Aggressive Driving

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. The only difference between the pullouts and passing lanes is that the pullouts don't have signs telling drivers that the lane is ending (why would it, it's not a travel or a passing lane - it's a slow vehicle pullout).

The case of R v Gray arises from an unsafe passing incident that occurred on the highway near Round Lake. A police patrol that was southbound on the highway observed 3 vehicles abreast approaching. The highway was only two lanes wide for northbound traffic so the third vehicle was being driven between the widely spaced solid yellow lines marked in the centre of four lanes.

A good definition of aggressive driving is "an individual committing a combination of moving traffic offences so as to endanger other persons or property." Do you fit this definition? Due to our built in optimism bias, the answer to this question is most likely "no."

Questions: How is "street racing" defined? How do the courts recognize street racing as opposed to, say, speeding? And why are the rules currently on the books for things like speeding, reckless driving and endangerment alone not harsh enough to apply to street racers?

A reader explains that several times they've been on the highway and had someone, usually in a big truck or old car come right up behind, so close that they can't really see the front of the vehicle. The reader drives a small Toyota and is frightened by this bullying behaviour. The question is, what do you do when you find yourself in this situation?

It appears that drivers in Mumbai, India decided that if they all honked their horns the traffic signals changed to green faster. The resulting cacaphony results in sore eardrums, increased heart rate, added stress and contributes to traffic chaos. Something had to be done to preserve health and sanity.

This is a road rage incident that occurred near Saanich starting on McKenzie Avenue near Glanford Avenue and proceeding westbound. It ended at the red light on Burnside Road near the TD Bank when one driver decided to spit on the other and the police were called.

This must have been Following Too Closely Week in British Columbia. I received the story of an incident in Sooke, an analysis of a video from Richmond and was subjected to this dangerous behaviour myself. You might be able to get away with ignoring the Motor Vehicle Act, but the laws of physics will eventually prevail.

The following article is a study of tailgating from a 26-second video of Highway 91 submitted by a North Cowichan resident who visits Richmond often to get treatment for the brain injury he suffered after being rear-ended.

If you go by the Two-Second Rule, 79% of drivers were tailgating. And 26% were recklessly tailgating with less than one second separation. In this video, one driver is only 1.5 car lengths behind.