DriveSmartBC

It used to be common knowledge that you must report a collision to police if there is death, injury, aggregate damage over $1,000 for motor vehicles, $800 for motorcycles and $100 for cycles. After changes to the law effective on July 1, 2008 this is no longer the case. Collisions do not have to be reported to police, or anyone else, to fulfil the reporting requirements of the Motor Vehicle Act.

"Cash for Scrap Vehicles" reads the slogan spray painted on the side of a brightly coloured rust bucket parked precariously on the bank between a fence and the side street. Is it eye catching or an eyesore? I suppose that would depend on your point of view.

The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an independent research organization based here in our province dedicated to developing innovative and practical solutions to transportation problems. They regularly make research papers available to the public and here are the most interesting from their last newsletter:

Last week I received an e-mail from a young lady who was a student at a university in eastern Canada. She was involved in a traffic safety program on the campus that aimed to make it more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. She said that they had posted a number of new signs and painted some crosswalks but the drivers largely ignored them and drove the way they always did, which wasn't courteous to other types of road users.

Who is responsible for a crash? This is a question that I am asked fairly frequently, usually by a driver who is expecting that the other driver is totally at fault for a collision that they have been involved in.

Have you ever been traveling a long distance from home and received a traffic ticket that you felt you should dispute in court? Were you disappointed to learn that in order to dispute the allegation you would have to travel all the way back to the court nearest to the place where the ticket was written? Many drivers decide at this point that the issue is not worth pursuing, pay the ticket and carry on.

Have you noticed the growing tendency of lazy drivers who are now crossing over oncoming lanes of traffic to stop in front of particular addresses? It used to be that I would happen to notice people parked facing the wrong way in front of houses but now a week doesn't go by where I come nearly face to face in a game of parking chicken with a driver who has decided to cross over the center line to stop in front of a house.

Back on the 25th of July I wrote about the rash of motorcycle collisions on Vancouver Island. Most were attributed to driver error and I wrote that the Graduated Licencing Program gave new drivers plenty of time to develop their skills before moving on to the next stage.

OK, hands up those of you who have taken formal driver training in the past five years and were not learning to drive for the first time. Heck, hands up everyone who has ever taken formal driver training after you first obtained your driver's licence. Perhaps I need glasses, but I don't see a forest of hands waving out there!

This year has not been a good year for motorcycle collisions on Vancouver Island. Of nine fatalities, police report that seven of them have been the fault of the rider. Speed and inexperience are the cited contributing factors.