think it'd be awesome if canada got it's "autobahn"?

Pile-ups have happened here, too, due to sudden fog. I recall a nasty one on the 401 near Windsor several years ago.

A good portion of the autobahn uses overhead LED sign boards to indicate current restrictions (e.g. the speed limit, if there is one) and these are updated according to traffic and weather conditions. That is the right way to do speed limits on a motorway-type road, but no amount of restrictions will prevent people from doing something dumb.

Note that the article states that the incident began with a minor two-vehicle collision in heavy fog, then other vehicles came upon it suddenly and couldn't stop. Two of the fatalities were because people got out of their cars. Stuff like that can happen here, too, and has happened. If there was already fog in the area, I highly doubt that the sign boards were indicating no speed limit - going by what I've seen over there, the speed limit at the time was probably 80 km/h.

The sign boards are normally updated rather quickly to indicate whether there is a jam-up ("stau") ahead, but no amount of fast response can help you if you've already passed the last sign board before the collision when the collision happens up ahead ...

FWIW you may have seen many European cars with a high-intensity red lamp on the rear that goes on with the fog lamps. This is a requirement in Europe and all cars there have it ... because of the frequency of heavy fog in northern Europe, e.g. the area in which this collision happened ...
 
Yeah, it's scary there, especially in the mountains...Massenkarambolage... :-)
 
mikbusa said:
A few members here know all about the Autoban.
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Yep. Given a choice between the A5 Autobahn and the 401 from Oshawa through to Milton, I`ll take the Autobahn - any day, any weather condition.
 
Brian P said:
...Two of the fatalities were because people got out of their cars...
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That soft of has me thinking: what would be the wiser thing to do in a situation like this? Would staying in the car (and risking getting rear-ended by a car going 100 WHILE you're fully stopped) be any safer?
 
knowledge said:
That soft of has me thinking: what would be the wiser thing to do in a situation like this? Would staying in the car (and risking getting rear-ended by a car going 100 WHILE you're fully stopped) be any safer?
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Whatever u do, do not stay in the path of cars, ie. get off the road and go to the sides.

Yesterday I saw a car accident and a lady and her kid were sitting next to their car in the middle of the road. Why???

Unless u can't move and its life threatening, get off the road. The pavement is cold and it can get nasty real quick
 
RockerGuy said:
Whatever u do, do not stay in the path of cars, ie. get off the road and go to the sides.

Yesterday I saw a car accident and a lady and her kid were sitting next to their car in the middle of the road. Why???

Unless u can't move and its life threatening, get off the road. The pavement is cold and it can get nasty real quick
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I just can't imagine how stupid people are when they think it's a good idea to change their tire, on the traffic side, on the highway..there are few things in your daily life that will ever be more dangerous..
 
knowledge said:
That soft of has me thinking: what would be the wiser thing to do in a situation like this? Would staying in the car (and risking getting rear-ended by a car going 100 WHILE you're fully stopped) be any safer?
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More importantly..when you're doing 220kmh and you hit a fog bank, do you slow down? Or keep going??? If you slow down you might get hit in the back..it's scary..
 
knowledge said:
That soft of has me thinking: what would be the wiser thing to do in a situation like this? Would staying in the car (and risking getting rear-ended by a car going 100 WHILE you're fully stopped) be any safer?
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3 options

1) stay in car, not very safe
2) exit car and stand behind guardrail, apparently also not very safe
3) exit car and stand well back from guardrail. arguably the best thing to do.
 
invictus43 said:
I just can't imagine how stupid people are when they think it's a good idea to change their tire, on the traffic side, on the highway..there are few things in your daily life that will ever be more dangerous..
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How do u propose u change a tire on the driver's side? Sometimes the shoulder is really narrow, of course if the shoulder allows, u can drive as much into the shoulder as possible.
Not trying to insult your intelligence here.

I've even seen people parked and changed tire at night without their hazardous lights on. They fail to notice how invisible they can become.

After hearing on the news how much people get hit on the side of the road, a la the lady who fixed her wiper blades at the side of the road and got run over by a snow plough. I presently have a hazard triangle in my car and a flashing light that I decide to strap around my neck just in case
 
RockerGuy said:
How do u propose u change a tire on the driver's side? Sometimes the shoulder is really narrow, of course if the shoulder allows, u can drive as much into the shoulder as possible.
Not trying to insult your intelligence here.

I've even seen people parked and changed tire at night without their hazardous lights on. They fail to notice how invisible they can become.

After hearing on the news how much people get hit on the side of the road, a la the lady who fixed her wiper blades at the side of the road and got run over by a snow plough. I presently have a hazard triangle in my car and a flashing light that I decide to strap around my neck just in case
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Yeah, I know what you're saying. I think I'd either just park it and call a tow-truck and wait in the car or over the guardrail, or just drive with my hazards on to the next exit. The triangle is a good plan..but man, it's frightening when I see people doing it and I'm thinking, what if..it's so easy to drift a little too far to the right when you're driving..
 
invictus43 said:
Yeah, I know what you're saying. I think I'd either just park it and call a tow-truck and wait in the car or over the guardrail, or just drive with my hazards on to the next exit. The triangle is a good plan..but man, it's frightening when I see people doing it and I'm thinking, what if..it's so easy to drift a little too far to the right when you're driving..
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I think I would drive a bit with the hazards on to a wider shoulder, I'll take that option.

Plan to put that triangle on the roof of my trunk-lid :). In that way, once I pop the lid its plainly visible. I've seen that in the high end european cars.
 
RockerGuy said:
I think I would drive a bit with the hazards on to a wider shoulder, I'll take that option.

Plan to put that triangle on the roof of my trunk-lid :). In that way, once I pop the lid its plainly visible. I've seen that in the high end european cars.
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If people smash into fire trucks with their lights flashing, or run over fire fighters with all of our reflective gear on ..

They will NOT notice your reflective triangle on the roof of your car
 
infernobuster said:
If people smash into fire trucks with their lights flashing, or run over fire fighters with all of our reflective gear on ..

They will NOT notice your reflective triangle on the roof of your car
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Maybe those people just hate firefighters.. :-)

Seriously though, anybody working on a highway for their job is a brave person..tow-truck guys, fire, police..I saw an OPP guy up on Hwy 11 last year after dark in a rain/snow blizzard directing traffic around an accident on a blind curve..and I'm thinking to myself, that is one brave dude.
 
If I needed to change a driver's tire and it was dark out and the shoulder was narrow I would either call CAA and let them deal with it or if the wait was too long I'd call the OPP and ask them to send a cruiser to park behind me with lights blazing.
 
infernobuster said:
If people smash into fire trucks with their lights flashing, or run over fire fighters with all of our reflective gear on ..

They will NOT notice your reflective triangle on the roof of your car
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LOL, its true I would not be bulletproof with my magical triangle, but I will be more visible than someone without one. Just my logic.
 
They should increase the speed limit between Toronto to Montreal. The section is pretty much dead straight and pretty safe.
 
BLUE_KAWI said:
They should increase the speed limit between Toronto to Montreal. The section is pretty much dead straight and pretty safe.
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I read an article not long arguing for significantly lowering the speed limit on the 400 series highways (to 60 km/h or so). Basically reduce greenhouse gasses by making it effectively impossible to drive across Ontario (to force you into some form of mass transit). I don't agree with that approach but it was an interesting concept.

Seattle has lane-dependent, variable speed limits with overhead signs. After seeing driving ability elsewhere in the world, I am convinced that raising speed limits here will just lead to tragedy. Our roads are already clogged with people that can't maintain the effective speed limit already, increasing it would just increase the speed differential.

To get better traffic flow, we really need to get back to driving is a privilege not a right (it is approaching a right here with the G1 in ~50 languages and no effective measures to deal with bad drivers). Removing bad drivers would make the roads safer and able to flow more vehicles, but there is no political stomach. Taking away licences from old people, people that can't understand any english and those people that are too nervous to make any decisions while driving will significantly affect the votes of the ruling party. (I know there is mandatory testing for old drivers, but it's a joke, my aunt should not have been driving and was passed after driving around the block (4 right turns), doctors and testers do not want to be the ones to take licenses away from the elderly).

Unfortunately with effectively only one class of license, the rules must be set so the worst driver eligible to use the road is able to do it in relative safety. If there was a separate high speed license (and course taught at a track with proper instructors) required to use separate lanes (like HOV lanes with a 150 km/h speed limit), it could work, but I can't imagine that would ever be implemented
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