DriveSmartBC

I often hear comments that a friend or family member should not be driving. This person is usually either an older driver or a person suffering from health issues known to the person making the comment.

The rules surrounding the use of electronic devices while driving have been refined by the BC Supreme Court yet again in the case of R v Bleau. Ryan Bleau was charged for having his smartphone sitting in his vehicle's cupholder using it to listen to a podcast while he drove to work. He was convicted of the offence in traffic court.

Is it the highway's fault when there is a collision? A Facebook page dedicated to bringing improvements to an intersection on Vancouver Island that frequently sees major collisions raises that point. It also raises a number of suggested fixes for the issue.

If you have tried to enter the freeway in the lower mainland, you may have encountered a traffic signal on the on ramp. Why would there be a red light at a freeway entry? During times of congestion, controlling how vehicles enter the freeway can actually keep the traffic on the freeway flowing. A small wait on the on ramp is traded for what could turn out to be a significantly long wait in gridlock.

This is a case where Timothy Drewcock appealed his conviction for speeding in traffic court. His position is that the JJP should not have admitted police radar evidence because there was no evidence explaining when and how the radar instrument used in the case was tested and what tests were made.

"Are there specific rules of the road for parking lots?" asks a reader. "If so please clarify them." Parking lots often seem to be a free for all to me. This observation might be confirmed by the fact that ICBC reports that in 2018 there were about 96,000 crashes in parking lots that resulted in a claim being filed. 4,300 of those claims included someone being injured, 480 of those people were pedestrians.

Question: Here is a typical intersection in Vancouver at West Broadway and Birch in Kitsilano. Turning right is only allowed from the far right lane. However, West Broadway is packed with parked (legally, see the parking meter) cars, and if the parked car is too big and/or too close to the intersection, you don't have any room to change lanes.

Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) has announced the availability of an updated version of the Carrier Safety Guide.

Question: Can you do an article on cars passing on the right? Especially when you are at an intersection on a two lane road and making a left turn. I have had cars whiz by me on the right because they were too impatient to wait.

I’m hoping you can point me in the right direction. My daughter was grazed by a driver who sped through a red light, to be honest she feels if she’d have been walking any faster she’d have been hit and likely killed due to the speed at which the car was traveling.

This happened at the intersection of Union Rd and Glenmore Rd in Kelowna, at exactly 10:45 pm as she walked to catch a bus.