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October 27, 2017 4:09 pm

ICBC Campaign to Target Bad Drivers

Sunday, August 6, 2017 @ 6:45 AM

Prince George, B.C. – ICBC is launching a new road safety campaign to help put bad drivers to the curb.

The campaign will focus on some of the critical components to being a safe driver, including:

  • Our knowledge of the road
  • How we behave behind the wheel
  • Our attitude towards our responsibility as a driver

ICBC says the upcoming campaign will include advertisements, partnerships, public outreach and online resources and an online quiz.

The campaign follows a new survey by Insights West which indicates most drivers think driving has gotten worse the past five years.

Respondents said most drivers are more distracted today, more aggressive and more impatient.

Ironically, the survey also found that 99 per cent of all respondents considered themselves to be good or excellent drivers. Yet the same respondents:

  • Incorrectly answered road test questions (over ¾ of respondents, 78 per cent, got at least one incorrect),
  • Admitted to being an aggressive driver (1/5 of respondents, 18 per cent),
  • Said they might not follow road rules to make up time while driving (37 per cent),
  • Felt that it was OK to ‘bend the rules’ every once in a while if no other drivers were around (32 per cent),
  • Confessed to driving in an emotional state at lest some of the time (99 per cent)

ICBC says there’s been “a marked increase” in crashes the past few years. In fact, it says the number of crashes has jumped by 23 per cent in just three years – from 260,000 in 2013 to 320,000 in 2016.

That’s an average of 875 crashes per day in B.C.

Comments

How many years have they been saying this? and so far, it is all talk.
It has been easier for them to stick it to everyone and claim they are doing us a favor.

ICBC putting bad drivers to the curb,by using advertisements ,partnerships, public outreach and online resources,they might of over done it here.

    They are an insurance company and not a police department… in theory anyways…..

      Never understood why they are partly the MOT as well as an insurance company, maybe for convenience of having registration and insurance in the same place?

ICBC putting bad drivers to the curb,by using advertisements ,partnerships, public outreach and online resources,they might of over done it here.

Any excuse to raise icbc rates…actually the same song and dance..

I predict icbc will ask for 5-6% increase then the gov will say…that’s to high..so we will see an increase of 3-4% as per usual..

Attempts to move over are often made impossible by drivers in the other lane who simply ignore flashing directional lights and will not let the other car change lanes. Also they are often doing the thing they do best: Tailgating! Little space in between to begin with!

ICBC has a huge task on its hands! How does one change a whole culture, the apparently ingrained culture of aggressive and dangerous driving? This is passed on from one generation to the next, because children are exposed to it until they are 16 and start driving on their own. Then many drive exactly how their parents did – and always got away with it!

    Totally agree!!

    PG, good comments.
    What is gonna stick with a 16 year old, who is taught by parents or a driving instructor how to drive correctly for a couple months. What’s ingrained, of course. That being the driving they have observed in the passenger seat for a few years. AND, not every parent is a good instructor, when they’re talking on their cell while instructing, LOL!
    I would absolutely love to see bad drivers targeted with higher rates, and allow the rest of us, who don’t get tickets, or found to have caused an accident, get way lower rates. This is as it should be.

    How do you change the culture? Easy, make it much, much more challenging to get and to keep a licence. Make driver education mandatory for every new driver and make everybody redo the test every x number of years. Fines for offences like distracted driving need a major increase. Public beatings for people who refuse to Keep Right Except to Pass (regardless of how fast they’re going!) are high on my wish list. :)

      That’s a start for bad driving habits, “keep right except to pass” In which driving manual did you see this rule?.

      The right lane is the through lane the left lane is the on-off lane in city traffic. How many times do I have to explain this rule to you.

      The left lane is the slow lane on a highway where you have two lanes in one direction. Here ended the lesson.
      Cheers

      It’s in the Regulations. Look it up.

      It may be time for you to retake your drivers test.

      Retired, think you got a little mixed up.
      Right lane (curb lane) is the on/off lane.
      Left lane (inside lane) is through lane.
      Next time you’re on the Hart, look at the new
      signs “Keep right except to Pass”. Newer law.

      Grizzzzzzly2 – they had to post that sign on the Hart because even though it is on a highway (where keep right except to pass is the law) it is within city limits where the highway laws do not apply. The problem with that uphill stretch is the loaded double trailer could not maintain the posted speed.

ICBC was a huge cash cow for the NDP when they brought it in back in the nineties.

Why does anyone think it will be any different this time around?

I remember the ads before the nineties election went something like “do you know that all government vehicles are insured for around $25 dollars each, and if we had a universal government run insurance package in BC, we could eliminate the private companies, and you wouldn’t have to pay in the hundreds any more for the same coverage, like you do now.

Even I bought into that one back then. What a mistake that turned out to be.

Live and learn.

    Palomino, I remember the same Dave Barrett advertising campaign during the election! My insurance premium almost doubled after the NDP got elected! The promise was nothing but NDP hot air!

      They were trying to make everyone ‘equal’.

      Wikipedia says ICBC was created in 1973, by Dave Barrett. In Mach of 2010, C Clark required ICBC to pay dividends of $778 million. The dividends eventually totalled $1.2 billion

      1.2 billion from 2010 to 2016 not one year, same as during the NDP reign of the 90s when they instituted it – don’t just read wikipedia as it is wrong in this regard – the Liberals did not create the dividend nor were they the first to draw from it. There have been dividends withdrawn from ICBC and hydro since at least 1996

      March 1997 the dividend was a topic in the house – the NDP took dividends from ICBC and Hydro – yet the outcry from the public did not come until 2015 or so? Yet even with these dividends the NDP could not balance the books in the house

      In 1997 Hydro borrowed 70 million to pay the dividend, in 1996 Hydro borrowed 89 million to pay the dividend which is in house documents March 27, 1997

      Wikipedia is not the best place to get your info – it is written by people who read one article from a paper – in this case an article from the times colonist and then make a contribution to the page which although “correct” is not the whole story

    Palomino. It has been for every ruling party… Clark took 900 million from icbc and put it general revenue.. don’t just blame the ndp..

    ICBC came into existence with Dave Barrette. And as a further note for those that are telling us their rate went up well this is pure fiction. In the private sector the insurance over head was 42% the overhead for ICBC was 6%.

    What may have increased was that you had to have addional coverage to cover your bad driving habits
    Cheers

    Because you really are not that well informed about ICBC. It has been a cash cow for Christy crunch for years
    Cheers

      The cash cow from ICBC and Hydro is the result of the NDP requiring a cash infusion in the 90s when the books were getting out of control. Because the amount of the dividends were getting into the billion dollar range (over 5 years) instead of the 500 million range due to inflation and compounding that it has become an issue.

      Nobody took issue when Hydro had to borrow 89 million to pay the dividend in 1996 but when it hit 200 million people took arms. It is called investigative reporting, sometimes stories take off and the funny thing is the NDP critics ran with it even though their party instituted it. We will see what Horgy does with the dividend issue. The Liberals have already stopped taking dividends from ICBC and had a plan to stop Hydro within the next 3 years as well.

I can see that George will have a field day with this. Some of the first posts are an indication of what is to come.
Cheers.

    So will every other town in the province, it is the same everywhere.
    Try adhering to MVA regs in Richmond for one.

and yet every car company on the planet just keeps making it easier to be distracted .

Bluetooth , navigation , DVD systems these are the reasons people are distracted .

I might also add that car companies keep making vehicles more and more powerful. Does anybody really need 300+ hp to get to work, or pick up the kids after practice, or get the groceries? IMO I find that some like to see what their vehicle can do. They drive likes it a video game.

Also, don’t even get me started on the dumb-ass crap I’ve seen motorcycle riders pull. Particularly those on a Japanese crotch rocket.

Drive defensively was the best road advice anyone ever gave IMO. The biggest problem I see out on the road is drivers that are completely unaware of their surroundings and ride their brakes everytime they have to think because they are unaware of their surroundings. Usually easy to spot by their damaged bumpers and irratic stops and lane changes.

And I wonder how many of those crashes were the result of the lower mainland drivers trying to commute in deep wet snow with only summer tires, I have been thinking long and hard about how they were going to bury these statistics and here it is. None absolutely none of those accidents should have been covered as no matter where you are or what you are doing you and only you are expected to drive to the road conditions. we live it up here

Retired02:”And as a further note for those that are telling us their rate went up well this is pure fiction.”

No it is not fiction but a fact as far as my comment is concerned! My rate almost doubled after ICBC was established. No accidents, no claims, no tickets! You are accusing me of telling lies! Way to go, retiree!

Remember, you only ever have to drive well once..

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