Government

Life is interesting. I spent my traffic enforcement career making sure that "other" forms of transportation did not share our highways. Cars and trucks, motorcycles and bicycles, fine. Segways, skateboards, go karts, bicycles with gas motors, not here in B.C. thank you. Now the B.C. government has made changes to the Motor Vehicle Act to allow some of these "other" vehicles and is soliciting municipalities to conduct pilot projects on their use.

Question: I was asked to comment on an interesting "exchange of views" on Facebook regarding a no left turn sign posted by the Delta School District at Richardson Elementary School. It began as a discussion about whether a driver had to obey the sign or not and then deteriorated into less than respectful exchanges.

Our streets, particularly in business and residential districts, are slowly becoming thought of as more than just a place to drive motor vehicles. Citizens are engaging their governments and demanding that streets be re-developed into multi-user spaces that are shared with the entire community.

Slated to take effect in January 2020, BC's Director of Police Services, Brenda Butterworth-Carr, has released new standards aimed at promoting unbiased policing.

The Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure has announced proposed changes to the Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) that would allow alternative types of transport such as Segways, e-scooters and electric unicycles to be used legally.

Recent amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act have strengthened the protection for minors who use a party bus. Beginning last April 1, if a minor is on board the bus there must be at least one certified safety monitor that is not the driver present. In addition, the minor must have written consent from their legal guardian.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has released the British Columbia Active Transportation Design Guide. The Guide addresses human powered modes of transportation and focuses primarily on walking, cycling and rolling. However, it also addresses single person electric vehicles such as electric bicycles, scooters, Segways, skateboards and hoverboards.

35 intersection cameras in British Columbia are being upgraded to perform automated speed enforcement in addition to penalizing red light runners.

ICBC premiums are rising! The corporation is losing billions, we have to get costs under control! Let's put out the ICBC dumpster fire by reducing what we pay out in claims, but assure crash victims that they will be properly taken care of.

BC's Auditor General has released the report of an independent audit of commercial vehicle safety in our province. The audit looked at whether the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia and the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General have effectively managed their respective programs to promote the safe operation of commercial vehicles on B.C. roads.