Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs seek to increase the number of students who use active transportation (walking & cycling) methods to travel to and from school. Increasing physical activity has the potential to improve health. SRTS programs aim to accomplish this goal through engineering, education, enforcement, encouragement, equity, and evaluation.
"Don't design streets for the traffic that you have, design streets for the traffic that you want." The Active Transportation Design Guide from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure addresses human powered modes of transportation, including bicycle lanes.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has announced that Mandatory Entry Level Training (MELT) will be required of applicants for a class 1 driver's licence commencing on October 18. 2021. B.C.’s program will exceed the minimum requirements set by the National Safety Code Standard for entry-level training of Class 1 drivers and will take at least 140 hours to complete.
Kayvan Payman was ticketed by the Vancouver Police Department for using an electronic device while driving. His hearing was set and on that day he applied to have the matter adjourned. The court denied the adjournment so Mr. Payman pled guilty.
Sentencing was adjourned to a later date and the officer prosecuting advised the court he would be seeking a driving prohibition as part of the penalty.
Our Motor Vehicle Act defines traffic as pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, cycles and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using a highway to travel. That's right, horses being ridden on the highway are considered to be traffic. Animal drawn vehicles are a legitimate part of the mix too.
The People's Law School is a non-profit BC society whose goal is to make the law accessible to everyone. The section of their website dedicated to Cars & Getting Around has a section on Your Rights & Driving.
A reader explains that several times they've been on the highway and had someone, usually in a big truck or old car come right up behind, so close that they can't really see the front of the vehicle. The reader drives a small Toyota and is frightened by this bullying behaviour. The question is, what do you do when you find yourself in this situation?
BikeMaps.org is a crowd sourced map of cycling collision data worldwide. Incidents of collisions, near misses, hazards and thefts can be entered via the web site or through the free Android or Apple apps. The data collected is available to all. If you choose to register and log in, it will even alert you to recent incidents mapped in your area.
According to a study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, drivers are substantially more likely to speed when using Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) or automations that combine ACC with lane centering than when not using either technology. The concern here is that abuse of the system will cancel out the safety benefit of having it.
There were some students in my Elder College class last week that were surprised to learn that it was no longer generally acceptable to hold the steering wheel with your hands in the 10 and 2 position. Who would have thought that how to hold your vehicle's steering wheel would change, or that it even mattered?