Behaviour

This must have been Following Too Closely Week in British Columbia. I received the story of an incident in Sooke, an analysis of a video from Richmond and was subjected to this dangerous behaviour myself. You might be able to get away with ignoring the Motor Vehicle Act, but the laws of physics will eventually prevail.

I had an interesting conversation with @itsjim84 on Twitter this morning about the case law article I posted this week on driving over painted traffic islands. He observed that in the case of a left turn queue that had extended past the left turn bay due to insufficient length it was better to be stopped on the painted island instead of in the through lane. Stopping on the island would preclude being hit from behind by through traffic and allow traffic to flow.

This video from Minnesota's Local Road Research Board explains why specialty warning signs often requested by the public to solve a perceived problem can actually make the problem worse instead of better. In fact, it can spread the problem as people learn to ignore these signs as just more background noise.

I never know what is going to wind up in my DriveSmartBC inbox, but it is bound to be entertaining, interesting, thought provoking or just plain letting off steam at an easy target. I read them all, try to reply with reason and civility and often use them as the basis for an article.

The Driver Code of Conduct from eDriving's on line road safety magazine Three60 is intended to be useful for helping parents to reinforce safe driving messages to young drivers. Having your teen commit to the principles in the guide while they are first learning to drive will help them to minimize or eliminate the risk inherent in motor vehicle operation.

A popular way to try and get speeding vehicles to slow down in residential neighbourhoods is to put up Slow Children at Play signs. Despite our good intentions, research says that there is no evidence that Children at Play signs are effective.

I've been riding as a passenger in heavy traffic this past week and have had time to watch and think about what is going on around me. There are many small things that a driver should do out of habit to minimize their chances of being involved in a collision.

Have you responded to our provincial government's request for feedback on the setting of fair ICBC rates yet? The hope is to "introduce changes to the current system to make insurance rates more fair for British Columbians by making all drivers more accountable for their decisions and driving behaviour." The implication here is that bad drivers don't pay their fair share of insurance premiums.

I’ve spent most of my 40+ years of driving in Metro Vancouver, but have also had the opportunity to drive in major cities in England, Greece, Egypt, and France. When I return from these trips, I’m always amazed at the level of hostility on our local roads. With the traffic density in these foreign cities much higher than in most North American cities, I expected to see a lot more hostility amongst drivers.

We just renewed the insurance on our car. It cost us $764 for basic insurance coverage on our 2013 Honda CR-V. I can hardly wait for next year to see what we will be paying to make up for this year's $935 million ICBC loss.