Sagabite

Mr. Canada sent along the following story about Canada traffic cams:

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One of my favorite things about living in Canada is the TV.  Not the Canadian-made shows necessarily, but the service.  The area I live in is so rural that I don’t have high-speed internet or cell phone coverage, but I DO have some state-of-the-art satellite TV complete with PVR-Canada‘s answer to the TiVo.

Not only do I get several stations in the United States, I also get Canadian TV from coast to coast.  This can really come in handy.  If I miss CSI at its regular time here in Ontario, I can catch it in Winnipeg, Edmonton or Vancouver.  I can even see it early from a station in St. John’s, Newfoundland.  There is no excuse to miss anything, even if you don’t have a PVR.

One interesting consequence of this countrywide channel surfing is that I end up catching news and weather from all over Canada.  With news come traffic cams.

Anyone who has ever driven in Toronto will tell you it is a nightmare.  In my limited experience, I have seen a traffic jam at 4 a.m. on a Sunday morning.  Traffic cams in Toronto are a perfect example of redundancy at its finest.  I don’t know why they don’t just put the same picture of clogged traffic up, and save the money on the maintenance of the cameras.   Add a snowplow or two for the winter shots and that would cover everything.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s traffic cams are an entirely different story.  The first time I watched the news from St. Johns, I found myself staring as they switched between various cameras on Provincial highways across the area.  Why was the traffic in this place so many miles away so interesting?  Quite simply, because there was no traffic.

I found myself tuning in everyday to count the cars.  Wow!  A pick-up!  One day, two cars appeared in the same shot!  Of course, they WERE bumper-to-bumper- a regular Newfie traffic jam!

One day, an image appeared on the screen that made me stop and rewind the PVR.  My eyes were not playing tricks on me: a moose!  No vehicles in sight, but there was a moose gazing nonchalantly up into the camera.

I came up with a possible voice-over in my mind:

“For anyone traveling between St. John’s and Gander today, please be aware there is a moose standing in the middle of highway 1, just south of Clarenville.  Drive safely, eh?”