Paul Hergott is a personal injury lawyer who practices in Kelowna and writes on a variety of topics about driving in BC and the consequences for the participants when things go wrong. In this article he writes about how sidewalks should be treated as stop signs.
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Mr Hergott knows what he's talking about; he fails to mention - and I think this is important - Section 169, which makes it incumbent on the driver, having stopped, to remain stationary until he/she has ensured that they can safely move the vehicle again.
That's the section that makes 4-Way Stops work, or Section 125.1, if you think about it.
ICBC do their best to test for this knowledge and whether it's applied practically by the driver, by usually commencing their Road Test routes from a parking lot; but they're all different, darn it! Jump on Google Earth and see what it's like to exit from various ICBC parking, and you'll find a variety - most of them with a Stop Sign already erected before the sidewalk, in my experience. I'm thinking Lansdowne in Richmond, or Lougheed in Burnaby, here. Point Grey and North Vancouver use exits without such a sign, but when they're overloaded (which is much of the time) they just encourage - or direct - the Applicants to park on a nearby street.
Being fair, they will usually direct the Applicant to drive up a back lane if this feature (of exiting a parking lot, alley, or driveway) isn't built into the test route. But if no pedestrians are nearby, will the necessary observation and yielding skills be evidenced?
And after the test, will the driver remember what they're supposed to do, in real life?
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Good one!