Lanes

Our highways are not for the exclusive use of motor vehicles. Bicycles, pedestrians, equestrians and others may be expected to use their fair share of the highway as well. In fact, in some ways the shoulder of the road could be considered to be their domain and not that of the driver.

This incident involves a collision between a cyclist, Valerie Charlton-Miner and a driver, Reginald Hedgecock at the intersection of Hollywood Road South and Highway 33 in Kelowna. Ms. Charlton-Miner was riding northbound in Hollywood Road cycle lane approaching Highway 33. From left to right at the intersection approach is a left turn lane, a through lane, a right turn lane and the cycle lane.

Here's another complaint from the DriveSmartBC Inbox: "Please speak to the situation that I call the "Invisible White Lines" on our highways as soon as we get some rain and whilst driving in the dark. Night visibility in winter is terrible.

We take the lines painted on our roads for granted today, but the first attempts at implementing them were met with resistance.  This short video on the history of lane markings is a study in the rapid effect of new technologies and the ability of a few people with a good idea to have a large impact.

This case involves a head on collision between two vehicles driven by Wasanthi Naidu and Xu Xia Zhong on Blundell Road between #6 and Sidaway Roads in Richmond. Both drivers claim that the other was on the wrong side of the road at the time of the crash.

This case resolves liability for a collision between a car driven by Johnberlyn Uy and a tractor-trailer combination driven by Daljit Singh Dhillon on the Coquihalla Highway just west of the Zopkios brake check. The collision occurred in the early morning hours of January 31, 2014 following a winter storm. At that time the road conditions were relatively good, consisting of a light coat of a mixture of compact snow and sand.

Q: I was driving down Pinetree Way in Coquitlam, BC, and had a slow driver in front of me, maybe driving about 25 to 30 km/h. After passing intersection of Tanager Court, I passed the slow car since there was no other traffic on both sides and safe to do so. The slow car turned out to be an unmarked police vehicle and I was stopped right away.

The RCMP's advanced driver training course was without a doubt the most fun of any course many of the participants had taken in their service. We used an inactive runway at the Boundary Bay airport in Delta and a collection of well used Crown Victoria police interceptors to polish our driving skills. Contrary to what you might think, this was not a high speed driving situation as we never got going faster than about 65 km/h.

Research by Dr. Ben Beck at Australia's Monash University collected data on 60 cyclists in Melbourne who rode their bicycles with a custom device (the 'MetreBox') installed to quantify the distance that motor vehicle drivers provide when passing them. More than 18,000 vehicle passing events from 422 trips were recorded.

Q: I was on a highway in bumper-to-bumper traffic approaching my exit for work and changed lanes to the right once I saw the end of HOV lane sign, and in doing so crossed a solid white line. An RCMP officer was on the side of the highway and waved me over. I explained that I would be exiting the highway and that's why I changed lanes. He gave me a ticket for violation of Section 151(b) - crossing a solid line.

I appealed the ticket and intend to plead not guilty on the basis of section 156, which suspends sections 151 and 155 under certain conditions.