The shambolic experience of driving on British Columbian roads is an old chestnut for me, but it feels like safe ground to tread on.
I’m comfortable complaining about it because there is oh so much to complain about. Seen something sketchy? Dodged a clueless idiot? Peered into the side window of the next car to see if they look as stupid as they drive? Best get used to getting over any slights quickly, because this is British Columbia, and you only have to drive another hundred yards down the road before you have another encounter.
In this case, I do not mean those drivers that are reckless and speed — the RCMP are wise to them—the folks I am referring to are those that are apparently completely unaware of the etiquette of driving on Canadian roads, let alone the rules.
In just the last week I have witnessed: Drivers who hang out in the left lane; drivers who park in turning lanes to answer the phone; drivers who stop on pedestrian crossings and across railway tracks; people who don’t understand who has right of way at a four-way stop, roundabouts, or turning right on red; drivers who cannot maintain their lane; drivers who almost pit themselves pulling into a lane; drivers who continue on for kilometers with their indicators on; drivers who do not pay attention to red lights; drivers who pull U-turns with nary a glance at their mirrors.
The list is endless, and the conditions are hazardous.
If you are attentive, you just know when another vehicle is not being driven by a skilled or aware driver—you can just see it in how they interact with other traffic.
It is these drivers that I would argue make British Columbian roads aggravating, dangerous and expensive to travel on.
On that last point, ICBC stats from a few months back listed 214 crashes on Whistler roads in 2023, with the lion’s share happening on Hwy 99 to exactly zero people’s surprise.
Of course, the reason ICBC keep such statistics is because they are the organization that handle all of those very expensive claims from avoidable incidents.
ICBC, on cue, then charges all of us our insurance costs and those costs have a habit of only going up as a result of so many people not knowing how to drive.
Over in enforcement, the RCMP across the province tear their hair out on the regular reminding drivers to please not get themselves killed and drive to the conditions any time we get closer to a major holiday. But, as essentially every driver can attest—the police tend to not pull you over unless you are driving at a speed that is significantly in excess of the posted limit.
I do not believe there are enough police officers in Canada to affect change on British Columbian driver habits through speeding fines, especially considering we do not have much in the way of speed cameras here. While it's cathartic to wish for speeding or bad drivers to be pulled over and rapped across the knuckles, I doubt the solution lies there.
Rather, maybe we need to go back to the start, and perhaps a more rigorous driver education program would be beneficial. From my own experience, when I arrived in British Columbia I presented my Australian license, was asked if I knew what a flashing green light meant (I said yes, and was not challenged), and then was handed a British Columbian license.
I was surprised: I had expected to be grilled, even tested before I received the nod from the relevant authorities to be permitted to drive on these roads, especially considering I came from a country where we drove on the left.
Instead, one question and I had a license. Little wonder conditions are as they are.
I haven’t had anything to do with local driver education, besides be told on the regular that slots for new drivers to sit a driving test are few and far between in many communities in British Columbia, so while I cannot speak to the efficacy of the testing regime or the timeline of new drivers eventually getting behind the wheel, whatever exists today does not appear to be enough.
Apologies for floating the idea, but the government of British Columbia in its current form often reaches for bureaucratic solutions to problems that ail the province, why not do it here? Why not introduce and then apply a more robust drivers education program? With a wave of a hand the provincial government could induce demand for a new industry by requiring new drivers attend driving lessons rather than absorb bad habits from their parents. It could enforce regular driver education checks by introducing a refresher system to hold onto a license.
It all sounds very expensive, and you would be right. But in a cost of living crisis, what’s more expensive than your vehicle insurance? I get the full ICBC discount because I’m perfect (I’m not), yet my insurance goes up every year anyway. And to my point, vehicle insurance is high because so many drivers do not appear to know what they are doing. By enforcing better driver education, perhaps we can force down the cost of insurance, reduce stress on our roads, and make our roads safer.
A long time ago I sat in a magistrates court in Queensland, Australia (the lower court in that state), listening to the magistrate lambast a young driver that had “borrowed” the keys to his dad’s work truck, gone on a joy ride, lost control at high speed and promptly demolished a children's playground—thankfully in the small hours of the morning and long before any children were present to be murdered by his stupidity. Nobody was injured, but the engine was liberated from the vehicle, so it was quite the mess.
Though he was looking down at his lap, I could tell even from the back of the room that the teenager was crying while the magistrate tore into him for betraying his parents' trust, endangering the community, and appearing in his court for something so avoidable.
The particulars of his punishment are lost to me, but I do remember that the kid lost his recently-acquired license.
What has stuck with me however is a line from that magistrate: “Driving is a privilege, and not a right,” and so with the trust that the State Government had put in that teenager broken, his driving privileges were removed, and he had to earn his license back.
Now, Queensland is not British Columbia, but the basics of earning a driver's license are the same. Nobody is entitled to drive: You must prove you are capable.
Thinking of the experience on British Columbian roads, for the sake of our safety, our sanity, and our wallets, it’s pretty clear that more drivers need to prove they are capable of retaining a license more often.
