Memorials on the Highway

This keeps popping into my head when I drive across the province, but I keep forgetting to put it into a blog, and it could be a bit of a touchy subject in a way, but screw it I haven't written anything in 12 days so might as well get a post in.

I think that memorials to people on the side of the highway should be banned. I think they are distracting and as a result are potentially dangerous. Along the TCH you can find headstones, creepy white bicycles and various other monuments that are there to act as memorials to people who lost their life in those spots through some sort of accident. The concept of that is all well and good. If it helps bring peace to people who have lost a love one then great, and if it acts to serve as a reminder to all of us other drivers that tragedy can occur at anytime then also great, but the moment it becomes a distraction, it can cause another tragedy to occur.

About a year ago I was on the Outer Ring Road heading west when randomly this white object on the side of the road comes appears in the corner of my eye, I slammed on my breaks not having a clue what it was, but instinct was to slam on the breaks when I saw an unfamiliar object on the side of the road. This was at night so it wasn't noticeable from a distance, but turns out it was a bicycle chained to the guardrail painted white as a monument to someone who had been hit by a car while riding their bike. When I slammed on my breaks a number of things could have happened. I could have been rear ended for example or worse if it was raining I could have hydroplaned and ended up with a memorial to me at the very same spot. For me, as a person who drives a lot, I don't pay any attention to these monuments anymore, well not as much as I used to, but to a person unfamiliar with them, it might be enough of a distraction that they do not see the moose rapidly coming up from the bank on the side of the road in time to avoid hitting it. Honouring and remembering one tragedy is just not worth the risk of causing another.

So yes I understand why people put them there, I really do, but in my opinion they have to go. All of them. They've just got too much potential for something bad to happen.