Speed

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.

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.

The left lane is so popular lately that when I keep right I often find myself behind fewer vehicles at the next red traffic light. In fact, at one particular intersection on my commute many times I can be first in line. Everyone else seems stuck in the left lane trying to get ahead, fuming, following too closely and making sudden lane changes.

The Victoria Times Colonist Comments section often contains interesting discussions on road safety. Today's edition shared a letter that raised the issue of slow cycling for me. It was not the writer's intention as the subject was about the need for cycle lanes in Central Saanich.

The neighbourhoods where we live are important to us. When we see problems like vehicles speeding past our homes or a volume of traffic that disturbs the peace and quiet we want to act to solve our problem. One of the first things that we demand is for the authorities to put up stop signs.

Passing zones always presented interesting situations for traffic enforcement. There were many times when I would find one driver in the right lane travelling at or near the speed limit and another overtaking on the left at a speed significantly in excess of that limit.

Question: For a few months now I have been trying to locate specific information on the rules of the road pertaining to back alleys. Simply trying to get a concrete source on the speed limit of back lanes, especially those running along school zones, has been incredibly difficult.