PEI now to "limit" RHD

[canucksafari]

This was just posted on IVOAC.CA about Prince Edward Island restricting RHDs: RHD "limited" in PEI - IVOAC.ca Forums

CBC news link CBC News - Prince Edward Island - Right-hand driving will be limited in P.E.I.

PEI Gov link Prince Edward Island: News Release (Province Moves to Limit use of Right-Hand-Drive Vehicles)


For all those who said that this was just a Quebec problem, it looks like the slippery slope is on its way across the country. The timing is obviously well planned to be announced when people are more likely to be thinking about vacations than their right to choose to own and operate a RHD.

Below is the contact info for the responsible PEI minister. Perhaps letters on how insulted you are about this arbitrary action and how you will be boycotting PEI (tourism and all products) might force home that people across Canada will not allow them to get away with this chit.


Honourable Ron MacKinley
Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal
Phone: (902)368-5120
Fax: (902) 368-5385
Email: rwmackinley@gov.pe.ca

I wonder which province will be next???

 

[lostmarbles]

I spotted this across the road from my workplace last week:



It may look pretty common to most of you folk because it is LHD.

But me seeing this on our roads is equivalent to you seeing a RHD in your neck of the woods.

There's no way the owner of this vehicle is going to sit back and let some stupid pen-pusher in this country stop him driving it!

 

[Radd Cruisers]

I thought Mad Max drove a Holden?

~John

 

[whosthecoolguy]

Funny, MadMax was the first thing that popped into my head too lol.

The RHD thing sucks.

I thought Mad Max drove a Holden?

~John

 

[canucksafari]

I posted this as a comment on The Guardian article... Charlottetown, The Guardian: Local News | Province moves to limit use of right-hand-drive vehicles

Maybe it was a bit over the top but so is this action for the danger presented by 30 RHDs in PEI. Statistically, you are more likely to get hurt by a damn lobster or collecting potatoes in PEI, so they might as well ban them.

John from BC writes: If you tell a mis-truth over and over it soon becomes the truth. At least that is what the Nazi's learned was effective. I would like to challenge the Minister to prove that Right-Hand Drive vehicles are as dangerous as claimed rather than regurgitating an old flawed ICBC study that makes this claim. Most of these Right-Hand Drive vehicles meet or beat FMVSS/CMVSS safety and environmental standards at the time they were produced. Having to pass strict yearly safety and mechanical inspections their condition at time of import is usually in considerably better condition than anything ten years newer in the Canadian market. In addition, every province requires a safety inspection prior to them being registered. I think this has much more to do with favoring the local Canadian dealerships than it has to do with safety or the ability of the working Canadian to buy a good used vehicle. The timing of this release also stinks of a cheap political tactic of trying to sneak it by the electorate while they are thinking of summer vacations and Canada Day celebrations. I for one am totally disgusted at this lack of democracy. What a lack of respect for Canadian values just days before Canada Day.

 

[crushers]

My comment:
<lets see if they will post it up>

Hummm, interesting read.
I love it when someone that has never driven a RHD assumes that the location of the steering wheel is the cause of accidents. It sure would be nice to read about a person that has actual experience commenting on the pros and cons of RHD steering in this country.
It is the person behind the wheel that makes a vehicle dangerous, not the location of the steering wheel. Passing on a two lane roadway is dangerous in both a LHD vehicle and a RHD vehicle but because the RHD vehicle is new and unfamiliar the driver is MORE cautious when passing. The driver does not need to pull the whole vehicle into the coming lane to pass, the driver is sitting only 18” further to the right, not 52” (average width of an import vehicle) as posted by someone that has no experience. Add to this the statement of only 30 vehicles imported and registered easily falls into the vintage collector category and the original intent of the law. This rule change is not to prevent collectors from importing vehicles it is an obvious pressure tactic by the CADA to FORCE all Canadians to drive what the Big Three dictates the owners to be able to drive. Canadians have the FREEDOM OF CHOICE right now to drive what we WANT to drive and no government should have the power to restrict that choice. As a side note, to those of you that own and ENJOY the FREEDOM to drive your 10 year old vehicle, did you know that the same powers that are trying to restrict the RHD vehicles are the same ones that have the agenda in the works to BAN all vehicles over 10 years old? THAT is the Fleet Renewal Program the CADA is implementing as we speak. Ever hear of the Cash for Clunkers program? Sound familiar? Ever wonder why 10 year old vehicles have to pass 50 ppm emission testing while brand new vehicles can pass with 75 ppm emission test? That is 50% WORSE emission testing for brand new vehicles. This ban has nothing to do with safety; it has to do with control.
Interesting read indeed.

 

[canucksafari]

Some good comments coming from MUD members on The Guardian article. Thanks. There are also a few comments on the CBC PEI article too now..

 

[lowenbrau]

Grin

The comments to the CBC article are craptastic...

"good news. If you want to drive on the wrong side of the road, you should move to germany"

How are you going to fight this mindset?

 

[bigbrowndog]

I spotted this across the road from my workplace last week:

View attachment 431277

It may look pretty common to most of you folk because it is LHD.

But me seeing this on our roads is equivalent to you seeing a RHD in your neck of the woods.

There's no way the owner of this vehicle is going to sit back and let some stupid pen-pusher in this country stop him driving it!

He would not drive that machine very far here.
Boys in blue would ''DEFECT" it within minutes,

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Here's my letter to Mr. Mackinley:

============

Dear Mr. Mackinley;

Today I read the news release from your office about how the Province of PEI is going to move to limit the use of right hand drive (RHD) vehicles to improve the safety of roads on the Island and I felt compelled to write to you.

I must admit, that as an owner of several right hand drive vehicles, and the operator of a repair shop that does considerable business in providing parts and service to the owners of right hand drive vehicles, I find your announcement very surprising. In a province that has less than 30 RHD on the roads, I seriously doubt that there is even a minute change in the safety to the roads of PEI by the presence of a handful of RHD vehicles. In the small town where I live and work, we have dozens of RHD vehicles on the roads and I can honestly say that the placement of the steering wheel has nothing to do with a vehicles safe operation on the road.

Your press release is horribly mis-informed about the safety and emissions standards of RHD vehicles, and clearly your office has not done any research on the safety of vehicles which operate on the roadways of PEI. When RHD vehicles enter Canada, they are subjected to thorough testing at the Provincial level before being permitted on the roadways. These inspections ensure that the vehicle's systems are operating at an acceptable level as set out by the motor vehicle act. Further, vehicles that do enter Canada come from other first word countries, primarily Japan, and as such are subject to standards, testing and inspections which are equivalent to or in excess of the standards that we have here in Canada. Canada's emissions regulations and targets are far below those in most of the rest of the World, especially a congested country such as Japan. It is nonsense to imply that vehicles coming from overseas, and designed to operate in countries with stricter standards than our own, are in any way going to pollute our air more than vehicles that are currently operating in Canada.

The statement in the release that RHD vehicles are involved in more accidents than left hand drive vehicles has yet to be substantiated in Canada. The well-known and very flawed report published some time ago by ICBC has been demonstrated to be horribly inaccurate and offers no concrete evidence of... anything. The ICBC report is essentially a waste of paper and any individual with a modicum of education can see the flawed reasoning and mis-use of numbers (none of which are supported by statistics) in the report.

The very fact that there are less than 30 RHD vehicles on the roadways of PEI means that there is an insufficient number of vehicles in your province to even perform the most basic of statistical calculations as the sample sizes is far too small. Clearly, PEI has not done its own research into the matter road safety and RHD vehicles on this very detail alone.

Seemingly, the concerns being expressed by you and your office are being influenced by the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association or similar associations and have everything to do with politics, greed and money and not road safety. If you really wanted to improve the safety of the roadways in PEI, I might suggest things such as speed enforcement and enforcement of driving other regulations, drinking driving prevention programs, driver education, motor vehicle inspection programs, and the funding of police programs to enforce the motor vehicle act and its regulations would be far and above more effective use of your time and resources.

Attempting to prevent a tiny fraction of a percent of vehicles from operating on the roadways of PEI when there is absolutely no conclusive evidence that there is any reason for concern is nothing short of just plain silly.


Sincerely,

John Barron, BSc, BEd.

Owner, E4 Auto Repair Ltd.
22-4970 Polkey Rd.
Duncan, BC Canada
V9L 6W3

 

[lostmarbles]

He would not drive that machine very far here.
Boys in blue would ''DEFECT" it within minutes,

Truth is ..... I gave a bad example in using that particular vehicle BBG. (But I had to post a pic of it because I think it is just soooo cool.)

If you look at the windscreen you won't see any stickers at all and a search on its plates tells me it should be coloured red and hasn't been "road legal" for decades. (I blanked out the plates because I don't want to upset the owner(s) and I'm told they are people you wouldn't want to upset.)

That parking area actually belongs to a "Funeral Home" and my workplace gets ponged out whenever they burn bodies on still evenings! (Must get the Health & Safety Committee onto that one .)

The car was there (along with lots of Harleys) for a funeral service and quite a number of them "burnt rubber" down the main road as a memorial to whoever passed away. (I'll leave you to guess whether this chevvy did too! ----My photo simply shows it in a private carpark.)



But back on topic ... I really do sympathise with the feelings about what's happening with RH-drive vehicles over there,

Lots of our car enthusiasts import LHD vehicles and no-one here (to my knowledge) is concerned about any perceived safety-risk associated with sitting on the wrong side.

As far as LH versus RH drive is concerned ..... there is however some concern about tourists who choose to drive here when used to driving on the right-hand side of the road in their own countries. In times of stress (or through just plain forgetfulness) they have been known to revert to the side they're used to driving on .... causing fatalities on lonely stretches of open road.

 

[herbs]

I thought Mad Max drove a Holden?

~John

Nope, Mad Max used a Ford Falcon.

 

[Dave 2000]

I have a somewhat tenuos link with this topic, I drive a RHD in Spain and find it no different to driving LHD. Of course your vision is obscured for overtaking however if you approach the slower vehicle your view is pretty good. It's interesting how many accidents occur on bridges where one or both parties decide to overtake when totally unsighted, perhaps bridges and humps in the road should be banned.

Nowadays every country appears to have a government that is overmanned, they have nothing to do all day and of course if they are doing nothing then perhaps their post is threatened? Their is also the problem of 'minister or power ego' they have a need to be seen and mentioned in the media so what better way to do this than bring out a rediculous idea and do as every other person does which is use the words 'SAFETY' as a means to an end.

Be warned this is the thin edge of the wedge, it is illegal here for the spanish to purchase a RHD car (I have heard there may be a way around it and have yet to see it proved) All this was done to appease the secondhand car market cartel, this along with making the taxes very high for importing from Germany or France ect so you end up with secondand cars being a small fortune!

Bored governmental hands!!

OK..........climbing down from my soap box

regards

Dave

 

[96r50]

Here's my letter to Mr. Mackinley:

============

Dear Mr. Mackinley;

Today I read the news release from your office about how the Province of PEI is going to move to limit the use of right hand drive (RHD) vehicles to improve the safety of roads on the Island and I felt compelled to write to you.

I must admit, that as an owner of several right hand drive vehicles, and the operator of a repair shop that does considerable business in providing parts and service to the owners of right hand drive vehicles, I find your announcement very surprising. In a province that has less than 30 RHD on the roads, I seriously doubt that there is even a minute change in the safety to the roads of PEI by the presence of a handful of RHD vehicles. In the small town where I live and work, we have dozens of RHD vehicles on the roads and I can honestly say that the placement of the steering wheel has nothing to do with a vehicles safe operation on the road.

Your press release is horribly mis-informed about the safety and emissions standards of RHD vehicles, and clearly your office has not done any research on the safety of vehicles which operate on the roadways of PEI. When RHD vehicles enter Canada, they are subjected to thorough testing at the Provincial level before being permitted on the roadways. These inspections ensure that the vehicle's systems are operating at an acceptable level as set out by the motor vehicle act. Further, vehicles that do enter Canada come from other first word countries, primarily Japan, and as such are subject to standards, testing and inspections which are equivalent to or in excess of the standards that we have here in Canada. Canada's emissions regulations and targets are far below those in most of the rest of the World, especially a congested country such as Japan. It is nonsense to imply that vehicles coming from overseas, and designed to operate in countries with stricter standards than our own, are in any way going to pollute our air more than vehicles that are currently operating in Canada.

The statement in the release that RHD vehicles are involved in more accidents than left hand drive vehicles has yet to be substantiated in Canada. The well-known and very flawed report published some time ago by ICBC has been demonstrated to be horribly inaccurate and offers no concrete evidence of... anything. The ICBC report is essentially a waste of paper and any individual with a modicum of education can see the flawed reasoning and mis-use of numbers (none of which are supported by statistics) in the report.

The very fact that there are less than 30 RHD vehicles on the roadways of PEI means that there is an insufficient number of vehicles in your province to even perform the most basic of statistical calculations as the sample sizes is far too small. Clearly, PEI has not done its own research into the matter road safety and RHD vehicles on this very detail alone.

Seemingly, the concerns being expressed by you and your office are being influenced by the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association or similar associations and have everything to do with politics, greed and money and not road safety. If you really wanted to improve the safety of the roadways in PEI, I might suggest things such as speed enforcement and enforcement of driving other regulations, drinking driving prevention programs, driver education, motor vehicle inspection programs, and the funding of police programs to enforce the motor vehicle act and its regulations would be far and above more effective use of your time and resources.

Attempting to prevent a tiny fraction of a percent of vehicles from operating on the roadways of PEI when there is absolutely no conclusive evidence that there is any reason for concern is nothing short of just plain silly.


Sincerely,

John Barron, BSc, BEd.

Owner, E4 Auto Repair Ltd.
22-4970 Polkey Rd.
Duncan, BC Canada
V9L 6W3

Great letter John!

I've posted my responses over on the IVOAC board. Quebec and PEI makes it 2/10 provinces in only a few months, so hopefully the rest of the country will be fighting this with us before it creeps across the rest of the provinces.

 

[lowenbrau]

Great letter John.

Here's mine...

Hi Honorable Ron:

I'm not sure it matters much if an Alberta family visits your province or not now that you've spent millions getting New Yorkers to come visit but we'll be sure to pass up your delicious potatoes and green gables when we make our upcoming trip to the East Coast in our right hand drive vehicle. That should make your constituents feel a lot safer. If you ever get out to the wild west, drop in for a chat and I'll show you how your handlers have this one all wrong.

Cheers,
Bruce Loewen

 

[canucksafari]

Grin

The comments to the CBC article are ****tastic...

"good news. If you want to drive on the wrong side of the road, you should move to germany"

How are you going to fight this mindset?

I replied to that comment but I guess my reply was a little to personal for moderators to allow the post.

BTW John and Bruce, these are great letters to the Minister. He needs to realize that the negative ramifications will be more than just on the few RHD owners in PEI.

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Anyone can feel free to use / modify / correct my letter and re-post it to other forums, the minister in PEI, or wherever.

I typed that up quite late at night and there may be a few minor grammatical or wording errors in it.

~John

 

[CDN_Cruzer]

Sent a letter to the minister!!

here is a copy! I like your angle on boycotting PEI products! but I fear this will spread so I better get back to preserving my truck!

Dear Minister

I was very sad to learn on CBC that your wonderful provience of P.E.I. is planning on putting strict limits on RHD vehicles.


Last summer my girlfriend and I traveled though all the Maritime provinces and loved yours the best it's just so beautiful Jacques Cartier park was our favorite! We WHERE planning to drive back this summer in my RHD vehicle to bike the Confederation Trail but seeing how your province does not think they are safe to operate on LHD roads, which is complete garbage, and based on a false study done by ICBC we will NOT be coming back. Take a Look around the world where LHD vehicles operate all the time on RHD roads with no problems at all! You can also keep all your PEI potatoes I will buy from a provience that actlully makes it own decsions and dosesn't support the big corporations



Matt McAlister


PROUD FREE CANADIAN.

 

[lshobie]

The family and myself just cancelled our trip to PEI for the summer, and I mentioned that to the minister.

 

[lowenbrau]

It strikes me that we should be copying the minister for tourism, Robert Vessey. He's the guy who spent a million bucks getting Regis to do his show in PEI for a week to promo the province. He's new to the job and I'll bet any loss in tourism is gonna get his attention.