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Opinion: Pandemic has turned this Tri-Cities road into a gong show

ICBC issued a plea earlier this week urging people to slow down on roads that have been emptied out by the COVID-19 pandemic. Well, I can think of one Port Coquitlam road that could use drivers listening up.
Mary Hill bypass
Mary Hill bypass is a high-collision highway. It's time to take safety seriously on that stretch of road.

ICBC issued a plea earlier this week urging people to slow down on roads that have been emptied out by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Well, I can think of one Port Coquitlam road that could use drivers listening up.

With more people out of work or working from home, local roads are seeing a dramatic drop in traffic, but not speeds.

Law enforcement agencies are reporting more speeding offences and one road that is definitely being turned into the Autobahn is the Mary Hill Bypass.

I usually drive this road a few times a week to visit my daughter in Pitt Meadows and it’s not great at the best of times. Last Friday afternoon – a time when the Mary Hill should be clogged with traffic - I drove it and things were even worse.

Traffic was incredibly light for a Friday afternoon. Here I was doing the speed limit, and a few maniacs were blowing by me at highway speeds. I could feel my car shake as they roared by.

I’m not the only one who noticed.

A Tri-City News reader emailed us hoping we would raise the alarm about fast speeds on the bypass.

“I wonder if the Tri-City News can appeal to the public and the Port Coquitlam (RCMP) to ask them all to stop the speeders on the Mary Hill bypass. There are so many accidents on a regular basis. I go the speed limit and all the other traffic are all passing me - exceeding the limits by far and I never see a police car or speed traps to stop any of them. It is so frustrating and scary because there are left turns and lighted intersections around every corner. People need to slow down! Police need to be out there on the Mary Hill all the time enforcing it. Please! How many accidents have to happen for people to smarten up?”

Drivers need to stop taking advantage of emptier roads and trying to re-create their favourite scenes from the Fast and the Furious franchise.

Nothing in your life is worth driving this fast.

Chris Campbell is an editor with Glacier Media. Follow him on Twitter @shinebox44.