. The OOIDA is part of the top and their attitude needs to change.  Speed limits are enforced for a reason and truckers, just like motorists, need to respect the speed limit.

Will the roads in Ontario be safer? It is too early to tell. It will be a matter of enforcement. Having laws and regulations in place is not enough, people must be held accountable for their actions for there to be any real difference.

I was thinking about how I could be ‘green’ over the holidays and here is a quick list of things you can do to be eco-friendly:

• use LED lights - they use significantly less energy and they do not get nearly as hot as traditional lights. And this year they have been much improved and don’t have that bluish tinge to them anymore
• re-usable tress - this one is a bit of a debate because so many of the ‘fake’ trees are made from plastics. But trying to find an eco-friendly one. We need all the trees we can get in the ground
• Organic Turkey - typically organic farms are much more eco-friendly, plus the bird usually tastes better too
• Local vegetables - it is tough here in Toronto these days to get locally grown stuff (the city, suburbs and rural area is burried in snow) but try to buy stuff from green houses or vegetables that haven’t travelled from outside of North America
• Newspaper - wrap presents in day-old newspaper. If you fashion it with some pretty bows and ribbon (both of which can be re-used) you can create a spectacular pile of presents.
• Give gifts that people need - instead of buying something frivolous give gifts that someone can really use. Gifts like stainless steel waterbottles and mugs, an indoor plant, warm mittens, a gift certificate to an organic food store …

I wish everyone a happy holidays and a happy new year.

Things you should see on the way:

• The Big Apple - Colborne, Ontario
• Thousand Islands - Gananoque, Ontario
• Morency Falls Quebec City, Quebec
• Mount Royal - Montreal, Quebec
• Sanctuare/Basillique - Sainte-Anne de Beaupre

What peaked my interest in the article was the discussion around truck safety. Here are a couple of facts the auditors found:

• only 3 of every 1,000 commercial trucks are inspected annually; this is down 34% from 2003/4
• 21% of truck traffic travels at night, but only 8% of inspections are done after hours

The auditors suggest the solution is enforcement and recognize that the Ministry of Transportation has just hired 50 new officers, which indicates a move in the right direction.

It wasn’t just the Ministry of Transportation under scrutiny, the Ministry of Agriculture was attacked for the listeriosis outbreak this summer. The Ministry of Justice is also currently under investigation being criticized for the number of ’sick’ days they take each year (that would be an average of 32.5, that’s over a month). Another staggering number was the $500 million that the Ontario government loses each year on tobacco taxes; mostly from the sale of cigarettes at native reserves.

I hope this audit is successful in making our province safer. With the crash this morning on the 401 involving three tracker trailers it is yet another reminder of how unsafe the trucking industry has become.

More recently on the show he has been promoting One Million Acts of Green; your way to make a difference to the environment. The simplest way to describe it is you track the way you minimize your impact on the environment by subscribing to the site and subscribing to the things you participate in

My One Million Acts of Green include:

• packing a litterless lunch - not only is it better for the environment it is usually better for my health to; I can pack a well-balanced lunch
• do laundry in cold water - add an environmentally friendly laundry detergent to that and it’s even more green.
• drink Tap water from a refillable stainless steel water bottle
• compost and recycle at home - about every two weeks we only throw away about half of a small grey bin. I can’t wait for the day when there is no grey bin

Those are just a few but probably some of the most important to me.

What are your acts of green?

The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario has released a document that covers Winter Driving: Be Prepared, Be Safe! and Snow & Ice Control on Ontario’s Highways. Here are some of their tips for winter driving:

• make sure you have sufficient windshield washer fluid in the reservoir that is rated for a minimum of -40?C temperature range
• carry a cell phone
• make sure you know how the braking system in your car works
• stay well back to let snowplows do their job
• NEVER pass a snowplow on the right hand side - they cannot see you

It also includes what one should keep as a survival kit, which can be found here (scroll down almost to the bottom of the page to find it). Most importantly make sure you have a good ice scraper/snowbrush; starting out with a clean windshield is essential for safe driving.

I love winter and embrace every moment with it. It is a matter of being prepared and driving according to the conditions.

Earlier this week I wrote about the need for good infrastructure with respect to the trucking industry. The other part of the equation, about 70% of the road users, is commuters. For all the people that commute to work everyday on the highways, having a functioning highway system is paramount.

The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario publishes the Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) Values here. AADT is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a year divided by 365 days and is an easy measure to get an idea of the volumes of traffic a roadway faces. Here in Toronto we have one of the busiest highways in the world, the 401. In 2005 many sections across the city AADT is above 400,000 - that’s a lot of cars on the road everyday.

What that does mean is that it is impossible to close the roads for construction. Unfortunately the highways are aging. The highways of the GTA were built from the 1950’s through the 1970’s and not much repair work has been done to them.

What will we do in the future?

There are a handful of repair methods out there that we can use to rehabilitate our highways. But only repairing them at night likely means that we are not able to keep up with the demand of repair. I’m not quite sure what the solution of the future is, but if you have any ideas please share them…