Friday, July 9, 1999 - North Shore News — 35

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Learners acti ake yveleran unge

HAD my mind bog-
gled again last week.
That's not too hard te
do these days.

I was driving down the
Street, minding everybody's
business, when I noticed that
the car in front of me had
one of those fancy, new,
ICBC-inspired "L" stickers
pasted on the trunk denot-
ing a Searner driver. This’ll
be fun, thought §.

The learner was doing a
fine job of keeping the car
between the fines and the
shiny side up.

As we both motored
down this two-way street |
Noticed trom a block away
vet another car stopped at an
Intersection signalling its
intention to turn left.

Too, there was a car pok-
ing out fram the cross strevt
trying to turn right onto our
street. 1 also noticed a steady
amount of oncoming traffic.
and deduced that the left
turner would not be zurning
any time soon, certainly not
before the learner and I
arrived on the scene.

Still from a block away, I
surveyed the intersection and
decided a prudent course of
action would be to go
arcund that ieft-tuming car

y passing ‘it on the right.

Before we go any further,
T should probably point out

- that passing such a vehicle is
“not at all wrong. Many dri-
vers erroneously assume that
‘passing. on-the- right is
always illegal, but the mighty
Motor Vehicle Act addresses
this very scenario and makes

Shai
| Conlin

such a manoeuvre both law:
ful and preferable —— keeping
in mind that the laws in the
MVA are designed to pro-
mote the smooth and safe
“flow” of traffic...

Section 158(1) of the
MVA states that drivers can-
not pass on the right except
*(a) when the vehicle over-
taken (being passed) ts mak-
ing a left turn or its driver
Fas signalled his or her
intention to make 4 left
turn.”

There's a subsection (b)
and a subsection (c ) as well
but that first legal-pass-on-
right subsection is all we'll
deal with here.

And now back to our
story: So from a block away
Thad decided an action J
could take when I arrived at
the intersection with the left
turner.

However, considering the
learner was in front of me, I
thought it might be safer to
decide on 2 course of action
after the learner decided a
course of action. It took a
while.

As the Jearner and I drew
closer to the left-rurner it
became apparent that the
learner did not even recog-

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the stoppage in the lane
. hich is fine, one-thing-
at-a-time in the learning
process et al.

When the learner finally
did recognize the blockage
for what it was, he made a
sudden executive decision to
pass on the right after all.

This is what boggled my
mind: The learner slapped
on a right signal, veered
smoothly but sharply around
the feft turner and before
you could say “you idiot!”
the learner slapped on the
left signal and swooped back
into the jane and carried on
down the street...

Hmph.

Novice or not, that right-
signal was one of the most
dangerous things the learner

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could have done.

You see, because the
learner had waited so long to
make the decision he gave
the impression chat a smooth
pass on the right was not
going to happen; that he
would tuck in behind the
left-turner and wait, perhaps
turn left as well.

Had it nor been for
ICBC’s “L” sticker, I might
have inferred as much (not
likely, really, | assume every-
one’s an idiot, learner or
not). And had I made such a
deduction I might have
passed both the left turner
and the slow-learner iegally
and lawfully only to be side-
swipe by the learner in his
sudden veer to the right.

What's worse, though,

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was the learner's dangerously
inappropriate use of the
right uarn signal.

You see, because the
learner was not making an
actual lane change (if one
does not cross a dotted line,
it is not a lane change) nor a
right turn he did not need
and should not have used a
signal of any kind.

y 183 Pemberton Aye.

Remember that other car
poking our at the cross-
street | mentioned? Had the
driver of the poking-car mis-
read the learner’s signa! and
interred a suddea right turn
rather than a sudden pass-
on-the-right, the poking car
might well have made the

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