DriveSmartBC

We are seeing significant changes to city streets that create more room for transportation modes other than the automobile. Your opinion of these changes likely depends whether you are inside or outside of that automobile. Is it an informed opinion? Where do you find information on how these things work? Good questions!

Travelling on a budget was likely behind a request for information that I received about camping beside the highway. The correspondent was curious to know if there are any rules in BC that would stop someone from camping on the side of the highway overnight.

The police were conducting an operation to find drivers who were providing unlicensed ride hailing services in Richmond. An officer used the Udi app to request a right from the Richmond Centre to the SFU campus in Surrey. Haiya Zhang was one of the drivers who responded.

Here is another video from Road Guy Rob who explains about how engineering improvements can reduce the number of drivers who fail to stop for red lights through inattention or error.

We have a question about loaning your vehicle. We are travelling to Europe this summer and friends from there will be using our car (two different families at two different times). I would like to ensure that we are adequately covered in the event that they should be involved in any kind of motor vehicle accident in our car.

This is a podcast from Steed Cycles in North Vancouver. It details a crash between a cycle ridden by Ben Bollinger and a car that ran a stop sign and struck him. It explains the injuries that he suffered and the "Enhanced Accident Benefits" that ICBC provided. He was part of the community voice that caused ICBC to stop billing uninsured, vulnerable road users for damages to the vehicle striking them.

Using proper caution at railway crossings is something that all drivers must remember because the train will not stop for you. It is easy to forget to look if you use a crossing regularly but don’t often encounter a train. About 20 crossing collisions occur each year in British Columbia according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

The dreaded Right Hook: Where a driver passes by on the cyclist's left and then makes a right hand turn, oblivious to the fact that the cyclist was there and had to be yielded to. A study by University of Toronto Engineering found that drivers often fail to adequately scan for non-motorists when they turn right at intersections. In fact, more than half of 19 participants aged between 35 and 54 years old were guilty of this.

The case of Steinebach v Skittrell involves a collision between a car driven by Katherine Skittrell turning right over a bicycle lane to enter the Gables townhouse complex and Mark Steinebach, a cyclist who was using that bicycle lane. Ms. Skittrell should have been aware of Mr. Steinebach, as she had nearly collided with him in the intersection of Promotory Road and Teskey Way a short distance away.