Share the Road' becoming increasingly difficult - and dangerous - for farm equipment operators

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Deep ditches on narrow rural roads make rollovers almost inevitable, as well as causing weed problems. It's time for municipalities to act

by RALPH WINFIELD

Back in April 2013, Better Farming published an article of mine about big farm equipment on our roads: "Municipalities need to get the message about rural road design." That article brought direct support – and numerous phone calls – from many other farm and agricultural road users.

In the ensuing two years, we have been seeing more and more road shoulders disappear as rural municipalities continue to build narrow roads with no shoulders and very steep ditch slopes. They tell us that the deeper ditches are necessary for drainage!

Have you noticed the condition of many of those deep ditches with steep-sided slopes? They cannot be mowed easily and are bringing on much greater weed populations, including the dreaded phragmites. As we all know, phragmites grow in wet areas – primarily the bottom of these ditches.

Because phragmites are one to two metres high, they can create significant hazards for all road users. They often eliminate essential sight lines at road corners. Municipalities can be sued if sight lines are not maintained at road intersections and accidents occur.

Deep ditches have created another serious problem. Because of the steep slopes, it is virtually impossible for wider farm equipment, such as large dual-wheeled tractors and combines, to pull over when meeting other vehicles. Conversely, the other vehicles cannot pull over either. Unfortunately, many non-farm drivers do not recognize the need, or have the desire, to pull off the road into a laneway when meeting large equipment. Sometimes an impasse can and does occur.

I remember very vividly staring down a car driver when I had entered the approach to a narrow bridge – first – with a combine on a heavily-travelled suburban roadway. I won, but I never travelled that section of road again with the combine or wide farm equipment. Other farm equipment operators also avoid those heavily-travelled roads and obviously try to travel the narrower rural roads without shoulders.

I resorted to a road width measurement in support of my theory. The gravelled/raised travel width of the road in front of our farm is not more than 23 feet (7.01 metres). Many large dualled tractors or combines are almost that wide!

If either vehicle pulls off too far, in many locations a rollover is almost assured. Many unnecessary vehicle rollovers are already occurring when the operator is distracted or is on a slippery road surface. It is quite likely that the insurance companies will start suing the municipalities to recover their claims.

Municipalities are starting to put up many signs on rural roads that do not have lanes or lines that state "Share the Road." This is undoubtedly a ploy to prevent legal action against the municipalities by implying that they are doing "due diligence." The sign locations are often poorly chosen when they are on the crest or approach of a steep hill that has no lane markings.

Many rural landowners attempt to mow road ditches for two reasons: first, to control weeds and, second, to improve the appearance of their properties. When driving on many rural roads, we are seeing more and more steep ditches filled with other noxious weeds as well as the previously mentioned phragmites. Maybe our efforts should be directed to calling the weed inspector!

It is obvious that many municipalities are creating deeper ditches along raised roads so that snow can be easily winged off the travelled roadway. However, they tell us that the deeper ditches are necessary to provide roadbed drainage. Really!

Roadways can and have been drained effectively by the use of tile drains located in the bottom of ditches or in road shoulders. This technique was used very effectively up until recently. Why can it not be continued to improve road sharing and road safety? That is something to think about.

By the way, how can we as Ontarians be proud of our province when we see those great crops of phragmites along many of our provincial highways – including the 400 series highways? BF

Agricultural engineer Ralph Winfield farms at Belmont in Elgin County.