Maybe I’m just getting old and cranky but I have a beef with unsafe drivers…

Yesterday I was on my way home along Hwy 1 through Vancouver.  If you are familiar with Vancouver, I had just exited the Cassiar tunnel enroute to the Second Narrows Bridge to North Vancouver.

The speed limit was 70km/h.  Rarely is anyone doing 70 km/h but rather 80 – 90.  I was keeping pace with the flow of traffic in the right hand lane.

A white Honda sped past in the fast lane.  Clearly he was doing in excess of 100 km/h… probably 110 km/h.

Now normally this wouldn’t really phase me but I immediately noticed the ‘N’ sticker (new driver).  Now I have a problem…

The driver got held up in slower traffic on the bridge but I lost him after he exited ahead of me into North Van.  As luck would have it, I pulled into a gas station to fill up and there he was.  I jotted down the plate and make and model of the vehicle and got a description of the (surprise) young, male driver.  He was between 18-20… very typical for an aggressive, “thinks-he’s-Mario-Andretti” driver.

In B.C. there is the graduated licensing program.  First the driver gets the ‘L’ sticker (learner) and only after many months can they go for the road test and get the ‘N’ designation.  I think it is 2 years they must have this but I’m not sure.

I believe that during this period, these new drivers should be held under significant scrutiny.  Any infractions should be dealt with harshly and these drivers should face heavy penalties including loss of license if it’s found that they have made numerous infractions.

The problem lies in the fact that unless they are actually caught by police, the infraction simply doesn’t happen.

ICBC doesn’t have any mechanism to report unsafe drivers province wide. They only have a useless web page with virtually no information.  There are two regions with toll-free numbers to report unsafe drivers but they are limited to the Hwy 1 in the Fraser Canyon and Hwy 99 to Whistler.  There are no other options listed to report unsafe drivers.

I’ve left a message with the Vancouver Police Traffic Unit but I doubt much will happen there.

In my mind there needs to be something put in place to monitor and record citizen reported unsafe driving acts.  At least then the drivers in question could be dealt higher insurance costs or some other means of deterring their unsafe acts.

And don’t get me wrong… I believe this should be in place for ALL drivers… not just new drivers.

Sure, there is a legality factor here… anyone miffed at someone could easily report them as being ‘unsafe’.  They key here would be multiple infractions.  If a driver received numerous infractions reported by various people over a period of time, it would be reasonable to draw the conclusion that the driver was indeed fairly reckless and that might lead to some sort of penalty.

How do you think unsafe drivers should be dealt with?