Perhaps the most effective way to improve road safety is by improving road user attitude. If selfish and unsafe behaviours can be shown as detrimental and users convinced to choose what is beneficial on their own reaching our Vision Zero targets have a better chance of being successful.
The following video is part of the Western Cape Government's Safely Home initiative. The It Can Wait campaign hopes to discourage drivers from using their cell phones while operating their vehicles. For those of us who think that we can safely multi-task while driving the site has this to say:
If someone is driving without a license and gets their friend's car impounded for 30 days, is there a way to get it out sooner? And is there any trouble for the owner of the vehicle (through their insurance or anything) for having someone drive the vehicle without a license and getting it impounded?
The mature male driving a Porsche Boxster convertible in front of me provided the first bad example for this story. The light turned green and he stalled it. By the time he had started it again the light had turned red and we all ended up waiting for the next cycle.
From the description on YouTube:
Freedom from cars, freedom from sprawl, freedom to walk your city! City planner Jeff Speck shares his "general theory of walkability" -- four planning principles to transform sprawling cities of six-lane highways and 600-foot blocks into safe, walkable oases full of bike lanes and tree-lined streets.
Question: How many people can legally sit in a moving motorhome? Does everyone need seatbelts?
As drivers, we tend to think that if we can see pedestrians, they can see us, especially during the day. This may not be the case with children if we are driving at speeds of more than 30 km/h. This is also the speed above which the chance of significant injury or death begins to be much higher for pedestrians who are struck by vehicles.
Driving behaviour is a never ending curiosity for me, so when I heard a conversation about the intersection of Haslam and Adshead Roads south of Nanaimo I had to take a look. The gist of the story was that most drivers seemed to treat this Y shaped intersection as being uncontrolled and zoomed through it as if the rest of the world was going to stop for them. The sentiment was expressed that it is only a matter of time before a serious crash occurred there.
William Eller represented the Aspen Road Community's interests in this action against the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure's (MOTI) proposed changes to the Malahat Highway intersection serving their area. The action was taken because the residents felt that the MOTI failed to incorporate their concerns into the improvement project. An injunction was requested to prevent the changes being made until the safest design for the affected area was determined in full consultation with the residents.
Over my lifetime so far, I've gone from a child who rode on a foam mattress in the back of our family station wagon on summer road trips to a grandfather who would not dream of driving anywhere without grand daughters safely buckled up in proper child restraints. Needless to say, wearing my own seatbelt has become a reflex action. I'm uncomfortable if I don't wear it and don't notice it when I do.