Miscellaneous

We have come to expect that our highways will always be open to us to use at any time under all conditions. When something occurs, such as a serious collision, some drivers still think that their convenience takes priority over all other issues and the highway should not be closed to them.

This shot is from the B.C. Archives and is of Highway 3 near Greenwood, taken in the 1950s. It shows how much our major hightways have improved since then. The lanes may be the same width, but the shoulders are improved and marked with solid white lines. The white center line is now yellow and likely is not a single broken line here today. Concrete guard rail replaces the old post and steel beam that often penetrated the passenger compartment in a collision.

LED street lighting is controversial where I live. When BC Hydro upgraded some sections of the Town of Qualicum Beach the complaints started. For the most part they were about the new lights being too bright. There were many references in the media to colour temperature but none to the number of lumens that these lights were actually producing.

British Columbia's view of what consists of acceptable methods of transportation on our roads had changed considerably since I started policing in the 1980's. Back then, cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles and feet were pretty much all that was allowed. Devices like rollerblades, skateboards, motorized bicycles and scooters were either strictly controlled or forbidden completely.

A reader asks about an incident where a ladder had fallen off a truck traveling on the highway. The driver following behind the truck took evasive action that resulted in a collision. This question raises many important issues including hazard avoidance, duty at a collision and load securement.

I spoke with a father once about his teen's vehicle. I had inspected it at roadside and because of various defects I had issued it a Notice & Order #2. The father was trying to convince me to withdraw the order because he knew that the vehicle would not pass inspection and it would be too expensive to repair.

Requesting disclosure from the issuing officer should be one of your first steps in preparing to dispute a traffic ticket.

According to John Sullivan, a RAF pilot, we are the result of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. Our eyes, and the way that our brain processes the images that they receive, are very well suited to creeping up on unsuspecting antelopes and spotting threats such as sabre-toothed tigers. These threats are largely gone and they’ve been replaced by vehicles travelling towards us at high speeds. This, we’ve not yet adapted to deal with.

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.

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.