Respect is disappearing on Victoria’s roads

Iwas born and raised in Victoria and have been a professional driver for 23 years. I’ve noticed a change with regard to the level of respect shown on Victoria roads, and it’s alarming.

Some days, I wonder if the majority of drivers have forgotten about traffic laws or just don’t care. The level of entitlement that a large percentage of drivers display is disheartening and scary.

They routinely run red lights as if they’re the only ones on the road, change lanes without looking and/or assume that because they put on their turn signal that it makes it OK to cut off a vehicle in the other lane. Then if you use your horn to say “Hey, that wasn’t cool,” you receive the one-finger wave in response, as if you’ve done something wrong.

I think this sense of entitlement comes from many places, childhood, parents and the lack of traffic-law enforcement. Most new drivers in the beginning will most likely follow the rules of the road. They’ll use their turn signal all the time, check their blind spots, they won’t routinely run red lights and, most of all, they won’t use their cellphones while driving.

Unfortunately, over the years the good habits start to fade as they see so many other drivers disregard these rules of the road. Also, the level of traffic-law enforcement has a huge role to play. When you see so many other drivers disobey traffic laws, you think: “Why should I follow the rules when nobody else is?”

There is the problem. Without law enforcement stopping drivers and reminding these drivers of the law with warnings and tickets, the problem just gets worse. It’s as if the police departments are relying on the public to obey the law because it’s the right thing to do. I’ll say this: It’s not working. I’ve seen a number of police vehicles sitting at intersections where any number of cars are running red lights, blocking the intersection by crossing on a red just to get across, and the police do nothing. I mean full red lights, not an amber that has just turned red, so much so that cars going the other way have had to stop and wait before they can move on their green light.

During any given day, on average, I see one out of five drivers on their phones while driving, either talking or texting. Why should drivers stop doing it when the chance of getting caught is so incredibly low?

I have a question to all of our police forces in Greater Victoria: How far down your priority list is enforcing traffic laws? Is it even on the list?

I realize that everything the police do is reliant on what the budget can afford, but it needs to change. Why can’t the budget be increased so a traffic division can deal with this situation?

I drive a large vehicle all day around town and I’m proud to say that I’ve driven more than 1.5 million kilometres without an accident. I really wonder how many non-professional drivers could say they’ve driven a year without an accident or hitting something. I don’t think very many.

The graduated-licence program is fine for new drivers, but there should be mandatory testing for all drivers every five years. This might reinforce some respect on the roads, remind drivers of traffic laws and improve skills.

It would be great if the public could improve their level of respect while driving, but I don’t see that happening without enforced traffic laws to remind everyone.