Noteworthy: An increase in highway speed limit can only mean an increase in highway speeding

By Bruce Penton on November 26, 2025.

A slight case of driver inattention while travelling at 100 km/h might not cause a collision with a fellow driver who happens to pull onto a highway without looking, but chances of that collision would be increased if that vehicle were going 110 km/h or 120. Now, Alberta’s minister of highways, Devin Dreeshen, is floating the idea of increasing the speed limits on certain four-lane highways in Alberta to 120 km/h.

One of the highways that would get that increased speed limit is the one Hatters use regularly – from here to Calgary. The posted speed limit is 110 km/h but the flow of traffic is always quite a bit faster. Most non-commercial vehicles lock in their cruise control at 120 or higher, knowing full well that the RCMP, if they’re out on the roads trying to nab speeders, won’t stop anyone within about a 10-per-cent variance of the posted limit.

That means if the speed limit was increased to 120 km/h, you’d be left in the dust by not going at least 130, and that’s when collisions become more frequent. The B.C. government increased some of its divided-highway limits to 120 in 2014 and the results were not good: A 118-per cent jump in fatal crashes, a 30-per-cent hike in injury claims with ICBC and a 43-per-cent increase in insurance claims.

Bad news all around “unless you owned a body shop,” said one wit.

Let’s face it: 110 km/h ostensibly means 120, or more. That’s the speed the highways minister says is a safe one for today’s modern vehicles. And he’s probably right. But if we’re unofficially already at 120, why put the pedal to the metal and push for 130? Or more? Travelling the 270 kilometres from here to Calgary at 120 instead of 130 gets your arrival in the Stampede City a mere 11 minutes later. Is that so bad?

â€¢ You may have a zest for life, but you’re unlikely to find the hand soap Zest at your local grocery store anymore. I know, because I tried.

Zest has been my go-to choice for soap in my shower for as long as I can remember, but suddenly, after my last six-pack finally expired, I went back for more – only to find the product no longer available. Four local grocery stores later, I gave up and vocalized my unhappiness to my wife, who told me all was not lost, that Amazon would come through for me.

It did, although I prefer to spend my money locally.

Let’s just call it a soap opera and get it over with.

â€¢ Speaking of soap operas, where did that name come from to describe the daytime television dramas that are popular with so many people?

Research tells me the dramas were first played on the radio and they were sponsored by house-cleaning product manufacturers, like Proctor and Gamble, because the majority of listeners were housewives. An AI search tells me the name ‘soap opera’ combined ‘soap’ for the sponsors with ‘opera’ to refer to the dramatic and melodramatic nature of the serials.”

â€¢ An old newspaper colleague of mine, Terry McConnell, now of Edmonton, writes a prize-worthy weekly column online to which I’m a grateful recipient and because newspaper people are famous for stealing from one another, here’s my thievery of a recent note in a McConnell yarn.

It concerns the word ‘love’ as it pertains to a score of zero in tennis. Love? Why?

Turns out, reports my friend, that tennis originated in France and the zero on the scoreboard resembled an egg to folks, who then used the French word for egg (l’oeuf) to describe a score of zero. When the game moved into the English world, that ‘l’oeuf’ word went along with it, but transformed from l’oeuf to love.

It’s funny how words or nicknames evolve. An old friend of mine, long since passed away, was known to everyone as Eggman. Why? Well, long before marijuana became semi-mainstream and legal, he happened to enjoy a little (or more) pot from time to time. One of his friends said he’d better cut back or he’d have ‘scrambled brains’ from the drug about which not much was known. That ‘scrambled brains’ soon became ‘scrambled eggs’ and shortly thereafter, it evolved to Eggman.

â€¢ Short snappers: There are 82 players currently on National Basketball Association rostersÂ who were not yet born when 41-year-old LeBron JamesÂ played his first professional game. … Renowned American sportscaster Al Michaels, best known for his ‘Do you believe in miracles?’ exclamation when the U.S. team won hockey gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics, is 81 years old and says he has never, never, never in his life eaten a vegetable. All I have to say about that is 6-7. … How much more great music could Mozart have produced had he not died at age 35? …