B.C. speeders risk losing vehicles

[bubba zanetti]

Tough laws. When I rode from Hope to the ferry about a week ago. I would say conservatively that about 50% of the drivers from Hope to Chilliwak were going at least 40 over the posted limit.  It was actually a bit stressful due to heavy traffic but if you did not keep up, it would have been alot worse.  Anyhoo ... this kicks in Sept 20th.


From CBC ...

B.C. speeders risk losing vehicles

Drivers caught speeding excessively in British Columbia will soon risk having their cars impounded for the offence.

Starting Sept. 20, drivers caught going more than 40 km/h over the posted speed limit will have their vehicle impounded for seven days, the provincial government announced Thursday.

"Excessive speed is often a death sentence," said B.C. Solicitor General Mike de Jong. "We want to save lives by going after the kind of driver who drives significantly and dangerously over the posted speed limit, and then get them off the road."

A driver caught committing the same speeding offence a second time will lose the vehicle for 30 days.

The penalty will be 60 days for drivers who are caught for a third time or more within a two-year period.
Additional penalties

Impoundment will be in addition to existing penalties, which include:

    * A fine of $368 to $483, depending on how excessive the speed.
    * Three penalty points on the driver's licence.
    * An ICBC driver-risk premium of $320 a year for three years, over and above regular insurance premiums.

Street racers will also affected by the rule change. Under the new provisions, both drivers deemed to be involved in street racing will face minimum seven-day impoundments.

Street racing previously had a minimum impoundment period of 48 hours.

Additionally, the Motor Vehicle Act now makes careless acts such as excessive tailgating, and reckless driving actions such as wheelies and doughnuts subject to a seven-day impoundment, de Jong said.


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/09/02/bc-speeding-impoundment.html

[Sputnik]

It may be time for a "Destination Highways: Saskatchewan" edition?  

[Counter Steer]

In the USA that would be going 25 mph over the speed limit. In the US that would be doing 40 mph in a 15 mph school zone, 50 in a 25, 60 in a 35, 75 in a 50, 95 on the 70 mph freeways.

[Mrs. DantesDame]

It seems only reasonable that going 40 kmph over the speed limit would be heavily punishible. I never really felt the need to go more than 20-25 over. And I have a feeling that enforcement will be much heavier between Chiliwack/Hope, etc, than on Hwy 6  

[KLRchickie]

It is the fact that they'll impound on the spot that I find to be the problem here.  So much for the "innocent until proven guilty" statement.

I agree - 40 over is excessive.  However, I do *not* agree that speeding is the worst possible crime a driver/rider can commit.

[schmii]

Many of the highways have a speed of 50-60mph.

75-85mph is then excessive nearly anywhere in BC with a $2000+ fine and the impound.

[ajf]

Many of the highways have a speed of 50-60mph.

75-85mph is then excessive nearly anywhere in BC with a $2000+ fine and the impound.

It's worse than that.  There's no interesting roads I know of with a speed limit of 100 (62 mph).  Very few are 90 (55mph).  Half of DH1 (north of Creston) is 60 km/hr, and I can't keep my average speed below 100 on that road.  Same for the twistiest parts of DH3 (Duffy Lake Road).  My favorite road, DH5 (31a west of Kaslo) is 80, and the sweepers on the east half just cry out for 120 - 130.

On the CBR I don't think this will slow me down in the corners much - might as well sell the sport bike if I have to do that - but I think I'll be accelerating into and braking out of corners a lot.  (Now I really want the weather forecast to improve soon so I can take my fall CBR/Vette  trip to Nakusp before the law comes into effect.)

When I'm in BC on the FJR (without the tow car as a backup if the CBR is impounded) I think I'll have to slow down a fair bit.  And, no more blasts up to 140 to pass a line of cars.

I use a radar detector all the time, and my last speeding ticket was in 1983, so maybe I'm overreacting.  But it's not just the numbers in the new law.  It's the fact that a cop who takes a dislike to my riding style can impound my vehicle on evidence that wouldn't hold up in court.  It's likely I'll aim most of my tours into the US because of this.

[Mrs. DantesDame]

It's likely I'll aim most of my tours into the US because of this.

 

And I always tried to tour in BC! The number of police I see on the roads north of the border is infinitesimal compared to the States. And the one ticket I got while riding in BC? Half as much as a WA ticket, discounted if I paid within a certain time and with the exchange rate at the time, it was even cheaper!. Plus, insurance doesn't know what kind of trouble I cause up there  

[5nines]

It may be time for a "Destination Highways: Saskatchewan" edition?  

DH 1 Sk                                    A---------------------------------------------------------------------B

[bubba zanetti]

It's worse than that.  There's no interesting roads ...  It's likely I'll aim most of my tours into the US because of this.

Spread the word ajf !!!  ... good of you to sacrifice yourself, as well.

[blkhrt81]

Wouldn't be so bad if speed limits were more realistic to start with. Seems to me the Trans Canada through Golden- Revelstoke is 90 km/h. On the ST, 130 doesn't seem excessive and indeed, last time I came through I met two RCMP cars that just flashed me and didn't bother coming after me. On the Coquhilla (sic?) I was cruising at 145 km/h and got passed, most traffic other than trucks was doing around 140.

[motrhead]

RANT ON:
 Personally I think it's a load 'O' crap.  Cars and bikes are 200% better than when the limit was 60mph...safety nazis and do-gooders will have us doing 50kmh everywhere before you know it. I have more than a few million k under my belt and pretty much all of them were over the limit...sometimes way over (not in trucks though). Not one close call from anything speed related...ever! If you want to save lives, ban left turns  
 Besides which, just how is a wheelie or donut endangering anyone enough to warrant impounding a vehicle? All it will ever endanger is the rider. I can't believe you guys taking this lying down. Now honestly, how many of you haven't whacked it open past 160k to pass a couple of cars in the last few weeks. If you said no, I don't believe you. I'm doing 40k over most days at some point, and I am not even close to being dangerous...to me that's the right way to get a pass over with, quickly and safely.
 This has me so pissed off!
 I meet semis going that fast all the time, and when is the last time you ever saw a semi pulled over getting a ticket? Put a 95 kmh limit on trucks with an impound for 10 km over if you want to see lives saved, especially on the Number 1 through Rogers Pass. Or mandatory spray skirts and fenders on semis like in parts of Europe...I can't count the times I have been blinded by a passing semi...how many people end up upside down in a ditch, without the truck driver noticing...oh, driver error, ran off the road...I've even been passed by a Greyhound while doing 80mph myself...
 I've got a better idea, how about a real frickin' driver's test instead of handing out licenses like they hand out Watchtower magazines? Skid pad anyone, like they do in Europe? Stop Albertan cars and trucks at the border and make 'em take a bus (I can't count the number of times I have had an Albertan pass me on a blind corner in the East Kootenays...always Albertans). If they enforced tail gating rules in Vancouver, yes, they would prevent most of the accidents, but  that's a city mindset everywhere, not just Vancouver (remember Ewan getting rear-ended in Calgary after making through all the rest of the world unscathed).
 When I am on the Coquihalla, and there isn't another vehicle in sight, I am over 140...hell, I've done the entire Merritt-Kamloops over 160 in my car, and met only a handful of cars while doing so...there are no corners to speak of even at that speed)! Our cars, bikes and tires are so much better now than when the Coquihalla was opened. Most of our vehicles are designed to operate comfortably at the much higher speeds of Europe, but no, our safety Nazi bureaucrats (NDP leftovers) know what is best for us...
 Really, we have such a big province, we need all the speed we can get.
  Around here, almost all the bike crashes are cars taking out bikes at intersections, or inexperienced Harley riders losing it in a low speed corner. I can only remember one or two actual cases this year, of guys overcooking it from speed, and  those cases are always in corners, and probably not that much over the actual limit (60k corner "posted, or suggested" at more like 120 on a 90 or 100k road).
 The Coquihalla could be unlimited like the Autobahn, and you probably wouldn't have any more accidents in the summer -now the winter is a different story...it wouldn't matter how low you set the limit in the winter-people would still crash.
 Meanwhile, every time they pave, they take away more passing zones that we need, with the increase of slow moving motor homes in the last few years. The latest roadwork cost us three passing zones on one 20km stretch near here.  No wonder drivers get pissed off and speed when there is an opening.
 Now let's talk about the habits of the RCMP...there is a 60 kmh zone in front of my place and when they aren't following someone, every one of them is over 100kmh, all the time. I've followed a ghost car into Van from Hope at well over 140kmh by staying a few cars behind (must have been 5 or 6 of us) all the way to downtown. Meanwhile...their pathetic few hours of high speed driver training are supposed to make them experts and make it okay for them to tell us we are driving too fast? Many of them are too useless to keep a car in their own lane on a dirt road, let alone on a skiff of snow, to be trusted any more than a novice driver (yes, I have met the same female RCMP officer on the wrong side of the road FOUR times over one local road...not a word of a lie). I could tell you some funny stories about their "prowess" with their handguns (personally witnessed, and from a close acquaintance that is an auxiliary...it's a joke), but that's not a story for here...they have no business judging the public, sorry. My bro got a ticket for doing about 1 or 2 k under the limit wehn there was a skiff of snow- not yet sticking- and because he had a radar detector he got a ticket, and it stuck in court.  B.S.!
 Dangerous driving is not the same thing as speeding. At 5:00AM when I won't meet one car on the 50km Richter Pass, why should anyone care if I am 40k or 60k over?  No one is in danger.
 BTW trucks on the Coq are routinely around 140km...I've been passed by them.
 F*&%( this makes me mad.
 FYI...never ever been stopped on a bike for anything...last ticket was probably fifteen years ago (car), maybe three ever(car). Yes I was more than 40k over yesterday, and I will be tomorrow...but I never go more than 3 or 4 kmh over in a speed zone (anything less than highway speed), or in town.
 

[Bug R]

BC welcome to Ontario  

[Sputnik]

Motrhead, nice rant!  You forgot RANT OFF.
 

[motrhead]

LOL...sorry

[GTS_Rider]

Motrhead, nice rant!  You forgot RANT OFF.
 

+1

Damn Brutha Motrhead, you're off the hook!  

The big hookup in California is over 100 mph, so I've adapted to that, and only run up to 150 or so on the really rare roads that I'm sure no cops are on. So, I took that philosophy up to Canada with me for the Borsht meet. I ran the same 'keep it (barely) under 100 mph' mentality through all the great roads I ran up there (not sure how that translates to kph, but for sure over 40 over almost everywhere). For me, not one single RCMP encounter while I was railing it on the prefered moto-roads. I encourage you to rail against these new penalties, but it doesn't scare me away from going to Canada again. After all, I made it through Oregon/Washington unscathed...  

 

[bubba zanetti]

LOL...sorry

snerk.  Good rant  lol

[Kootenanny]

It seems only reasonable that going 40 kmph over the speed limit would be heavily punishible. I never really felt the need to go more than 20-25 over. And I have a feeling that enforcement will be much heavier between Chiliwack/Hope, etc, than on Hwy 6  

I disagree on both points; although I don't regularly travel at 40 km/hr over the limit, there are times when doing so is advisable: specifically, during some passes.  And although you'd think that the #1 through the Fraser Valley would be more heavily patrolled, due to the far, far heavier volume of traffic on that road, the truth is that if you're not travelling significantly over the limit on that highway, you'll get run down--and you'd have to be doing at least 60 over before the police would notice you; on the other hand, we're easy pickin's on the #6, because it's far easier to pull over a single vehicle when there is no other traffic around.  I've received tickets on #6 at barely over 120 km/hr; I'm in the Fraser Valley as I type this, and I've been driving the #1 into the city every day at well over 120 (until I hit the traffic around Langley, and have to slow to a crawl) and haven't even seen a cop (except for the one in her private car who passed me this morning going far faster than I was).

I agree with pretty much everything Motrhead is saying in his rant, too.  These new rules are ridiculous--they wouldn't be if speed limits in BC were reasonable, but it seems they're set for octogenarians from Alberta driving Class A motorhomes.  It's virtually impossible to drive on the highway in BC without either speeding or falling asleep...

[iguana]

I wonder how Montana's accident stats compare to BC's. 25 mph (40 kph) over posted seems about right - for average traffic flow.

Oh, wait... this ain't about science or safety. It's about revenue enhancement. Got it...

I wonder if we can talk The Zalm into spearheading another recall campaign? Let's liberate our roads. Give 'em back to the people and let them be used as God and Phil Gaglardi intended. These wonderful twisties we've got all over this province of ours? Well, nobody else in Canada's got 'em like we do and its a shame, a downright shame that this government wants to pick your wallet if you like to have a little fun every now and then. The folks in the legislature need to get out more and mix with the little people, and that includes driving through the Kootenays every now and then. And the premier? This is just another example of his arrogant disrespect for us common folk. I tell you right now, we, the people of this great province have had enough. We're gonna collect two million signatures and drive 'em up to Victoria, doing donuts all the way through downtown, dumping those those boxes on the lawn after a big, smoky burnout. Woe unto any MLA that doesn't come along for the ride. Woohoo!

And while we're at it, were gonna require the cops to stop any vehicle with red licence plate letters at the border and make 'em pass a driving test that make sure they can turn corners. Properly. 40 kmh over. Without the use of brakes. Motorcycles excepted. They don't turn, they lean.

[ToadRide]

Kinda glad my Hyper Days are over. These days I like to watch all the cars piling up behind me. Right Murial? Eh?