Video

There's a little known secret that can be used to stop speeding in your neighbourhood. Make the roads more narrow! A wide, empty street just entices drivers to increase their speed. They will unconsciously readjust their perceived risk and drive at a speed based on how comfortable they feel driving on your street.

Let's not be serious for a moment and enjoy a quick humourous video about a driver assistance system that features Amazon's Alexa. In this case it's Alexa doing that tattling, but I have stopped a driver in the past for not wearing his seatbelt and had the child in the passenger seat pipe up "See Dad, I told you to put it on when we left!"

This week on Twitter the question was posed about why we have cars that are capable of traveling at speeds significantly in excess of our posted speed limits? As luck would have it, one of the mailing lists that I subscribe to contained an article with a link to this video:

While this video is a genuine antique, it is still valid today. In fact, the company itself is still "the world's leading crash-avoidance training company according to their web site. The company focus today is on commercial vehicles but the system applies equally to and driver.

While this video is titled "Making a Community Safer for Pedestrians | A Protected Intersection" it should also include cyclists with the pedestrians as it protects them too. Local stakeholders are interviewed about the rationale for picking this intersection and why the changes that have been made work to make it safer.

This video from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia explains that airbags can be dangerous to young children seated in the front seat or leaning against the vehicle's door. It's very important to learn about air bag safety to help protect your child.

Smart phones and dash cams may produce video evidence to defend yourself with in traffic court. However, it's not a good plan to show up with your smartphone in hand and try to show that video to both the prosection and the judical justice while you explain your point. In fact, some judicial justices will refuse to allow you to enter evidence in this manner.

This video caught my attention as Dr. Doebel starts out by talking about how difficult it is to learn to drive. She explained that it was not due to learning later on in life rather than at 16 and that she would come back from her lessons totally wiped out. It was due to heavy use of the brain's executive function.

It appears that drivers in Mumbai, India decided that if they all honked their horns the traffic signals changed to green faster. The resulting cacaphony results in sore eardrums, increased heart rate, added stress and contributes to traffic chaos. Something had to be done to preserve health and sanity.

Chuck Hawks turned a career in the motorsport and automotive industries into being the CEO of Teen Driving Solutions School, a US non-profit organization. In this TED Talk, Chuck speaks about the state of driving in the US today. His opinion is not a flattering one. It's not much different in Canada.