Speed

I’m a professional driver on the Island,I have been driving since the mid 60s and have logged many accident free kms. My interest in writing is the “slow down, move over law." I have done it for decades. Not enough drivers seem to be aware of it.

The signs posted on the highways are difficult to read at 120kmh the most prominent portion of them is a red and blue light on top of a sedan.

I have been a property owner in Mirror Lake BC for over 5 years & have yet to see any speeding related citations being created here. Hwy 31 at Mirror lake is posted 50 kmh but rarely see anyone obeying the speed limit.

The article that I wrote two weeks ago concerning solving your own road safety problems prompted an inquiry from the East Kootenays. The writer complained that a section of Highway 31A leaving the town of New Denver was marked with a 50 zone ends speed sign and the next kilometre or so of the road had many driveways, some intersections, a pedestrian crossing for a public trail and was regularly used by cyclists and pedestrians.

Argh! The driver in front of me is not doing the speed limit! Yes, I’ll admit that I often feel the this way, even when the speed differential is as low as 5 to 10 km/h. I have to tell myself to relax and follow along until there is a safe opportunity to pass by or even be satisfied with reducing my own speed to match and not worrying about it. The trouble is, that only works if you don’t have a schedule to keep and in some circumstances slow driving can be dangerous.

Are the drivers of these masive trucks carring large and very heavy logs taught in their Commerical Vehicle Driving School how important it is ( or should be ) that they obey the road signs perticulary in Residental areas . Judging by what I see in my small community sometimes plagued  by these noisy vehicles I think not .

I would like to tackle a subject that might be a bit odd for DriveSmartBC but the consequences could be related back to safety. I’m thinking about travel speed and fuel economy because the faster you go, the more it costs, probably in more ways than one. Slow down and save.

Love 'em or hate 'em, speed enforcement cameras save lives. This review of the evidence of the British experience with speed camera enforcement shows that camera use results in a substantial improvement in compliance with speed limits, a particular reduction in extreme speeding, a marked reduction in average speed at fixed sites and an appreciable, though more modest, reduction at mobile sites.

Question: What advice do you have when driving in heavy traffic that is averaging 25 to 30 km/h over the posted speed limit? I was crossing Lake Okanagan bridge a few days ago in the right lane and if I went 15 to 20 km/h over the posted 60 km/h limit I was still the slowest vehicle there.

This is a case from the BC Court of Appeal that upholds a judgement from the Supreme Court. The incident in question occurred when Peter Link was driving his Jaguar in a snowstorm on Highway 99 between the Highway 10 and Highway 91 exits in Richmond. He was driving at a speed between 40 and 60 km/h when he was passed by an SUV that threw a large amount of snow onto his windshield as it passed by.