Equipment

The third week in September marked the official start of fall and noticeably shorter days. That means many of us will driving in the dark more often. Here are some bright ideas for driving at night.

The humble licence plate has but one job, positively identifying the vehicle it is attached to. Without license plates, how would we know who owned the vehicle? How would you complain about an erratic driver or report your stolen vehicle? Intersection Safety Camera (ISC) enforcement and Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) would be stymied and even the lowly parking ticket would have difficulty.

Canadian Occupational Safety Magazine reports an example of two B.C. employers receiving significant penalties for vehicle safety violations. Qualified Contractors Limited of Surrey and BNN Enterprises Limited of Pitt Meadows both failed to properly maintain farm worker transportation vehicles.

"Are you allowed to drive with both headlights and driving lights on at the same time?" asks a reader. The question was prompted by this person's complaint of being blinded by the lights of many of today's vehicles. These vehicles display two headlights and two of what many people assume to be driving lights.

QUESTION: I'm an Alberta driver visiting BC. I went through a check stop where I was told to pull over and they were going to write me a notice and order for my windshield. One of the other cops walked over while she was in the middle of writing that ticket and told her to make it a number two. Now is this even enforceable on an Alberta vehicle?

The lights that our vehicles are equipped with serve two important functions. They allow us to see and they allow us to be seen by other road users. The messages conveyed to others by our vehicle's lights must be clear with no opportunity for confusion. This convention is followed worldwide.

One of my preferred enforcement practices was to use an unmarked car and drive in the right hand lane at or just under the speed limit. This gave me plenty of time to look at and into whatever passed by on my left. Vehicle defects, failing to wear a seatbelt, distracted driving and other things of interest to a traffic cop were often easily discovered.

My article on driving lights led to a number of requests to write a follow up article on fog lights. The original question involved vehicles that were driving with four lights on all the time and two of them were not being dimmed for oncoming traffic.

I remember putting chains on my father's tow truck and plowing snow with the front bumper at 30 mph to go and drag a hapless motorist back onto the highway. I also remember my time in northern BC where one didn't leave the driveway without a shovel, tow rope, extra winter clothing, tools and a collection of small spare parts at this time of year. Are you really ready for your next trip in winter conditions?

There sometimes seem to be two types of people when it comes to the sounds emitted by vehicle exhaust systems: those who hate it and those who try to balance calling attention to themselves yet not provoke a response from traffic law enforcement.