As Cory Morgan pointed out in his column about Transpod’s proposed hyper-loop between Calgary and Edmonton, when you factor in the time required to get through airport-like security and arrange a ride on either end, the trip will take you about one and a half hours. While white-collar workers might find a ticket price slightly below that of a Calgary to Edmonton WestJet flight attractive, most working families will still need to drive to visit their grandparents..Transpod claims that the project will be funded by private investment, but its spokesperson did say that it’s applying for a variety of “environmental” and “innovation” government grants. Taxpayer funded “grants” are still handouts. If taxpayers are also on the hook for expropriating the land for the 300 km viaduct, then the handout could easily total in the billions of dollars..What if there was another way to get to Edmonton or Calgary faster? A way that also comes with the benefit of being able to use your own car once you’ve arrived. There is a way that barely cost the taxpayer anything, simply by adopting laws that have proven to work in other jurisdictions..I am, of course, talking about increasing Alberta’s irrationally low highway speed limits..There are 265 kms of Highway 2 between the northern tip of the Calgary’s Stoney Trail and the southern tip of Edmonton’s Henday. The speed limit is 110 km/hr. Driving the speed limit, it should take two hours and twenty-five minutes.. Autobahn no speed limit signA “no speed limit” sign on Germany’s Autobahn (photo credit: DPA) .If Alberta adopted the same 130 km/hr highway limit of France, the Netherlands, Montana (80 mi/hr = 129 km/hr), and much of Western Europe; then the drive would be 22 minutes shorter..At a Polish or Texan 140 km/hr (85 mi/hr = 137 km/hr), the drive would be 31 minutes shorter..Italy’s Autostrada laws allow private toll highways to set their limits as high as 150 km/hr. At that speed, you could get to Edmonton in roughly an hour and forty-five minutes. We’re nearly at hyperloop times now..The German Autobahn is famous for having flat sections with no speed limits and for being one of the safest highways on the planet – safer than North American highways with low limits. At a perfectly reasonable Autobahn speed of 177 km/hr, you could get to Edmonton in an hour and a half..To those saying this is a ridiculous speed, I’ll point out that Volvo announced it was lowering the top speed of all of its new 2020 cars – for safety – to 180 km/hr. Some Canadian police officers say that it’s physically impossible for any human to react while driving over 200 km/hr. The 2020 Belgian Grand Prix clearly proves them wrong as Formula 1 cars were passing each other at speeds as high as 350 km/hr..Numbers don’t lie, but governments with a financial stake in ticket revenue do..In 2018, RCMP Sergeant Bruce McCowan, a forensic collision reconstructionist with Ridge Meadows RCMP Traffic Services, published a letter about the dangers of speeding and facts about stopping distances. In it he wrote: “There is an old traffic joke that goes, ‘Physics; the only laws that drivers cannot break’ so, if you don’t like what follows, you can blame Newton and all of his science pals.”.The RCMP expert claimed that it would take nearly 76 metres to come to a stop from 80 km/hr, including reaction time (31.49 m braking distance and 44.48 m from a two second reaction time)..In a fantastic video, Sense BC revealed that the RCMP’s math about stopping distance came from a General Motors study from 1935. They also uncovered that the RCMP used an irrationally long reaction time. When they did some 21st century math, they concluded that a modern car with modern tires could safely do 130 km/hr on a highway with an 80 km/hr limit and still stop in less than 76 metres. Sense BC used a 14-year-old Volkswagen for their tests..After the Sense BC video was posted, the RCMP have taken Sergeant Bruce McCowan’s bad math off their website. Unfortunately, police officers still routinely use obsolete data to try and justify the latest ticket blitz or photo radar expansion..An Albertabahn would require more than just upping (or abolishing) the speed limit to safely succeed however. Germany’s autobahn is not a place for grandma to putter casually in the left lane. On the autobahn, police strictly enforce laws against driving slowly in the passing lanes, something Albertan (and Canadian’s broadly), do regularly. Vehicles are required to drive in the right-most lane that they are able to at their speed, and move left only when passing. .The autobahn also has long onramps to ensure that vehicles can accelerate to the appropriate speed before merging. Most of the onramps along Highway 2 already comply with this, although a few would require extensions. .Despite its high, and often unlimited speed limits, the autobahn has a better safety record than most North American highways. .If it was about safety – and not ticket revenue – then Alberta would adopt the policies that make Italian, French, and German highways so safe: higher speed limits, and strict enforcement of the “keep right except to pass” rule..Alex McColl is the National Defence Columnist with the Western Standard and a Canadian military analyst
As Cory Morgan pointed out in his column about Transpod’s proposed hyper-loop between Calgary and Edmonton, when you factor in the time required to get through airport-like security and arrange a ride on either end, the trip will take you about one and a half hours. While white-collar workers might find a ticket price slightly below that of a Calgary to Edmonton WestJet flight attractive, most working families will still need to drive to visit their grandparents..Transpod claims that the project will be funded by private investment, but its spokesperson did say that it’s applying for a variety of “environmental” and “innovation” government grants. Taxpayer funded “grants” are still handouts. If taxpayers are also on the hook for expropriating the land for the 300 km viaduct, then the handout could easily total in the billions of dollars..What if there was another way to get to Edmonton or Calgary faster? A way that also comes with the benefit of being able to use your own car once you’ve arrived. There is a way that barely cost the taxpayer anything, simply by adopting laws that have proven to work in other jurisdictions..I am, of course, talking about increasing Alberta’s irrationally low highway speed limits..There are 265 kms of Highway 2 between the northern tip of the Calgary’s Stoney Trail and the southern tip of Edmonton’s Henday. The speed limit is 110 km/hr. Driving the speed limit, it should take two hours and twenty-five minutes.. Autobahn no speed limit signA “no speed limit” sign on Germany’s Autobahn (photo credit: DPA) .If Alberta adopted the same 130 km/hr highway limit of France, the Netherlands, Montana (80 mi/hr = 129 km/hr), and much of Western Europe; then the drive would be 22 minutes shorter..At a Polish or Texan 140 km/hr (85 mi/hr = 137 km/hr), the drive would be 31 minutes shorter..Italy’s Autostrada laws allow private toll highways to set their limits as high as 150 km/hr. At that speed, you could get to Edmonton in roughly an hour and forty-five minutes. We’re nearly at hyperloop times now..The German Autobahn is famous for having flat sections with no speed limits and for being one of the safest highways on the planet – safer than North American highways with low limits. At a perfectly reasonable Autobahn speed of 177 km/hr, you could get to Edmonton in an hour and a half..To those saying this is a ridiculous speed, I’ll point out that Volvo announced it was lowering the top speed of all of its new 2020 cars – for safety – to 180 km/hr. Some Canadian police officers say that it’s physically impossible for any human to react while driving over 200 km/hr. The 2020 Belgian Grand Prix clearly proves them wrong as Formula 1 cars were passing each other at speeds as high as 350 km/hr..Numbers don’t lie, but governments with a financial stake in ticket revenue do..In 2018, RCMP Sergeant Bruce McCowan, a forensic collision reconstructionist with Ridge Meadows RCMP Traffic Services, published a letter about the dangers of speeding and facts about stopping distances. In it he wrote: “There is an old traffic joke that goes, ‘Physics; the only laws that drivers cannot break’ so, if you don’t like what follows, you can blame Newton and all of his science pals.”.The RCMP expert claimed that it would take nearly 76 metres to come to a stop from 80 km/hr, including reaction time (31.49 m braking distance and 44.48 m from a two second reaction time)..In a fantastic video, Sense BC revealed that the RCMP’s math about stopping distance came from a General Motors study from 1935. They also uncovered that the RCMP used an irrationally long reaction time. When they did some 21st century math, they concluded that a modern car with modern tires could safely do 130 km/hr on a highway with an 80 km/hr limit and still stop in less than 76 metres. Sense BC used a 14-year-old Volkswagen for their tests..After the Sense BC video was posted, the RCMP have taken Sergeant Bruce McCowan’s bad math off their website. Unfortunately, police officers still routinely use obsolete data to try and justify the latest ticket blitz or photo radar expansion..An Albertabahn would require more than just upping (or abolishing) the speed limit to safely succeed however. Germany’s autobahn is not a place for grandma to putter casually in the left lane. On the autobahn, police strictly enforce laws against driving slowly in the passing lanes, something Albertan (and Canadian’s broadly), do regularly. Vehicles are required to drive in the right-most lane that they are able to at their speed, and move left only when passing. .The autobahn also has long onramps to ensure that vehicles can accelerate to the appropriate speed before merging. Most of the onramps along Highway 2 already comply with this, although a few would require extensions. .Despite its high, and often unlimited speed limits, the autobahn has a better safety record than most North American highways. .If it was about safety – and not ticket revenue – then Alberta would adopt the policies that make Italian, French, and German highways so safe: higher speed limits, and strict enforcement of the “keep right except to pass” rule..Alex McColl is the National Defence Columnist with the Western Standard and a Canadian military analyst
