The Yorkton RCMP recently posted a photo on their Facebook page that showed a driver who was pulled over in front of the Yorkton Regional High School. The problem was that the driver was driving on the left side of the median, driving against traffic. What does it say that this doesn't surprise me at all?
In fact, this is not the first time I have seen someone driving the wrong way down a Yorkton street, it's not even the fifth time. It was even a car that I had never seen before, so this is likely a unique instance of someone being confused by how streets work. In fact, once I was almost hit by someone in a green Mercury Grand Marquis who was coming at me head-on in the middle of winter. While some people might be shocked that someone was found taking a unique approach to going down the city's streets, it's hardly the first time I've seen it, and I doubt it will be the last.
What do you do to deal with this problem? I'm not entirely sure, because it seems like something that should not actually be a problem. It's not like divided streets are something either new or novel, they have been a part of driving for decades, and have been part of Yorkton's own roads from long before I ever lived here. It shouldn't be a problem because it seems impossible to get a driver's license without an understanding of how they work. Divided roadways are just there, a common sight in every city in the country, yet somehow people still manage to get confused by this most basic of concepts.
There could be the argument that there needs to be more testing, but then you run into the problem of who gets tested. For example, some might argue that it's the elderly that need a brush up on their driving skills, but the driver in question during the latest incident was a 24 year old from Canora. Clearly not in any way elderly, and someone on the road long enough that they should at least have a basic idea of how roads work. The extra testing could be implemented before they get their license in the first place, but what about the majority of drivers who already have their license anyway? Plus is it fair to force testing on all of us who know how roads work when it's only a slim minority who can't figure out left and right, or that if lots of traffic is coming at you head on you might be doing things wrong.
One could argue for extra enforcement, but there are only so many police officers, and these incidents are happening on places like Smith Street, which is where the police go to the office. Enforcement also does not address the main problem here, which is that apparently there are people in this city, whether they visit or live here permanently, who don't know how to perform the easiest and most essential task in driving - avoiding oncoming traffic.
Every city has its traffic problems, Salt Lake City, Utah is confused by the concept of shoulder checking, Saskatoon tends to regard letting people in from an exit to be some kind of crime, and somehow Yorkton has an alarmingly high number of wrong way drivers. There is no obvious way to fix this, but perhaps if you know someone with this problem, you can paste the following sentence in a prominent place in their car: Drive on the right side of the road, not the left, it's really not that hard to do.
