There are plenty of bad driving habits worse than keeping in the right lane
By Lethbridge Herald on March 24, 2025.
Editor,
With regard to Scott Sakatch’s recent opinion in respect of Lethbridge drivers.
You might want to focus on the real muppets on our roads. The ones who drive with no lights on; don’t know how to turn left from a single into a two lane road. Don’t indicate properly. Stop in the middle of a junction. There are countless infractions committed on our roads every day. Driving in the right lane isn’t one of them. Unless you’re turning left or overtaking, the right lane is exactly where you’re supposed to be. Kudos to all those drivers who are “obsessed”. Thank you.
David Thynne
Lethbridge
-1
the policy in this province is to give out licenses like everyone is being dealt in in a card game. too many seemingly clueless, overwhelmed drivers, and, to the other extreme, utterly aggressive, rude and abusive drivers.
might the province help improve road safety by legislating mandatory driver ed training? in this way new drivers learn the actual rules of the road, rather than be taught poorly by poor drivers. the road and theory tests alone hardly are able to ensure enough whether a new driver is fully competent enough.
I had several police officers tell me that privatizing the issuing of driver’s licenses was a really stupid idea by Ralph Klein and a good friend lost her job. It wasn’t long before it was discovered that Registration Offices were selling licenses and 100 drivers from B.C. bought semi- truck drivers licenses for $1,000.each and my friend was rehired to check into the situation. She only lasted about six months before she had a nervous breakdown and to quit things were in such a mess. Then we heard that the semi driver who killed the 16 people with the hockey team should not have been driving but were never told why?
not suggesting privatising the issuance of licenses – urging only that to get a license new drivers must first complete driver ed. it is the only way to ensure new drivers learn rules of the road properly, and learn to drive a car under the tutelage of a qualified instructor.
I fully agree. Making it so registration agents could sell them with no control by the government is just plain stupid. It did give the TV program candidates for their Show The Worse Drivers in Canada, didn’t it? But then how has a big game hunting guide been allowed to set his own regulations on what animals can be shot and how many without any controls by the government? The biologists in my world are furious, can you blame them?
Do you really think that a government run registry never had an employee who granted a license to someone for an “off the books fee” and that this could only happen at a privatized registry?
Wow, you are really naive.
I do agree with the comment that drivers licenses are far too easy to acquire. My job required me to ride as a passenger with many drivers over a 30 year career. I often felt afraid for my own safety on those drives. A lot of those drivers have no business being on the road with the rest of us.
Many countries have strict graduated licensing programs that restrict drivers until they have earned the right to an unrestricted drivers license earned with either years of safe driving experience, additional training, or both.
I have held my drivers license in Alberta since I was 16 years old for over 40 years now. It never ceases to amaze me that it is just assumed that I am good to go for all those decades of driving and more in the future without a single check up on my skills.
No i’m not stupid it was well controlled as the police officers said it was. I understand that Driver testing was done separately by people not controlled by the Registry. As the police indicated it would, traffic accidents have skyrocketed since. Why do you think you are paying the highest vehicle insurance rates in Canada? It’s so bad in Alberta that the police no longer have anything to do with injury- free traffic accidents.
Another bit of Klein stupidity was the privatization of liquor stores , members of our family opened three of them.
The stupid part was allowing my 15 year relative and others to work in one and as he pointed out what was stopping him from selling liquor to his underaged friends? Once again police officers saw a massive increase of drunks on our roads and they are still seeing it.
I have been driving for 67 years and had never had an accident until two years ago. I was turning right onto another road when a guy turned left and hit me. When I reported it the female policer said I wasn’t at fault. My insurance company said it was 50/50 accident, they would repair my vehicle and his insurance company would repair his. We would each pay for half of the $500. deductible. I took my car in to be fixed and was given a loner to drive. Three days later my insurance company called and said that his insurance company had refused to cooperate under the 50/50 plan and I would have to take full responsibility for the accident. I had since talked to five police officer friends including a relative and they had all assured me I wasn’t at fault, so I requested a police officer decision to be obtained. I was told that wasn’t an option that it would take at least 8 weeks to get a response and they wanted to get my car fixed, so I finally agreed. Two months later I was having lunch with a retired RCMP officer and told him my story. He said I had an accident two weeks after you did and I got treated the same way and I know I wasn’t at fault either. Oddly enough the same insurance company was involved in both cases and we came to the conclusion that other insurance companies had learned that if they didn’t cooperate on a 50/50 basis our insurance company would pay the total amount, screwing themselves out of thousands of dollars.
At Christmas we had some friends over for drinks and I told them my story. One was a retired City of Edmonton police officer and he said I definitely wasn’t at fault and our interpretation of the situation was likely correct. Our insurance company was allowing themselves to be taken for fools.
First of all, I did not call you stupid. As for things being more controlled when the Alberta Government ran all registries, I would say you are entitled to your opinion. Not everyone would agree however.
Second, please provide the statistic and source for how accidents have skyrocketed in Alberta. In a province whose population has at least doubled since I was 16 years old, it is inevtable that there are more accidents, but that doesn’t automatically translate into drivers being worse than before.
Third, I am not sure how we got onto the tangent of liquor store privatization, but so be it. Sounds like your family benefitted by that decision by opening 3 of their own liquor stores. That wouldn’t have happened if they stayed government run and owned. You should be thankful instead that they got the opportunity. As for hiring a 15 year old to work in a liquor store, that’s a “decision” made by your family, not the Alberta Government.
Finally, I am sorry to hear about the difficulties you had with insurance companies after your unfortunate accident.
However, that incident has nothing to do with my point that drivers licenses are valid for decades without drivers ever being checked to make sure they are still competent drivers.
Would you feel safe if Airline Pilots who were issued their pilots license decades ago were never required to update their skills and have those skills checked? Might a lack of oversight of that sort contribute to more accidents?