Melissa's Hot Takes

Another crash on our roads. Another life irreparably changed.

This evening, two central Hamilton intersections were closed so that officials could manage the aftermath of a crash between a car and a motorcycle.

Queues of traffic extended for hundreds of metres, catching all manner of car commuters, delivery trucks and vans, and bus services in its wake. As I maneuvered through the congestion on my bicycle, I wondered—not for the first time—about the cost of all this.

Of course, I refer to the human cost. We still do not know the full details, but four people were transported to the hospital, and bystanders reported that the crash seemed “serious”. It is entirely possible that someone died tonight.

I also refer to the societal cost. An economist would dryly call it externalities. All those collective additional hours spent in our vehicles. My commute was lengthened by five minutes—but how many people were stuck in their cars for so much longer? All those additional emissions of pollutants and carbon dioxide, poisoning our air. All those bus services, full of people, waiting around on the road. All those deliveries, both residential and commercial, delayed. All that lost productivity—a veritable shame, as our current Government values it so.

I have sat in stakeholder meetings where members of the trucking industry pushed back against making roads safer for vulnerable road users—protected bicycle lanes, lowered speed limits. “This is a key trucking route,” they said. “It would slow us down. We cannot afford it.”

I wish I could grab them by the shoulders and tell them: we are not making a choice between slowing you down and not slowing you down. The consequences of unsafe systems are crashes which cause spontaneous and expansive disruptions for everyone, including the trucking industry.

We are making a choice between slowing you down in a managed way and slowing you down in a disruptive way.

There is not only cost associated with action but also inaction. Refusing to make a decision is in itself is a decision: a decision to continue to accept this unacceptable burden on communities and economies.

Pay attention when someone says that they care about productivity and economic growth with one hand while increasing speed limits and canceling safe infrastructure projects with the other.

Pay attention when someone says they don’t want to slow down the transport network while voting against initiatives to improve safety and reduce the likelihood and severity of crashes.

The status quo has a cost—and it is often much more than we think.