Tags:cars, driving, travel, accidents,

As i was driving saturday i noticed that every small town had its own bypass so that the motorists like me could keep on speeding by without having to slow down within the town limits. No doubt when the bypass went in it killed most of the small shops and petrol stations that were left in the no mans land of a bypassed country town, no one stops so no money is to be made and no business stays open. The other thing that i noticed is the amount of money that must have been spent on signage telling people if they are tired to stop and rest and the like, they were litterally everywhere. On long weekends in various locations they run “stop, rest and revive” areas where people can stop and take a break with a free cup of coffee to help them in that end. They are done with the idea of reducing the carnage of holiday dodgem cars on the major highways and byways, how effective they are i am not sure since the holiday road statistics always seem to read like sports score, dead and wounded.

As if the whole idea of bypassing everything isn’t enough sometimes its developed into the ridiculous. Bypasses have been built and then growth has occured to the point that now even the bypasses need to be bypassed. It sounds like the punchline of some joke or another but its real i assure you and quite likely to be built in some situations soon as ridiculous a notion as it sounds.

I’m going to go out on a limb now and connect (sorry bad pun) bypasses and road deaths together. As i drove along i considered the possibility that deaths were occuring so regularly because while once there were places regularly located for people to pull over and refuel not only physically but mentally as well. They would get out of their car, grab a coffee and maybe something to eat while their car was tended to. Then after they had been energised and had a break they would head off down the road. The whole idea sounds familiar, like a sign i saw by the side of the road as i sped by on a bypass actually …