These photographs were taken at 5PM on Tuesday October 26, 2010.

Can you find the “Traffic Pattern Change”?

Yes the road markings, the lines, painted onto the road to direct traffic flow are now gone rather than merely faded into obscurity. Given that road markings/lines that are hard to see in the day and invisible at night or in rain are the norm rather than the exception on roads in the City of Abbotsford the fact that the road markings are now gone does not constitute a “Traffic Pattern Change”. Driving on roads made dangerous by the poor quality or missing road markings/lines is certainly not a NEW condition in Abbotsford.

Of course this is the same intersection that had signs warning drivers to expect delays while the work of repaving this short section was being done.

Although I suppose that one could argue that technically a detour results in a delay in getting where you are going – especially when it is a total surprise sprung on drivers only when they reached the top of the hill on Blueridge (at Ridgeview) forcing them to turn around and seek other routes to their destinations.

If the goal was to cause problems, have people arrive late at their destination and to annoy as many drivers as possible – Abbotsford City Hall was very successful.

While a traffic pattern change will likely appear, it is this careless inattention to detail – be it road signage, planning, budgeting or the consequences of council’s actions on taxpayers – that has city council giving away future revenue to bring in revenue today; working to grow Abbotsford, thus increasing demand for water, at the same time the city rations water use to have water for the Fire Department to fight fires with and has the city burdened with debt at a time it needs to invest $200+ million in the water delivery system.

Emily Dickinson was quite correct when she said “If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves. You can gain more control over your life by paying closer attention to the little things.”

The little things like asking your local MP for funding for Plan A instead of complaining that the city got no federal funding or ensuring an adequate water supply before increasing demand – or the need for severe rationing.