Speed

Currently the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act sets a speed limit of 50 km/h on municipal streets when a different speed limit has not been posted by signs. A recent survey by Research Co. found that 58% of British Columbians would definitely or probably like to see residential speed limits of 30 km/h.

This case resolves liability for a collision that took place at the intersection of Rutherford Road and Cedar Ridge Place in Nanaimo. A car was being driven eastbound on Rutherford Road by Gordon Pereira at a speed of between 80 and 115 km/h in the 50 km/h municipal speed zone. A van driven by William Jory stopped at the stop sign northbound on Cedar Ridge Place and then began to turn west on Rutherford Road.

Holland has a serious pollution problem from nitrogen oxides and particulate matter in the air. The air pollution levels are above those permitted by European law and are mainly caused by motor vehicle traffic and factories.

The University of Waterloo has identified speed as the best predictor of crashes after analyzing data from onboard devices in vehicles. The research examined four aggressive driving behaviours, speeding, hard braking, hard acceleration and hard cornering for possible links and the likelihood of crashes. Of the four, only speed was statistically significant as a strong predictor of crashes.

This must be speed week as I have heard from two drivers who are having difficulty following the speed limits and one who knew that he was speeding and wanted advice to plan his ticket dispute.  The three situations give some insight into how the pressures of every day driving encourage us to disobey.

I've probably said this before, but when I applied the same tolerance under the speed limit as I did for those driving over the speed limit and factored in the advisory signs for speed I seldom found a driver going slower.

A recent survey by ResearchCo has found that 7 out of 10 British Columbians approve of using intersection cameras to conduct speed enforcement as well as ticketing red light runners. The survey also found that just over half of us also support the use of point to point speed cameras while over 3 in 5 support either fixed or mobile speed cameras.

A sizeable proportion of British Columbians would like to see changes to municipal speed limits, a new Research Co. poll has found.

35 intersection cameras in British Columbia are being upgraded to perform automated speed enforcement in addition to penalizing red light runners.

Tejveer Parmar successfully used the defence of necessity to defend himself against a charge of speeding. He was initially convicted in traffic court but appealed the conviction. The justice agreed, allowed the appeal, quashed the ticket conviction and acquitted him of speeding.