DriveSmartBC

I applaud the green attitude of those people who ride a limited speed motorcycle (LSM) for their trips on BC highways. Surely their carbon footprint is a lot lighter than my own. That and their wallet will be heavier as these motorcycles are economical to buy, license and operate.

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.

I've always wondered about the driver in the far left lane as I used the on ramp to enter a freeway. Would they change lanes to the right while I was trying to join the flow of fast moving traffic by moving into the same lane from the left? Not everyone bothers to signal their lane changes and having to move out of the lane before it ends adds to my complications.

This column is dedicated to the middle aged male driver who turned left in the intersection and completed the turn half way into my lane as I approached him and half way into the lane that he was supposed to be using. Was he being inattentive, careless or did he not know any better?

I have been ticketed for crossing a double yellow line just before the end of the right hand lane in a passing zone. The reason for this manoeuvre was I had been in the right lane and catching up to another vehicle, I switched to the left lane to overtake the slower moving vehicle, I estimate the speed variation to be around 30 KPH.

I ride a motorcycle and find that some HOV lanes allow motorcycles and some do not. It is frustrating to pass the non-HOV entrance to a roadway only to find that the HOV lane entrance does not permit motorcycles. Can it be changed so that motorcycles are permitted to use all HOV lanes and entrances, in particular that one as I commute over that bridge daily?

Could you talk about the rule about not crossing a double line when driving? A friend and I were talking about this and she thought there had been an update on this rule, that you were allowed to cross a double line under certain circumstances, though she could not remember what the circumstances were.

There is probably nowhere that the unofficial rules of the road are "enforced " by other drivers like that of the lane closure line up. You know, the long line up of traffic that forms on one side of the highway after drivers pass the lane closed ahead advisory signs.

I'm sure that you have already determined that if I don't write this column based on reader requests, I write about something that I have seen happen around me in traffic. This column is no different, and it is about a behaviour that struck me when I was using the freeway in Vancouver recently.

Would you write an article on painted traffic islands? As I pass an island with my left turn signal on, someone behind me will often drive across the island, attemping to pass me and turn at the same intersection. I have seen professional drivers do this as well.

Perhaps the reason that these drivers ignore the painted island is that the lines do nothing to physically prevent them from driving on it. I suspect that they see it as just another area of open pavement that no one else is occupying at the time and they can use it to their advantage. A raised island may damage their vehicle so it is treated with more respect.