Laws around passing emergency vehicles to change March 1. UPDATE: Delayed to Sept 1

[Lubicon]

This whole thing is a clusterf>uck. Alberta Transportation still has signage on the highways notifying drivers of the new law coming September 1. Problem is they do not contain the correct information anymore. They say 'Slow down AND move over'.

[Titan2]

Bumpity Bump. Today is the day. Law now.

[Barnes]

So, the law before today was slow to 60km/h in the lane adjacent to a vehicle with lights flashing, they wanted to change it to all lanes need to slow to 60 km/h but decided to change it to exactly what it was before?

What am I missing here?

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Barnes

So, the law before today was slow to 60km/h in the lane adjacent to a vehicle with lights flashing, they wanted to change it to all lanes need to slow to 60 km/h but decided to change it to exactly what it was before?

What am I missing here?

Instead of the law being slow down to 60 in the adjacent lane, the law is now move to the next lane over or slow down to 60 in the adjacent lane if you can’t move over because there is traffic or no other lane.

So… basically nothing.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Instead of the law being slow down to 60 in the adjacent lane, the law is now move to the next lane over or slow down to 60 in the adjacent lane if you can’t move over because there is traffic or no other lane.

So… basically nothing.

Great, thanks. I look forward to our Government's next changes. Maybe they could make the driving age 16 or now you have to stop at stop signs.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Barnes

So, the law before today was slow to 60km/h in the lane adjacent to a vehicle with lights flashing, they wanted to change it to all lanes need to slow to 60 km/h but decided to change it to exactly what it was before?

What am I missing here?

The biggest thing is they clarified who you need to slow down for, now it's for any flashing lights no matter the colour or what they're doing

There's also some new provision about unsafely passing snowplows

The crazy thing to me is we see most incidents happen on 50-60km roads and this still only slows people down to 60. I know a lot of groups were pushing for a flat "Slow to half the speed limit no matter what" and in a year where we set the record for roadside and emergency workers getting hit by cars, I can definitely see why

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by btimbit

The biggest thing is they clarified who you need to slow down for, now it's for any flashing lights no matter the colour or what they're doing

There's also some new provision about unsafely passing snowplows

The crazy thing to me is we see most incidents happen on 50-60km roads and this still only slows people down to 60. I know a lot of groups were pushing for a flat "Slow to half the speed limit no matter what" and in a year where we set the record for roadside and emergency workers getting hit by cars, I can definitely see why

Huh? So it's not just emergency vehicles and tow trucks now?

I think the speed issue thing is more rubber necking and people being ####e at zipper merges though, but I guess it doesn't hurt as a reminder to stay at around 60 kmph.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Huh? So it's not just emergency vehicles and tow trucks now?

I think the speed issue thing is more rubber necking and people being ####e at zipper merges though, but I guess it doesn't hurt as a reminder to stay at around 60 kmph.

I think it used to be just emergency vehicles, but now it includes tow trucks/similar work vehicles? But still not passenger vehicles with flashers (at least I think). Totally crystal clear!

The key thing is to focus on shoulder checking while slowing down to make sure you don't get clobbered by the crazy speed differential and paying less attention to the actual road in front of you where the flashing lights are. Because the messaging is that moving over is more important than slowing down. So maybe it's better to keep your speed up until the last moment to facilitate the lane change and just slam on your brakes if you can't get over?