Jasper has been hit with some extreme winter weather the past few weeks. The remnants of those storms lie on our streets, in our yards and thankfully, on our ski hill. 

Winter driving is a tough skill to master, and as Canadians, one that is necessary for our survival – if we plan on going anywhere between October and about April each year. 

Canadians know that in winter months, it’s a good idea to plan a little extra time to get anywhere, and to drive to road conditions. This includes slowing down, driving defensively and giving each other a little more space on the roads. 

That last clause is an especially important one for those driving smaller cars. Tailgating is dangerous at any time of the year, but in winter, braking can take longer, animals are all around us and ice can make stopping impossible altogether. 

Driving a truck is different than piloting a tiny sedan, and it seems drivers of big rigs and jacked-up four-by-fours sometimes forget that they have to share the road. Seeing a truck grill a foot off your bumper in your rearview mirror can be intimidating, and can take the attention off the road in front of you, to the view behind you, where you are being aggressively pursued. 

While it’s easy to say pay attention to what’s happening ahead, it instills a bit of fear in the driver of a small car. For those motorists, sometimes it isn’t possible to pull over safely to let faster traffic by. 

Often the fed up truck driver will just pass, but it seems they get frustrated and do so under the worst circumstances, risking the lives of everyone sharing the road at the time. It’s one thing to be reckless with your own life, and your own expensive vehicle, but to pass on a corner in a patch of snow or ice, as the person in front of you drives responsibly, is unfair. 

Bad driving points are also awarded when the truck pulls back into the lane, spitting rocks on the windshield of those behind them. This again, goes back to giving your fellow drivers some space. Most drivers appreciate when vehicles pass with enough space to pull far ahead, because making an insurance claim for a brand new windshield when a fellow driver just couldn’t wait to accelerate is frustrating.

In the past few weeks, Parks Canada has recorded a spike in animal deaths along Jasper’s two major highways. Animals do not know any better, and while some of these deaths could be unavoidable, slowing down and giving Jasper National Parks’ many critters some space to move safely across the highways is key to their survival. Speed limits are lowered in crucial animal crossing areas for a reason – to protect the sheep, elk, deer and sometimes caribou – and to even prevent a big ding in your pick-up and bank account for the repairs.