File this story under the heading: “The way some people drive in this town turns both hair and knuckles white.”
To preface this piece, my street in the southwest corner of Barrie is dubbed Girdwood Drive, a pleasurable residential thoroughfare of which we’ve very proud. (If anyone has a bone to pick with the article, they know where to find the author)
But some drivers, when they turn off any of the several tributaries that feed our street, find their eyes glaze over, and their fantasy lives kick in. They start imagining being on a speedway, with its near-perfect straightaways, and take it as their cue to place pedal to metal and scurry out of our neighbourhood as if their pants were on fire.
Apart from the noise they make – especially without a muffler – such drivers present a real danger, given the mix of people calling my street their home.
The politicians have tried to help, laying down speed bumps on selected streets to help curb this impulse to whoosh past everybody and everything, and mostly, drivers respect these bumps. But those necessary restraints are in place only a few months out of the year, and when they’re removed… Vrrrroom!
It’s almost to the point where I wish to stand on the curb with a giant checkered flag in my hands, waving it broadly as these Dale Jr. wannabes fly by! Get the message?
One day last year, we beheld a disturbing sight outside our driveway: a dead rabbit in the middle of the road, whose blood took weeks for the city and the elements to wash away. Now, apart from reciting another animal cruelty story, the fact is that a rabbits’ instincts compel it to scamper away from danger at warp speed, making it better than defenceless animals.
What if that rabbit was a small child who can’t run as fast?
We also hear of too many instances on streets other than ours of drivers completely losing their marbles and gunning their engines at double and triple the speed limit – in school zones, and during school days!
I am restraining myself from turning this into a rant, but the truth is that my street is called Girdwood Drive… NOT Girdwood Floor-it!
Please respect this and other residential streets throughout Barrie. Obey the traffic laws and common sense. If there are no speed limit signs where you are driving, it’s 50!
Do 50!
And I promise to put my checkered flag in storage.
