The Amphicar, despite famously being neither a good car nor a good boat, was a compelling concept. The car itself might not have been very good, but the idea of a car that can turn into a boat at a moment's notice is one that is becoming somewhat relevant this spring. While a washed out highway might be a bad idea in a standard car, in that unique hybrid one could easily travel across the province.
Even with a relatively slow melt the spring runoff is causing problems province wide. While here in Yorkton it is going much better than expected, if you want to leave town you will likely run into a body of water where the highway would normally be. To be fair, this was expected to an extent. Combining an excessive amount of moisture over summer with even more snow on the ground after will inevitably result in a large quantity of water.
Instead of complaining about how cruel nature might be in this circumstance, or estimating how much damage is being caused by all the water, it is time to instead consider what we can get out of it. The old saying about life giving one lemons applies, though I don't think I'd attempt to make lemonade out of the water that is flowing over the road. We have water, and as the snow melts we will continue to have water. What can be done?
It might be time for those who are industrious and have old vehicles lying around to experiment, and see if an amphibious vehicle could work. The Amphicar might have been a failure, but with a little ingenuity one could probably build something seaworthy - or at least Highway 1 worthy - out of some form of old vehicle. British television program Top Gear managed to make an old Nissan truck cross the English Channel, so such feats of engineering are likely possible. The spring runoff won't last forever, so one must be quick and ambitious to get such projects off the ground and in the water. If all goes well, maybe one can even use such a vehicle in the lake over summer.
Imagine, the ability to go fishing not by towing a boat, but by driving directly into the lake. Since lakes are deep and provincial parks likely frown on cobbled together amphibious vehicles driving into them, now is the perfect time to get the kinks out and get the engineering down. By the time fishing season begins, one might have a real amphibious car that can actually float, drive around the lake, and do all the things a boat can do without all that pesky inconvenience.
I admit, there are flaws to this plan. A purpose designed boat is going to be faster, more efficient, and just plain better in the water. A car made seaworthy is probably going to have to make some compromises, especially since being water-proof and floating are often not in the design brief for any modern vehicle. That's why boats and cars are decidedly different shapes, and nobody actually makes amphibious cars outside of a famously nutty Swiss company called Rinspeed, which actually made a submarine out of a Lotus.
Still, with all that water lying around, most of it on roads, those who always wanted to make their car waterproof at a minimum now have the environment to do so. Besides, if the province continues to be as wet as it has been over the past year, we might actually need one to get around.
