LATEST

B.C. highway speed limit changes unveiled soon

NEWS — The provincial government is looking at getting slow-moving drivers into the right lane while raising speed limits on some of B.C.’s highways in early July.

Todd Stone.

Todd Stone.

A Ministry of Transportation and Highways spokeswoman said Friday feedback was received from the public and stakeholders such as ICBC, RCMP, the B.C. Trucking Association, B.C. Automobile Association and the Union of B.C. Municipalities.

Highways Minister and Kamloops South MLA Todd Stone could not be reached for comment.

Elizabeth Thomson said the results of the province’s Rural Highway Safety and Speed Review are close to being announced along with accompanying changes.

“We have been working to marry the technical portion of the review with the feedback we received from the public and key stakeholder groups,” she said.

“There will be a number of measures that we will be implementing to do a better job in getting motorists out of the left lane, unless they are passing slower moving vehicles.”

The review also includes new regulations around the use of winter tires.

• • •

Is the MLA for Kamloops South another Flyin’ Phil?

It turns out Todd Stone was a bit of a lead foot in his past. The Highways Minister disclosed on Radio NL earlier this week that he lost his driving licence 15 years ago because of racking up too many speeding tickets.

The father of two said he deserved the suspension and described his mind-set at the time as that of “a young man in a hurry.”

Flyin’ Phil Gaglardi was known for his own speeding track record while building B.C.’s network of road as highways minister.

Mel Rothenburger's avatar
About Mel Rothenburger (11562 Articles)
ArmchairMayor.ca is a forum about Kamloops and the world. It has more than one million views. Mel Rothenburger is the former Editor of The Daily News in Kamloops, B.C. (retiring in 2012), and past mayor of Kamloops (1999-2005). At ArmchairMayor.ca he is the publisher, editor, news editor, city editor, reporter, webmaster, and just about anything else you can think of. He is grateful for the contributions of several local columnists. This blog doesn't require a subscription but gratefully accepts donations to help defray costs.

2 Comments on B.C. highway speed limit changes unveiled soon

  1. Some speed limit changes will be good, but for the most part, there are still people out there that will need to slow down to obey them. As for getting slower drivers into the right lane, good luck with that one. There are still too many people that think they are doing the world a favor by becoming a moving speed bump, or traffic calmers, and causing accidents from unsafe passing, and road rage incidents unnecessarily.

    Like

  2. Unknown's avatar Mike in Kamloops // June 21, 2014 at 10:31 AM // Reply

    Personally, I would like to see different speed limits for passenger vehicles versus heavy trucks, and a limitation on where heavy trucks can pass one another, like they do in the States. There is nothing more frustrating than coming up at 110km/h on 18 wheel truck, who then suddenly pulls out to pass another 18 wheel truck, (especially on a hill) and they block both lanes while one crawls past the other. I’ve almost ended up in the median a couple of times because of this. Then they go barrelling along at 120-130 on the straight and downhill sections.

    Like

Leave a comment