6 - Wednesday, September 7, 1994 - North Shore News OS be a Ie RES Re rth Pr cee rear Road sense AST THURSDAY’S fatal crash on the Squamish Sea-to-Sky Highway has again underlined a tragic reality: good road sensz in B.C. is as hard to find as good common sense in the province’s legislature. Our roads remain dangerous places pri- marily because most people who use them do so with more horsepower than brains. : Thursday’s head-on crash blocked the . Squamish Highway in both directions for about two hours, backing trafiic up for miles in both directions, Feur: people were injured in the accident; one person was killed. The crash occurred just south of Lions ’ Bay in a tortuous section of road where any high-speed miscalculation can be fatal. Thursday’s accident was. - But-it wasn’t the first and it won’t be the ’ last along the Squamish Highway, which; for ~ the uninitiated, is a harrowing series of hair- pin turns and blind corners. It is a challenging drive by any standard, but 2 lot of people don’t see it that way. Te many it is just another highway upon which high speed rules and caution is for wimps. Anyone attempting to navigate the Squamish at the designated speed limit is to be harassed and passed at the soonest avail- able clear stretch of road, whether that action be prudeat ornot. Too many drivers apply the same phileso- phy te most roads in B.C.: the race is to the swift, travel time must be cut no matter the cost, But the sad truth is that most people drive, or are forced to drive, beyond their abilities on B.C. highways and accidents happen. And somebody doesn’t make it home. Women’s courage amazes reader Dear Editor: Re: Monument Flap. Perhaps Ted White forgets li2’s a representative and ought to take inte consideration the oppo.:.e point of view to his own? The North Shore News would do wel! to express this in strong terms, and perhaps to counterbal- ance his attitude. Interestingly enough it was only after I had penned a letter to Mr. White that I noticed (in very smail italics) “see White page 10.” Perhaps many readers missed this further study of the subject tucked away inside the North Shore News. Sorry the size of the “trash tizzy” photo plus the large title let- ters took up space that might have been used to present the report in completion. It is terrible that (some) men are so angry about the Women’s Monument. Aren’t they angry about men's violence against women? Doesn't it affect all of society, and all of the taxpayers’ expenditures that go to the damage caused by violence (in particular, domestic violence)? The courage of women to speak about their personal experience is amazing. Please keep on your reporting of this huge problem. We have to know what we would prefer not to know, and our North Shore News gives us oppor- tunity to think for ourselves about this tragic problem. Alison Michiels West Vancouver Publisher Menaging Editor .. Associate Editor.. Peter Speck imoihy Renshaw Noel Weight inda Stewart Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban nawspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Frae Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Praduct Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. Newsroom V7M 2H4 Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertsing 1139 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver B.C. North Shore Managed 980-0511 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 —————— MEMBER Gou SIN SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) a eaiine eeeaceaiadatatat A meets eeaiaiat LA Distribution Subscriptions 986-6222 Fax 985-2131 Administration Entire contents © 1994 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Ail rights reserved. An eiectronic road leading us to nowhere? SORRY IF the question offends someone, bul who actually NIEEDS the much ballyhooed “information seperhighwas?” Shane on your seabe, of course. fut diving tousk, after the idyllic piste welwe heen given of the wonderful fife wet emoy on the info superhighway —- coming soon loa TV screen near you, Add a compiter and modem, a printer and a bank card reader, and our days, we're promised, will be far fuller and more meaningful than we ever dreamed possible — all without stirring from our chair. For starters, we'll be able to shop, reserve restaurant tables, book theatre and airline tickets, and” complete almost any other transac- tion with just a few computer key- strokes, Purchases will be delivered to our door, No more traffic snarls, parking nightmares or tramping round stores until we drop. And think what al! those extra hours our car sits in the garage will do for the environment. Electronic shopping, however, is enly one of the two great gifts to be bestowed on mankind by the info superhighway. The other being instant access to the sum total of up-to-the-minute human knowledge —~ now reported by those in the 66 Even with today’s 30 or so TV channels, plus radio news on the hour, newspapers and magazines, I’m already drowning in. informaiion of no possible use to me ever. 99 know to be doubling every 18 months, In the new 500-channel world it will come to us from the more than 6,000 databases already operating in North America, along with worldwide bulletin boards and E- mail. Anything whatsoever in human experience — from the dawn of history to five seconds ago —- will be literally, and instantly, at our fingertips. Incredible. Awesome. Fantastic. Thank you very much. But if you'll excuse me, [ think I'll pass. Even with today’s 30 or so TV channels, plus radio news on the hour, newspapers and magazines, I'm already drowning in informa- tion of no possible use to me ever. The word “use” having a wide meaning. Local and national news have a “use” because they can affect my life or behavior. Likewise, informa- tion touching on special personal imterests — sports. arts, travel, hob- bies, polities, you-name-il, TV shows and books can relax me by entertaining or educating. Even an occasional trashy novel may at least he!p me sleep. If 'm_a doctor, scientisi, lawyer HITHER AND YON or in any of the other learned pro- fessions, I’ ve only to call up the huge databanks for my specific dis- cipline to solve every problem I’m ever likely to meet. But as an ordi- nary Joe, I neither need nor can understand such information. And regardless of. who J am — unless perhaps a Red Cross worker — what on earth use can I ever make, for myself or anyone else, of the ceaseless and tragic torrent of information pouring, in turn, out of Beirut, Palestine, Somalia, Sarajevo, Rwanda, Haiti and Cuba? Except eventually yawn until the next instant world crisis erupts. If that’s what a mere 30 chan- nels now give us, count me out at the receiving end of the hundreds of . , fibre optic channels we are threat- ened with before the year 2000. As to electronic shopping, just a: - _ day or two of impulse buying via TV — slumped on the couch, inserding my Visa into the bank card-reader every few minutes — could obviously bankrupt me. What --.. . .- about all the things I need to fit, feel, even smell before purchasing? Would I soon forget how to talk to — . real, live humans altogether? Would my legs gradually atrophy and drop off? The cyber-nuts will build the info superhighway for no better rea- son than because it’s technological- ly possible. But for us simple tech- no-peasants it will most likely end up as a road to nowhere. , oeoe WRAP-UP: Never a dull monient . on Coho Festived Sunday, Sept. 11, . at Ambleside Park, with breakfast from 8:30 to 10 a.m., shuttle buses to the popular Coho Walk, beer gar- - den and non-stop entertainment starting at 11 a.m. and the famed salmon barbecue from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. — see you!... Tourism is speaker Bob Griffiths’ topic - Tuesday, Sept. 13, at West Van Chamber of Commerce’s 7:30 a.m. breakfast meeting at Peppi’s — book (926-6614) by Friday, Sept. 9, latest ... Go treasure-hunt- ing 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, at Mt. Seymour Lions Giant Garage Sale, 936 Bowron Court, North Van... Many happy returns of Thursday, Sept. 8, to North Van’s Bob Booth, locking 10 years younger than his 75... And happy birthday wishes again Saturday, Sept. 10, to West Van's Willy Disher. tee WRIGHT OR WRONG: Love your neighbor, but don’t pull down the fence.