I've lived in Estevan for all but five of my 38 years and I am surprised daily by how rapidly our community is changing.
Whether it's the people or landscape, it seems our city is morphing on a daily basis. Just take a drive one day and it's a safe bet you'll notice a new building under construction or even a new piece of art by chance.
But when you're on that drive, chances are you will also notice the traffic. If there's one change I've noticed more than any other is the number of vehicles on the road. I know it will sound goofy to anyone from a larger centre where traffic is a daily part of their lives, but the increase in traffic over the past year or two is crazy.
You can see it with your own eyes, but there is also evidence to back it up. The provincial Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure recently unveiled the 2011 traffic volume map, which provides the annual average daily traffic for the highways coming into our city.
The numbers are pretty shocking. On average, 6,920 vehicles drive into Estevan each day via Highway 39 east and Highway 18. On the west edge of the city, 3,870 enter the city on Highway 39. On Highway 47 north the average is 3,110 vehicles while on 47 south its 1,830 vehicles.
Anyway you shake it, that's a lot of vehicles going in and out of Estevan each day. That doesn't even take into account the usual traffic within the city from people doing their daily driving to and from work and other activities.
There are obviously pros and cons to the increase in traffic. On the positive side, it's one of the most obvious indicators that our community is booming. Look around, a good portion of the traffic is company vehicles and heavy trucks. Some of it is just passing through but a lot has to do with the local activity.
The obvious downside of all that traffic - and the driving habits of many of the people in those vehicles - is our streets are simply not very safe. If we needed a reminder of that, we got it in the most tragic of ways on July 30 when Karen Hancock was killed when she was struck by a vehicle as she was crossing the street at the intersection of Third Street and Souris Avenue.
I hate to admit it, but when I heard a pedestrian was hit I wasn't surprised. I was more surprised at how unsurprised I was.
We drive too fast in this town. Whether it's on Fourth Street, King, Kensington, Souris, 13th or any residential street, a large portion of the drivers in Estevan drive too fast. I am probably one of them.
Yes, we are a young, busy city, but there is nowhere in Estevan that takes more than 10 minutes to get to (unless there's a train). We just need to take a deep breath, think for a second and slow down.
Think about it in these terms. If you're driving through a residential area at 60 km/h (which many people do) and a kid happens to run in front of your vehicle, the chances of you being able to stop are much less than someone driving the speed limit. The same really goes for anywhere in the city.
We don't need more enforcement, we don't need council to lower the speed limits to 40 in residential areas, we just need to take some personal responsibility behind the steering wheel and slow the hell down.
The details of what happened on July 30 have yet to emerge, but I can't imagine the personal hell the driver of that vehicle is going through. I don't know how somebody bounces back from that, and I'm fairly certain it's not something I could live with.
Could you?
