Information related to vehicle speed and speeding.
Welcome to wet weather season in British Columbia! Some areas are blessed with this situation more often than others, but drivers need to be aware of the perils of wet highways. The well being of you and other road users depend on it.
Question: Our daughter failed her road test due to not reducing her speed to 30 km/h as she drove through a playground zone. We don't understand this because there were no signs were present.
Question: Is there a minimum speed limit on municipal roads? For example, if a road has a designated speed limit of 50 km/h, is there an inferred or statutory minimum speed for that road? The reason I ask is because my 17 year old daughter recently failed her driver's test. The reason? "Driving too slow."
Today was the first day back at school for elementary students where I live. The school is on an arterial road with a posted speed of 60 km/h that is often ignored by many drivers. I stood with speed watch volunteers for an hour from 10:00 to 11:00 am and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.
What construction zone? I didn't see any construction speed signs back there! This irate motorist was very definite expressing what she thought about the traffic ticket I was issuing her for speeding in a construction zone. I suggested that once we were done I would be happy to help her make a U-turn so that she could go back and check on the signs.
Question: I was stopped by a motorcycle officer over a 60 kph bridge. I was going over the posted limit and unaware of the excessive speed consequences. The officer said that he was pacing me and I was "pulling away from" him. I was asked initially how fast I thought I was going and ignorantly and mistakenly guessed 110.
This case is an appeal of a traffic court conviction where the officer who issued the ticket used a visual observation of vehicle speed to base the ticket on. The estimation was 90 km/h in the posted 60 km/h zone on the Lougheed Highway near the North Road intersection.
May 2025 is a busy month for road safety campaigns in British Columbia. ICBC is holding a speeding campaign and the BC Association of Chiefs of Police are running motorcycle safety and high risk driving campaigns.
My highway patrol unit was issued its first laser speed measuring device back in the early 1990s. It was a popular tool to use because of both it's accuracy in targeting a specific vehicle and the measurement of that vehicle's speed. Case law regarding the use of the instrument developed over time in court the same way that it did with radar when that was introduced.
I am occasionally asked why construction speed zone is in effect when there is no work being carried out at the time. The standard response from government is that hazardous situations may exist and the reduced speed is necessary to be safe. Examples given are parked equipment, uneven pavement at the edges of lanes and no shoulder.