Lanes

Question: The provincial driving guide, Learn to Drive Smart, in the yellow lines section, cites:

Broken line -- passing is allowed when safe

Single yellow line -- vehicles travelling in either direction may pass when it is safe

What is the difference?

Why, oh why, when there are literally kilometres of unused pavement in sight, does the driver of the vehicle passing me have to make a lane change to the right and put their car within about 3 vehicle lengths of my front bumper?

The left lane is so popular lately that when I keep right I often find myself behind fewer vehicles at the next red traffic light. In fact, at one particular intersection on my commute many times I can be first in line. Everyone else seems stuck in the left lane trying to get ahead, fuming, following too closely and making sudden lane changes.

Question: I just received a ticket under section 151(c) MVA, basically saying that I changed lanes without signal. I find it upsetting that I received this ticket because I did turn on my signal. He said it was just not fast enough as I was just completing a right turn then going to the left lane and the blinker was still signalling right.

A gentleman from Courtenay explained about the regular difficulty that he encountered when he used the two way left turn lanes in that city. Most recently, he was travelling northbound on Cliffe Avenue attempting a left turn into Tim Horton's. A woman turned southbound out of the Husky just ahead of him into the two way left turn lane as well. They were now approaching each other head on.

A conversation that I had this week highlights a dangerous situation that is well worth discussing, vehicles making right turns across cycle lanes. Drivers may not understand the duties required of them as many of us are only starting to experience driving alongside cycle lanes.

I have a concern about the road between Port Alberni and the West Coast. When they redid the slow vehicle pullouts, they dressed them up to look exactly like passing lanes. Now everyone travels in those lanes. The only difference between the pullouts and passing lanes is that the pullouts don't have signs telling drivers that the lane is ending (why would it, it's not a travel or a passing lane - it's a slow vehicle pullout).

Transfers Magazine references a study published in the Journal of Planning and Education Research in 2022. The authors observe that one way streets were created by suburbanization to allow a quick and simple drive in and out of suburbs commuting to city jobs. They allowed for higher speeds over greater distances with fewer stops. This led to unpleasant, often dangerous streets for other road users.

I always thought that the disaster route signs posted beside some of our highways indicated the route that people would take if they had to evacuate during a disaster or major emergency. I was mistaken in my belief as these signs actually indicate routes that may only be used by emergency services consisting of police, fire, ambulance and other qualified responders.

A Courtenay resident is upset with drivers that turn left from the Island Highway onto Ryan Road and fail to enter the first available lane. He identifies this as a problem for drivers traveling in the opposite direction on the highway wanting to turn right onto Ryan Road. Who would be liable he wonders if the right turn vehicle failed to yield as directed by the sign and collided with a vehicle that had made the left turn into the curb lane instead of the lane next to the center line.