Nice ditches, shame about the highway

To the Editor:

It’s interesting that the Department of Transportation is once again ditching and bush-cutting along Route 236.

This happens quite often while the highway hasn’t been fit to drive on for over 20 years because no substantial paving has been done on it, especially beyond Scotch Village.

It has, however, been paved to Scotch Village, where it takes a sharp left turn to get to the dump in Cogmagun so the hospital waste can get a smooth ride to its final resting place. It would be interesting to know who the fools were that allowed this pollution to be deposited in the first place.

Large trucks and log trucks with trailers throw small stones that can often be found on pavement on sharp turns. This is deadly for motorcyclists. The N.S. government in its ongoing robbery of vehicle owners as far as inspections are concerned have now decreased the size of a windshield crack to one-half inch so they can collect more money in taxes.

Meanwhile, the minister of transportation has released results of a survey concluding that 94 per cent of Nova Scotians are ‘satisfied’ with their highways. My survey fails to turn up any Nova Scotians - especially touring motorcyclists - who say our secondary paved roads are anything except terrible.

The minister’s survey must have involved only elected conservatives, conservative cronies, self-serving bureaucrats and highway workers afraid of losing their jobs.

Along with more than $500 I have paid to prepare my vehicle for inspection, now I must fork over an additional $250 for a new windshield. I expect there are others like me who got a rock from a log truck with dirty logs on it.

But we all know the Dept. of Transportation will do nothing about any of this. Thanks for the beautiful ditches on our non-highway.

Edith M. Simm

Scotch Village