As I leave Canada in less than 24 hours, I must bitch about a couple of things:
Why is the gas tax higher and the roads shit? In many places, gas tax is half as much and the roads are much better maintained. You guys need to get on your leaders about that, because they’re robbing you.
Why doesn’t Halifax have light rail? Madison, WI, a city half the size, is getting ready for it right now. Traffic would go down so much.
Speaking of traffic, this is to all the dumbasses that don’t understand a freeway: keep right, pass left. Sitting in the left lane cruising next to another car the same speed is dangerous. I know that freeways don’t connect both the east and the west of Canada, but that’s still not an excuse.
Speaking of which, why is there no good system of roads connecting this country? Why do you have to go through the U.S. to stay on freeway to get out west? That’s a disgrace. And Canadians can do better, and you should.
We love you guys a lot, and you are good people. But your politicians are robbing you of a lot, too. Kick them out and start over. After 8 long years, we finally did the right thing in the U.S. Now, let’s get rid of the far right for good.
¡Adiós amigos!
—Dumbass that Left Home
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2009.
No good system of roads? We need to go through the US? While I haven’t traveled via car across the country, don’t we have a national highway (NOT freeway) called the ‘Trans Canada’? It is not necessary to go through the US to get out West, though I hear a lot of people choose this route.
I do agree that our roads (here in NS) ARE shit, though.
we have the trans-canada,stupid..plus our winters are very harsh compared to the us and maintaining these roads are more difficult,have you ever heard of frost heaves,duh!!!!!americans are so arrogrant and stupid,open mouth,insert foot…dumb,dumb,dumb
As to road conditions, yes, they’re bad. In many other Frost Belt countries they have roads that are in much better shape. However, I doubt that Nova Scotian road builders have less knowledge than engineers in other locations, so the reason why our roads suck pretty bad isn’t that. Much of the answer lies in the specific soil types and climatic cycles that obtain across much of Canada (and for that matter parts of the northern US).
You could of course construct Nova Scotian roads that would hold up longer, but they’d cost a lot more, and at some point it’s probably more cost-effective just to patch.
Another thing to consider is that the real killer is truck traffic. Yes, we’ve got seasonal weight restrictions, but I suspect they are not particularly effective…mostly because we rely on trucks so much. If we wanted to get serious about road solutions perhaps we ought to revisit rail and local shipping, with many more and smaller distribution hubs, and use of smaller vehicles for the last mile distribution.
As for light rail and/or trams, who knows how much traffic would go down? It could certainly work in theory – there are quite a few cities that are comparable in size and population that have extensive light rail, subways and trams (and a lot more buses), but psychology is also involved. Despite all the valid criticisms of Metro Transit there are also a lot of people in HRM who do have credible commuter route packages available to them, but they still elect to drive their cars. You won’t see a major shift to public transit until you have the will to make driving in some areas prohibitively expensive and inconvenient. I can’t see this happening any time soon.
Can’t really comment on the cross-country system. About the last thing I’d want to do is _drive_ across the country. 🙂
Well the guy’s right, our roads suck. Come to Cape Breton and you’ll understand.
I suspect the main reason is that, as said, our roads age really quickly. I’ve seen roads paved twice a year, every year, for several years. And then we have so many secondary roads that need work. There are also allegations that Rodney’s “government” chose roads to pave based on political affiliation (so yeah, the roads in Halifax would suck.)
We all know the roads are shit. To the point of the TransCanada, that does go from coast to coast, and the last time I checked, it’s free to drive on it, unlike a majority of the Interstate series highways which “connect” the US. They’re extremely inefficient because most of them aren’t direct, because they lead you to small tourist trap towns. This is because back in the 50’s and 60’s when most of them were built, that was the thing to do. To the point of Madison WI having a light rail transit system, well, that would make sense because half of that town probably works in Milwaukee, and it’s an hour drive to get there. Not to mention too, it’s the state capital, so it gets the brunt of the pork-barreling that goes on in that state. Boy, you are a dumbass.
Having driven across this continent… going through the States is a faster way to travel by car (or in my case 1/2ton truck) Ever driven over the top of lake Superior ?
Long lonely drive, US interstate has us beaten hands down…& their gas is cheaper , even with the loss of currency conversion. At least it was when I did it last, over 6 years ago.
Another happy note (not really) I filled up just before the I drove over the PEI link on Wednesday last coming back to NS. Gas was 92 cents a litre…It was 99.4 here !?! must be because PEI has so many oil wells & refineries, they can sell it for so much cheaper…couldn’t be the NS Government is gouging us, even more than the Oil Companies are ! Way to go NDP…proving once again that Political Parties once in power care only for how much they can pocket for themselves & their cronies !
Another factor connecting gas taxes and poor roads is that we have a small population spread out over a large area. That means more road Km’s per person to maintain, thus higher taxes are needed. It’s not easy, or cheap, to connect 33 million people over 9 million square kilometers.
With respect to the transit across Canada, it may be faster to cut through the States to get west, but that’s a question of geography more than inadequate roads. Getting from NS to ON involves a choice between a more direct route through the US or gong north, then south again through NB and Que. No amount of roads will change that fact.
Jeez people, you think our roads in Nova Scotia are bad? Ever driven through New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland, Quebec, Manitoba, or Saskatchewan? Ours may not be great, but at least they’re better than they are in at least half the rest of the country.
I believe all the other points of the Bitcher’s post have been addressed.
Population is another reason. The population of NS is under a million with how many kilometers of roads? Canada has a population 1/10th of the US. High populations make for better roads as there is more tax money (even if the percentage may be lower for the higher population). It’s simple economics.
I’ve lived in 3 Atlantic provinces and been to all of them. Newfoundland’s highway system still mainly consists of the 2 lanes, not divided highways and I’m still trying to figure out if NS or NB have the worst ‘patchwork pavement’. PEI, well…I’ve only ever been a passenger in a vehicle there and never really took notice lol.
I have a family member who works for the NS Dept. of Transportation in the highways department, and NS was actually voted the best highway infrastructure in Canada last year. The resaon why the roads are so shit is because of all the extreme and extremely crappy weather we get here. What was there 10 snow storms this winter? Trying to keep the roads in repair is a losing battle but they are doing the best they can.
Anyone else think it’s a little strange that the OP lived here for 8 years and everything he/she noticed about Canada has to do with roads? What’s your obsession with transportation OP?
ah, but at least we have free medical coverage for when we go off the shitty roads and crash……
What free medical coverage. We pay high taxes for that “free” service and many people have medical insurance to pay for what MSI doesn’t cover, including Dental. Fuck I hate it when people say we have free medical.
It may not be free, but it’s cheaper than the alternative.
roads are the shits in a lot of places across canada and if you have ever travelled across this country you would see this first hand.The blame what ever you want it to be.In northern Alberta Highway #2 north of Grande Prairie has built in frost heave protection that would bounce you out of you car in the winter it is so poorly designed.
I think that enough folks have pointed out just how ignorant the OP is about the roads, but what pissed me off about this post more is the crack about how they finally got ride of the shitty government they had.
Yes, the shitty government that you let steal the election, and then after fours years of horrible management of the country, you voted them in a second time. I love how Americans left Bush in power for the maximum amount of time a President can be in office, and then act they they should get some kind of hero cookie for voting in Obama after their country had totally gone to shit. Especially since the election was only really settled after McCain chose the dumbest running mate in the history of the US.
What is is Bush said again, “…..fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
Well, obviously you guys could. Again, and again and again.
Enjoy living in your crappy, crappy country. We’ll stick with weathered roads and surviving banks.
Adios Amigos says, “After 8 long years, we finally did the right thing in the U.S. Now, let’s get rid of the far right for good.”
i’m with you on that one, my american friend… there will be partying in the streets when we finally oust Stephen Harper and his disgusting Conservative Regime OUT-OF-POWER forever!
One less negative attitude should make NS a better place. Have a nice trip home. And please stay there.
“One less negative attitude should make NS a better place.”
hah! get real, Poet… one doesn’t have to live here for long to realize that there’s more than enough disenchantment amongst the locals themselves to sustain the negativity & disillusionment (here) for generations to come. that’s why so many of us LEAVE.
and btw, the OB made some good points, but all you NEGATIVE fuckers did was shit all over them.
tech, most of us were merely pointing out the misinformation of the OB’s post. We DO have a highway system (not a FREEWAY, that’s American) that connects our country. We don’t have to go through the US, it just makes more sense geographically, as Miles pointed out; Miles also pointed out why our gas taxes are higher.
Yeah, people did talk down to the OB, but they should’ve become a bit more informed before posting on a Canadian forum.
PS. tech, I agree with you about the Conservatives. Can’t wait for that day to come!!! =)
Bro Tim your high tax rate would just about buy me an aspirin to dull the pain of reading this post…..
Let the OB go………..whatever………….doesn’t matter………YOU’RE ALL STILL STUCK WITH SMEE!!………I ain’t never leaving…buahhahahahah!!…..NEVER!!!!
Buahhahahahah!!
I wish I could show you all how well I can do that evil laugh thing………..you’d get goose bumps down your backs!……….Buahhahahahah!!