DriveSmartBC

Effective March 8, 2019, the thresholds that require police to complete and submit a collision report to ICBC if they attend a crash scene have changed. The old trigger of $1,000 damage has been raised to $10,000 for property damage only collisions.

When the discussion turns to the use of a bicycle helmet two justifications for not wearing one are routinely brought up. The first is that mandatory helmet use discourages cycling and the second is that wearing a helmet provides a false sense of security that leads to an increase in risky behaviour.

Asking for people to send me their thoughts at the end of last week's article resulted in one of the largest responses I've ever received. Ultimately, the overwhelming choice of advice was to report the offending driver to ICBC and the police. Fewer people were willing to shrug their shoulders and carry on with life while two offered emotional support.

Question: I want to ask a question about disputing a traffic ticket. I’ve searched through this site and most talk about touching the phone, but in my case I did not touch the phone but simply bent over to correctly read the map direction.

"Excuse me? There is no wrong side of the road for pedestrians." This is the gospel according to @alaskanmind in a conversation I was involved in on Twitter this week. "It is a drivers legal responsibility to drive with due care and attention, meaning they are solely responsible." Here's an example from our courts where this view is shown to be incorrect.

This is a short story about things that go bump in the parking lot. The outcome could have been a lot simpler with a bit of courtesy and the sharing of required information but it didn't happen that way. I wonder what the ultimate cost will be when all is said and done.

Zihe Ren was convicted of speeding for traveling in excess of 80 km/h in the posted 50 km/h zone of the 4900 block of West 16th Avenue in Vancouver. He appealed the conviction citing that:

1. The investigating officer, by mistaking the model of his vehicle on the traffic violation ticket, demonstrated that he was “obviously absent-minded" and it should be assumed that he was equally absent-minded about his estimate of the accused’s speed; and
2. The decision is invalid because the investigating officer did not provide calibration records of his “speeding radar".

A report from the Mountain - Plains Consortium answers the question of why bike friendly cities are safer for all road users. From the document abstract:

Despite bicycling being considered on the order of ten times more dangerous than driving, the evidence continues to build that high-bicycling-mode-share cities are not only safer for bicyclists but for all road users. This paper looks to understand what makes these cities safer.

Does your community have a Traffic Safety Commission? The Capital Regional District's Traffic Safety Commission suggests that if you don't, you should. The Start a Commission page on their web site lists 10 reasons why and 10 suggestions on how start one.

Question: I need advice to dispute two traffic tickets, Disobey Yield Sign - Section 173(2) MVA and Change Lane Unsafely - Section 151(a) MVA. This is really strange because there was no yield sign at the intersection. Here is what happened to me on Friday night.