This is a phenomenon seen all too often on the sea to sky both before and after the recent improvements. I would bet that the solution lays in a far more rigorous and in depth driver training program, along the lines of Germany’s licensing scheme. Enforcement and training focus on reckless drivers, street racing and DUI offenses has left little time for dealing with actual downright incompetence, as a result BC’s highways are an epicenter of bad driving. BC drivers education/testing places little to no emphasis on highway etiquette.

I don’t know if it would be effective, but perhaps larger and more frequent signage regarding lane discipline, the “Keep right except to pass” and “Slower traffic keep right” signs would be more than welcome on the north shore and highway 99. I have noticed that Alberta uses much larger signs of this type with large, colorful, eye catching borders that help to drive the point home. There is a certain self righteous behavior frequently observed on our highways not seen in the US or Eastern Canada, the notion of preventing others from speeding, or “as long as i am doing the limit any lane will do” which is a recipe for frustration, road rage and an inefficient highway system. I would love to see better legislation and stepped up enforcement of highway rules!!

I am pleased to see a LEO is at least mindful of these types of drivers, i don’t get many speeding tickets, but i am certain i have gotten one or two due to the speeds necessary to negotiate drivers who don’t practice proper lane selection. Pointing that out to the officer at the time, however, was a less then fruitful tactic.

Good post Sandra!

Cheers

It is simply that some people hurt so much that the only way they can feel good is by doing something that causes others to suffer. In our anger and pain, they find their only source of pleasure.

If everyone had a red paintball gun and were allowed to “tag” drivers such as this, you’d see the mostly-red cars coming and could take steps to avoid them. But in the real world, they might shoot back with something worse than a paint ball. (Never mind.)

Thanks for the post. Being a victim of this type of aggressive driving on numerous occasions I’ve also began wondering what causes such behaviour. Although I will not pretend to be a psychology expert as I almost failed 1st year Intro Psyc (please don’t tell my recruiting officer that by the way) I would like to pass on a website I found a while back (www.drdriving.org) which has some interesting articles on the topic of aggressive driving. If I read correctly, the author views this style of driving as a display of impaired emotion. The driver is experiencing an internal power struggle and this is demonstrated in his inability to drive courteously. The fact that this person is not allowing others to pass is only the tip of the issue whereas the bottom line is “he wants to be first and to control the flow of traffic”. Although finding specific credible literature on aggressive driving may be difficult, concentrating your search to the fundamental three behavioural characteristics of bad drivers (1- impatience/inattentiveness 2- power struggle 3- recklessness) would yield a broad horizon from which to study. Furthermore, a trip to any university and a chat with a librarian would probably get you access to online peer-reviewed article databases which have literature on anything you can think of.

Of course the question is… “once we know why people drive this way, how do we stop them from doing so?”

My favorite is when there is a line of cars on a two-lane road waiting for a legal passing zone to pass someone driving below the speed limit. Suddenly, the slow driver slams on his brakes, quickly pulls to the right (half-off the road), exits his truck, and waves his fist inviting a fight with any or all of the drivers behind him.

Some folks seem to take get passed very personally.