Well, Alberta, until just after the upcoming May election has no gas tax. Supposedly swimming in O&G surplus, we can afford not to collect funds to help repair our roads. This isn’t groundbreaking or a personal insight… that’s coming.
Over New Year, the family and I went for a trip down the beat up QE2. It’s a classic highway with sections that are better than others, but without those funds, I wonder what’s going to get improved through the next construction season. Again not very insightful or personal.
How/why do Alberta drivers pay so much deference to the speeding pickup? So many people dutifully move out of their way. Perhaps to be polite, perhaps to be safe. Maybe I can accept that, but as a driving community we have normalized the “dominance” of the “rig rocket” on the highways. Connecting to the first part of this post, as these trucks blast along on increasingly deteriorating roads, travel becomes less safe for all of us.
Would this make a difference if we were collecting gas tax? Likely not? Would ignoring the apoplectic truck driver riding up to your bumper change things? Maybe? Would a little bit of respect for fellow travelers help? I think so. Hmm… no great insight, but I needed to get that out.
PS. EV drivers are not saints either – Cross Iron/Rocky View County supercharger squatters (electric-ice-holes) I’m looking at you! And I would look at phantom cars in the dark on QE2, but since there is barely a glow from them… nobody can see those chucklefrackers!
Leave a Reply