I was on my way to Regina, when one of those weird coincidences in life occurred.
John Gormley was on the radio, talking about the June 2 announcement that Saskatchewan will be creating two new traffic units focused on major highways. As CJME's website put it, "The two units are made up of 30 officers, 15 from existing provincially-funded positions and 15 new positions funded by SGI. They will patrol central (Saskatoon) and southeast Saskatchewan. The target areas include Highway 6, 11, 16 and 39."
This was most interesting, since I was, at the time, driving on Highway 39 near the massive grain terminals west of Weyburn. Lo and behold, what should I see but one of those massive air seeder drills/air seeders I wrote about recently, the ones that are so large, they are a menace. In this case, the Bourgault air seeder had large duals on it, and the air drill was so wide it took up the wide, paved shoulder, all of the westbound lane, and a portion of the eastbound lane. It wasn't surprising, then, to see about a half-dozen vehicles stacked up behind it.
I was already well into braking, slowing to join this convoy, when I saw a flicker on my rear view mirror, and then beside me. Unbelievably, a black Ford Focus had pulled out and was passing me while I was slowing down. I leaned on the horn and the woman at the wheel looked at me, totally astonished that I would take a dim view on her ill-advised and dangerous passing manoeuvre.
Does this highway need enforcement? Hmmm
The reality is that despite being a semi-frequent driver on this road, I rarely, if ever, see a cop.
Let's crunch the numbers here. The supposed 60 new members appear to be only 30 truly new positions. The rest are reassigned. Let's say 15 of the total end up in southeast Saskatchewan, patrolling Highways 39/6, the Regina/Weyburn/Estevan/North Portal corridor, a road that recently saw its twinning announced for the coming years.
Of that 15, let's further divide it up into the three centres along that route, placing five members in each of Regina, Weyburn and Estevan (although simply Weyburn and Estevan make more sense). Some people might not think that is not much, but it is a huge increase. The Estevan rural RCMP detachment, which covers a sizeable area, runs only around a half dozen members. I don't know if that is enough to provide true 24-hour coverage without resorting to on-call. The new traffic officers, in addition to those already posted (i.e. the other 30 members from existing provincially-funded positions), will effectively double the size of those detachments.
True, their purpose is to catch speeders, cellphone talkers and aggressive drivers, but if a member needs help on a call in a rural area, they will surely respond.
These numbers will ensure that during daylight hours, you should always see at least one, and perhaps two or even three cruisers on a trip from Estevan to Regina. That will have a profound impact on driver behaviour. Or will it?
You see, there are three ways for me to get from my house in Estevan to Regina, travelling almost exactly the same distance. There may be one or two kilometres difference. The first is Highways 39/6, the target of the enforcement. The second avoids that route entirely, taking Highway 47 to Stoughton and then Highway 33 via Francis and Sedley. I have been increasingly taking this route, since there is just a fraction of the traffic most of the way, and the road is in good shape for nearly the entire length.
The third option is a hybrid, taking Highway 39 to Weyburn, then the not-so-great Highway 35 to Francis, followed by Highway 33 to Regina. For friends who live in Weyburn, this is often the preferred route.
If you are a local who is familiar with this recent announcement, are you really going to want to take the heavily-enforced route, or the lightly-enforced one?
With a much, much heavier enforcement presence on Highways 39/6, I anticipate a substantial shift in traffic to the Stoughton-Francis route. This then leaves a conundrum for enforcement. Do they pull officers off Highways 39/6 and redeploy them to 47/33? If so, then they aren't following the stated purpose of addressing traffic issues on the primary route. But if they do spread out the resources, they will likely nail those who will turn the alternate route into a cannonball run.
With Corner Gas now filming its movie, they might want to plant a few more surveillance bushes in southern Saskatchewan. The Mounties are going to need them.
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
