I mentioned that statement at work a couple of months ago.

A co-worker looked up and said, “Please don’t say that.”

Well, it’s true. With the recent housing boom in Abbotsford, we’ve had explosive population growth. With people come vehicles. With vehicles come traffic. With traffic comes congestion. Congestion leads to frustrated drivers. Frustrated drivers lead to road rage.

That’s where it’s at now. There’s more and more road rage on Abbotsford streets. Honking horns. People making a left at intersections when the light is red. People tailgating ever soo closely, leading to even more frustration.

Abbotsford used to be a small town, and the roadways were not designed for such large volumes of traffic.

So, I thought, ‘What’s being done about the increasing traffic flow?’ I saw traffic analysis black boxes on the major routes I take home a couple of weeks ago. That means the local government has acknowledged the problem and has used the traffic analysis boxes to serve as a form of statistical proof.

No solutions yet, that I can see (except on a couple of overpasses). Hopefully, the traffic signal timing will be adjusted at major intersections to allow for longer delays during peak traffic hours. As for roadways, existing ones will need to be optimized for the increasing traffic flow.

I just hope the roadway architects take some notes from our US counterparts, as they have done a terrific job of designing roadways for future growth. For example, take the Interstate 5. Not many individuals know that it was designed for fast evacuation of cities in the event of an nuclear attack. The idea may have seemed far-fetched when the Interstate 5 was constructed, but you can bet the extra planning has paid off.