Road Rules

In a March 2010 news release, ICBC thanked commuters for “planning ahead and commuting creatively," and making “smart decisions” that contributed to there being “approximately 20 per cent fewer claims [in the Lower Mainland] reported during the 2010 Winter Games than the same time period in 2009."

Traffic congestion is a long-standing and much studied urban problem and, increasingly, as car-ownership levels rise worldwide, a global urban problem.  While much is understood about congestion, it is almost akin to a disease without a cure. As Michael Manville, Associate Editor of ACCESS, the journal of the University of California’s Transportation Centre notes in the Fall 2009 issue, “We have built rail systems and carpool lanes and higher-density developments, but our traffic has just gotten worse. So now we are cynical…[like a patient prescribed expensive medicines that failed to cure.] …You might start to think your illness was incurable, and that the best approach was to learn to live with it.”

Freeway driving requires focus on the driving task, ongoing awareness of what is happening all around your vehicle, knowledge of your route, vigilance for route markers as well as attention to all other signage.  Moving traffic on freeways tends to travel at higher speeds.  There can be long stretches in which the scenery, the road surface, and the surrounding traffic don’t change.  The higher speed starts to feel ‘normal’ and the lack of change makes steady focus and constant vigilance even more challenging.

In 2007, Ontario enacted the offence of driving 50 kph over the speed limit, commonly called the “stunt driving law”.  Drivers convicted of speeding up to 49 kph over the limit are subject only to fines and possible licence suspension.  Stunt driving penalties (over the limit by 50 kph or more) include fines of at least $2,000 and up to six months in jail.

Many British Columbians spend part of their vacation breaks on Interstate 5 (the I-5), the 2,222.97 km long US highway that originates at San Ysidro (San Diego), California, and ends at Blaine, Washington. Through Washington state and Oregon, the I-5 traverses or links to most of the major cities and smaller urban centres, and likewise through California, the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area.