Equipment

The quality of a home made or ubilt utility trailer can range from factory perfect to I'm amazed that it is still following you! Lights, licensing, weight and brakes are the most common problems encountered by enforcement personnel at the roadside.

After 20 years of full time traffic policing you accumulate many memories. I was reminded of one on the weekend when a small pickup passed me by and I could see the bright patch from the right low beam headlight shining on the pavement about 3 meters in front of the vehicle. The memory concerns a driver who thought headlight aim was unimportant.

The brake check sign says "Trucks, Stop Here, Check Brakes, Steep Hill Ahead." Ask almost anyone and they would likely tell you that this sign only applies to heavy commercial trucks equipped with air brakes. This is not the case however.

"If it is illegal for me to have on my vehicle, how come they are selling it to me at the store?" This question is common in response to corrective action taken after inspecting an illegally equipped vehicle at the roadside. In some cases the question is asked in an attempt to deflect responsibility, and in others it is asked simply because the driver trusted the retailer.

I have a question about rear hitch mounted bike racks which are readily available in stores. We use one with 4 bikes on it for our family and when the 4 bikes are loaded they obstruct the view of the rear licence plate, brake lights and turn signals. The corner lights can be seen through the spokes of the bike wheels but not clearly. Any opinion on this because these are widely used?

Transport Canada amended the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations on December 22, 2022 to require minimum levels of noise from hybrid and electric vehicles. According to the news release, under the new requirements, all hybrid and electric vehicles will now be required to have sound emitters that would produce noise at low speeds. Automakers can determine the type of sound the vehicle makes, but the volume and pitch must allow a road user to hear if a vehicle is speeding up or slowing down.

One DriveSmartBC follower shares that one of their pet peeves is drivers who do not have lights on during the day, particularly when it is foggy, raining very hard, or there is a very dark overcast. On their last trip they saw many vehicles with no tail lights on and it was very dark out because of low, thick clouds and rain.

Have you checked your vehicle's spare tire recently? Depending on your vehicle you may have a full size spare, a temporary spare or no spare at all. Knowing what to expect in the event of a flat tire will mean avoiding inconvenience or being stranded at the roadside.

When was the last time you checked the air in your vehicle's tires? Do you own a tire gauge? Do you know what the proper inflation pressure is for your tires? If you don't, where do you find this information?

There will be highs, there will be lows, but they would always be the same. Until 1957 anyway. Although this is a video from the US, Canadian standards are virtually (if not) identical. Take a trip down headlight memory lane and find out just a little bit about today's systems as well.