Unsafe Driving Practices

We take many of our driving cues from what is happening around us when we are in traffic. If we are paying attention and watching for the correct cues all goes well. Stop paying full attention to the driving task, accidentally take the wrong cue and you can easily cause a collision.

I try very hard to maintain at least a two second following distance when I drive. This can sometimes be quite a challenge as it often seems that I am the only driver present that thinks this is a worthwhile accomplishment.

I learned early in my policing career that driving on a flooded road could be hazardous. What looked to be a few inches of water running on a city street hid a 2 m deep hole caused by a broken water line.

Now that the snow has arrived I've noticed so many drivers who don't clean off their vehicles. The wiper blade is the only cleaning tool used before driving and frankly that's a collision waiting to happen. Then there are the vehicles behind them who get the blowing snow off the roof and trunk of the vehicle.

Mirror, signal left, brake and stop before the marked stop line. Look left, look right and the pickup that was following behind stops ahead of me on my right, half on and half off the roadway, to make a right turn. Of course, I can't see cross traffic to my right properly, so he gets to go before I do.

Question: I have a question/concern about horse carriages in a very busy downtown area and at a very busy intersection blocking the pedestrian crossing, forcing pedestrians to walk around the horse and into the traffic.

Before I watched this video warning against driving most cars through water on the road that is 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) deep, I probably would not have considered it to be worth my while to find another way around. With flood warnings currently being issued for various parts of BC, the knowledge shared here could help you avoid thousands of dollars in repair costs.

Some days are better than others, but I met more than the usual number of bad drivers on my last one. Tailgaters, speeders and drivers who insisted on changing lanes into the space directly in front of me were well represented. Apparently I'm not alone in my experiences as a ResearchCo poll found that just under half of Canadians dread their local drivers.

Have you ever given any thought to how far you can see at night as you are driving along down the highway? High beam headlights seem to overpower the dark, but there are a lot of situations where we are limited to using just the low beams. I was required to calculate the safe speed using only low beam headlights at a seminar and I was surprised at the result.

The Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) has released a study on the Impact of the Pandemic on Road Safety & Mobility. The 17 page fact sheet examines the effects of the pandemic on the road safety attitudes, beliefs and practices of Canadians and the information that it contains was gathered from an on line survey consisting of a random representative sample.