Behaviour

I've just finished reading Eliminating Serious Injury and Death From Road Transport and find myself in agreement with much of its content. The time I've spent in traffic law enforcement and the investigation of a large number of collisions has shown me that many of them are suffered by people just like you and me.

Parents significantly influence their children's driving behavior. They grow up mirroring their parents habits and attitudes behind the wheel. Research indicates that teens are more likely to adopt risky driving behaviors if they see their parents as engaging in similar actions. Raising a safe driver starts early in life.

This is a very interesting book about distracted driving. Interwoven with the story about Reggie Shaw and how he caused a double fatal collision by texting while driving is information on the research and researchers who are studying how our brain deals with the distraction from mobile phone use while driving. To put it bluntly, we are incapable of driving safely while using a mobile phone, hands on, hands free or texting while driving.

The Motor Vehicle Act was updated in 2015 to make it easier for police to prosecute slow drivers using the fast lane on B.C.'s highways. Perhaps the first question that needs to be asked is whether failing to keep right is really a significant cause of collisions and deserving of increased enforcement.

The BC Coroners Service released recommendations today with the hope of mitigating something that we are already aware of, the fact that motor vehicle collisions are the number one cause of death for youth aged 15 to 18. The first two suggest that we study aspects of the issue in more detail and the third that the Ministry of Justice should develop and implement automated speed enforcement.

Be careful what you ask for! I needed a topic to write about here so I sent a message to DriveSmartBC followers on Twitter and asked for suggestions. The one that intrigued me the most came from fellow road safety blogger Scott Marshall, the Director of Training for Young Drivers of Canada. He asked if, when I learned to drive, was I really ready?

In a public opinion survey of Canadian knowledge of and attitudes towards vehicle safety features, the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) found that a concerning 67.3% Canadians agree or strongly agree that vehicle safety improvements make being involved in a collision less likely, meaning that they can drive faster. In addition, 17.2% agreed or strongly agreed that they would drive the speed limit or faster if their vehicle had safety features, even though it was raining and they felt it might be risky to drive the speed limit.

The 100 Car Naturalistic Driving Study was conducted under the auspices of NHTSA. The study is described in this quote from the web site:

This 60 question test from the folks at Psychology Today magazine will present you with your driving strengths and weaknesses when you complete it. The site suggests that it takes 20 minutes to complete, but I managed to get through it in about 10 minutes without rushing. Answer honestly and see how you rate as a safe or risky driver.

A lot can happen in just the 23 seconds of this video contributed by Orang Gila, taken in Maple Ridge, just past the Safeway at Dewdney Trunk Road. Keep an eye out for the pedestrian on the right sidewalk mid-block who is clearly dithering about crossing the street and is having difficulty finding a large enough gap in the four lanes of traffic that she must cross on the busy street.