Learning to drive along rural roads has advantages and disadvantages.

Unlike in more urban areas, the roads in Pearl River County are winding, at times narrow and open for higher speeds.

I learned to drive along these county roads, and feel that the experience helped me become a bit more proficient. But admittedly, we have some dangerous sections that may need to be addressed.

The disadvantage of learning to drive in a rural area is that less experienced drivers are at greater risk of being involved in accidents.

Regularly, we here at the Item write stories about fatal accidents, and at times the drivers involved were juveniles.

We currently don’t have information to state that more fatal accidents involve younger drivers, but it’s well known that experience provides less room for error.

The advantage to learning to drive on rural roads is they are just more fun to drive on.

But, that dangerous aspect of having a lot of curves is currently being addressed along one road. Friday I took a drive down Highway 43 North toward the intersection of Pine Grove Road and noticed work is underway to clear a section of the wooded area at the S curve. You guessed it, the S curve is being straightened.

At that moment it was clear this section of road was about to be much safer.

Some people may miss the S curve when it’s gone, and the 90 degree hook at Wheat’s curve is also planned for removal, but if you think about it, these changes will make traveling along the highway much safer.

MDOT gets a lot of flack for not widening Highway 11, even though many promises have been made over the years. And while I agree that highway needs to be fixed, straightening out these dangerous curves might just be more important than widening 11.