Equipment

"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. Buyer Beware!

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 your vehicle's tire pressure? 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.

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.