Unsafe Driving Practices

This 34 minute documentary on the perils of texting and driving was created by Werner Herzog, an award winning writer, director and producer. According to the documentary description, Xavier, Chandler, Debbie, and Reggie all know the horrors of texting & driving firsthand.

I like to talk about road safety with people I meet because it often ends up producing a good topic for these articles. Yesterday I stopped to speak with the road maintenance contractor operating the mower clearing the shoulder of the roads in my neighbourhood. He was quick to offer three observations, heed the signs, keep your distance and wait behind when there is oncoming traffic.

Question: I'm curious about the act of brake checking a tailgater. Suppose a driver is following a vehicle closely (about 1 second distance), and the front vehicle is travelling below the municipal speed limit, maybe 35 to 40 km/h.

Tonight's six o'clock news contained a story about how police had issued over 5,500 tickets for using electronic devices while driving offences across the province in February 2013. More than 100 more were ticketed for driving without due care and attention. It means to me that lots of drivers aren't obeying the law and more than 100 were caught doing something dangerous because of it.

Intersections can be dangerous places both because it is a place of high crash risk, but also because it can be a place with a significant risk for being ticketed. Traffic police have become creative when working at intersections as related in the article Beware the Flower Clown and Other Roadside Characters.

After many horrific motor vehicle crashes in our province comes a call for highway improvements. For the most part, the call should be for driver improvements instead. Traveling past the site of one such recent incident in my neighbourhood it struck me that inappropriate speed, failing to maintain space margins, lack of lane discipline and poor communication needs to be improved before the highway does.

Highway 33, from above Big White turn off to Beaverdale is getting very dangerous. Travelling either way, cars are waiting too long to pass, and end up returning to their lane on double solid lines, just prior to a corner, and often on the curve of the corner. Anyone coming the other way would have no chance of avoiding a head on collision.

This case arises from a distracted driving related collision that happened at the intersection of Ware Road and Highway 19 in Lantzville. Valerie Shaver was turning left from Ware Road to northbound on Highway 19 and Graeme Lymbery was travelling southbound on Highway 19 approaching the Ware Road intersection.

As a pedestrian in Vancouver I am feeling increasingly at risk. Cars making left turns are a particular hazard. To get to work I need to cross Cambie St. at 57th, where there is a pedestrian controlled crosswalk. I think that there needs to be more awareness around this kind of intersection.