City Of Vancouver Vehicle Collision Report: Fill & Download for Free

This happened to me. Commuting to work one day on W King Edward in Vancouver, BC. Now, as is common in many cities during the commuting hours, the parking lane is designated no parking or stopping during the commute hours and becomes another travel lane. The truck in front of me suddenly darts into a gap in traffic to his left and at 60 km/h I am looking at the back of a parked vehicle with nowhere to go except the sidewalk. I slammed on the brakes and the back of my car wound up on the hood of the Honda that was following me. i managed to stop two feet shy of the parked car. The police were called. The parked car was ticketed and towed, along with my car and the Honda. I took down the details of the parked vehicle and reported it to the ICBC adjuster. They shook it off saying the parked vehicle has no liability, the driver of the Honda was following too close (hey, come on, this is rush hour Vancouver. Everything is fast and bumper to bumper,) To my way of thinking, the owner of the vehicle has partial liability for parking on the street during the commute hours when stopping, let alone parking, is prohibited. ICBC didn’t see it that way. No matter to me financially, the Honda driver was deemed to be at fault and I got my car fixed. Never did find out why the car was parked there during the rush hour as it was immaterial to the claim. Now the driver of the Honda could have made a stink (and I hope he did.)Generally, if your actions lead to a collision that you are not a part of, you are not liable provided your actions were not in violation of the law. If you did do something stupid and there are witnesses or video, then the police might be interested and you could get charged with a traffic violation of some sort. However in circumstances like the accident I was involved in, the parked car, which was the initiator of the collision, was not involved in the collision, so the owner of the vehicle faced no legal responsibility other than being unlawfully parked, which cost them a parking ticket, towing and storage charges. As to whether the driver of the Honda that hit me ever tried to sue, I have no idea.

Q. Did colonial America drive on the left?A. TL;DRIn the early years of English colonization of North America, English driving customs were followed and the colonies drove on the left. After gaining independence from England, however, they were anxious to cast off all remaining links with their British colonial past and gradually changed to right-hand driving. Incidentally, the influence of other European immigrants, especially the French, should not be underestimated. The first law requiring drivers to keep right was passed in Pennsylvania in 1792, and similar laws were passed in New York in 1804 and New Jersey in 1813.As Europeans began colonizing other parts of the world, they imposed their direction of travel on those areas. Two things changed that. In areas with large farms, like the United States, wagons that were meant to carry large loads didn’t have driver’s seats. To control the horses pulling the load, farmers would ride on the left horse. Traveling on the right side of the road made sense because it allowed the farmer to see the space between the wheels of his wagon and any approaching wagons to avoid collisions.Furthermore, a right-handed person finds it easier to mount a horse from the left side of the horse, and it would be very difficult to do otherwise if wearing a sword (which would be worn on the left). It is safer to mount and dismount towards the side of the road, rather than in the middle of traffic, so if one mounts on the left, then the horse should be ridden on the left side of the road.Why Do People in the UK Drive on the Left Side of the Road? Here is the Answer CARS BIKES by Umer SohailIf you get a chance to visit the UK or some of its olden days‘ colonies, the first thing you will notice is the weird flow of traffic moving on the left rather than the right side, which of course is supplemented by the vehicles having right-hand drive rather than left. We know British and Americans have a long rivalry of doing things differently from each other, but what’s the particular deal behind this craziness?Pic Credits: todayifoundoutAs The Telegraph reports, this particular facet predates automobiles and goes as far back as the Middle Ages. Back in those days, traveling on a highway put one at risk of getting mugged, so moving on the left side of the road was a matter of safety. As most of the people are right handed, it made sense to keep your right hand free to be able to whip out your sword, lance, pitchfork, etc. and respond to a threat while moving on the left.And since Britain wasn’t the only one with dangerous roads, the practice of traveling on the left side can be seen in the ancient Greece and Rome traditions. It was notably Napoleon who was the first the propose a change as he made everyone in his colonies switch to the right side. Same was the case with Hitler in Germany, who forced Czechoslovakia and Austria to switch to right-side driving.In contrast, America is probably one of the few British colonies where driving is on the right side of the road, probably out of abhorrence for of British customs. But another reason was that the practice made it easier to maneuver a wagon as the drivers sat on the left side of the wagon or led the horses on foot on the left-hand side. This also made it easier to watch the oncoming traffic and any other obstacles on the road.Pic Credits: marriottmagPennsylvania was the first state to regulate right-side traffic in 1792, followed by New York in 1804. Other states followed suit, but it was Henry Ford’s choice to put the widely popular Model T’s steering column on the left that cemented the practice until this day.Watch the video below to learn more about the history of Right vs. Left hand drive:Why do some countries drive on the left side of the road? (youtube.com)Dung Tran Published on Nov 16, 2016Archaeological evidence suggests that the ancient Romans may have driven their carts and chariots on the left, and the practice seems to have carried over into parts of medieval Europe. The reasons for this are not entirely certain, but some believe it arose as a matter of safety. The majority of people are right handed, one theory goes, so driving or riding on the left would have allowed them to wield a weapon with their dominant hand if they crossed paths with an enemy. Until as recently as the 1700s, horse and wagon traffic was so light that the decision to drive on the left or right often varied according to local custom. Left-hand traffic finally became the law of the land in Britain after the passage of government measures in 1773 and 1835, but the opposite tradition prevailed in France, which favored the right as early as the 18th century. These two countries later exported their driving styles to their respective colonies, which is why many former British territories such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India still drive on the left. In the United States, meanwhile, many researchers trace the beginning of right-hand traffic to the 18th century and the rise of freight wagons pulled by large teams of horses. Since these vehicles often didn’t have a driver’s seat, drivers tended to ride on the left rear horse to more easily control their animal team with their right hand. As the wagons became more popular, traffic naturally moved to the right so drivers could sit closer to the center of the road and avoid collisions with one another. Yet another major influence was car maker Henry Ford, who mass-produced his Model T with a left-positioned steering wheel, which necessitated driving on the right side of the road.Take Sides: The History Behind Driving on the Left or Right - The Allstate BlogApril 5, 2012Most of the world drives on the right side of the road, but a minority of countries drive on the left. How do countries decide which side they’ll drive on?The answer varies from country to country, but in most cases, the side a country drives on comes down to history and economics. In feudal Europe, people would travel on the left side of the road because most people were right-handed and wanted the arm that they used for their sword (or weapon) between them and anyone who approached. As a result, traveling on the left became customary.As Europeans began colonizing other parts of the world, they imposed their direction of travel on those areas.Two things changed that. In areas with large farms, like the United States, wagons that were meant to carry large loads didn’t have driver’s seats. To control the horses pulling the load, farmers would ride on the left horse. Traveling on the right side of the road made sense because it allowed the farmer to see the space between the wheels of his wagon and any approaching wagons to avoid collisions.At about the same time, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was left-handed, was coming to power in France. Since he liked to keep his sword arm between himself and anyone who approached, he preferred to travel on the right side of the road, and decreed that his army would do the same. Though this custom of approach was in place prior to Napoleon taking power, he imposed that direction of travel on the areas he took over throughout Europe. So, Americans and most of mainland Europe started traveling on the right, whereas other areas, like Great Britain, stuck to the left.As Europeans began colonizing other parts of the world, they imposed their direction of travel on those areas. In much of the world, you can tell the side of the road a country travels on based on its status as a former colony. Former colonies of England tend to drive on the left, while former French and American colonies tend to drive on the right.There are exceptions, of course. Canada drives on the right because of their proximity to and longstanding trade relationship with the United States. Sweden used to drive on the left, but because they had a burgeoning automotive industry that depended on trade with countries that drove on the right, they switched. Ghana, a former British colony, also switched from driving on the left to driving on the right because that’s how most of their neighboring countries drove. On the other hand, the U.S. Virgin Islands is a territory of the United States, but they drive on the left.Why do some countries drive on left side and some on right side? (Quora)Nathalie Connor Answered Jan 12 source: - worldstandards EUHistory and originAbout a 35% of the world population drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies. This strange quirk perplexes the rest of the world, but there is a perfectly good reason. Click here for a world map and a full list of all countries of the world and the side of the road on which they drive.Right-handed knights preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponentIn the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him. Moreover, it reduced the chance of the scabbard (worn on the left) hitting other people.Furthermore, a right-handed person finds it easier to mount a horse from the left side of the horse, and it would be very difficult to do otherwise if wearing a sword (which would be worn on the left). It is safer to mount and dismount towards the side of the road, rather than in the middle of traffic, so if one mounts on the left, then the horse should be ridden on the left side of the road.In Russia, in 1709, the Danish envoy under Tsar Peter the Great noted the widespread custom for traffic in Russia to pass on the right, but it was only in 1752 that Empress Elizabeth (Elizaveta Petrovna) officially issued an edict for traffic to keep to the right. In addition, the French Revolution of 1789 gave a huge impetus to right-hand travel in Europe. The fact is, before the Revolution, the aristocracy traveled on the left of the road, forcing the peasantry over to the right, but after the storming of the Bastille and the subsequent events, aristocrats preferred to keep a low profile and joined the peasants on the right. An official keep-right rule was introduced in Paris in 1794, more or less parallel to Denmark, where driving on the right had been made compulsory in 1793.French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1812)Later, Napoleon’s conquests spread the new rightism to the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Switzerland, Germany, Poland and many parts of Spain and Italy. The states that had resisted Napoleon kept left – Britain, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Portugal. This European division, between the left- and right-hand nations would remain fixed for more than 100 years, until after the First World War.Although left-driving Sweden ceded Finland to right-driving Russia after the Finnish War (1808-1809), Swedish law – including traffic regulations – remained valid in Finland for another 50 years. It wasn’t until 1858 that an Imperial Russian decree made Finland swap sides.The trend among nations over the years has been toward driving on the right, but Britain has done its best to stave off global homogenisation. With the expansion of travel and road building in the 1800s, traffic regulations were made in every country. Left-hand driving was made mandatory in Britain in 1835. Countries which were part of the British Empire followed suit. This is why to this very day, India, Australasia and the former British colonies in Africa go left. An exception to the rule, however, is Egypt, which had been conquered by Napoleon before becoming a British dependency.Japan was never part of the British Empire, but its traffic also goes to the left. Although the origin of this habit goes back to the Edo period (1603-1868), it wasn’t until 1872 that this unwritten rule became more or less official. That was the year when Japan’s first railway was introduced, built with technical aid from the British. Gradually, a massive network of railways and tram tracks was built, and of course all trains and trams drove on the left-hand side. Still, it took another half century till in 1924 left-side driving was clearly written in a law.When the Dutch arrived in Indonesia in 1596, they brought along their habit of driving on the left. It wasn’t until Napoleon conquered the Netherlands that the Dutch started driving on the right. Most of their colonies, however, remained on the left as did Indonesia and Suriname.In the early years of English colonisation of North America, English driving customs were followed and the colonies drove on the left. After gaining independence from England, however, they were anxious to cast off all remaining links with their British colonial past and gradually changed to right-hand driving. Incidentally, the influence of other European immigrants, especially the French, should not be underestimated. The first law requiring drivers to keep right was passed in Pennsylvania in 1792, and similar laws were passed in New York in 1804 and New Jersey in 1813.Horse and carriage on the left side of the road in Vancouver, British Columbia (around 1900)Despite the developments in the US, some parts of Canada continued to drive on the left until shortly after the Second World War. The territory controlled by the French (from Quebec to Louisiana) drove on the right, but the territory occupied by the English (British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland) kept left. British Columbia and the Atlantic provinces switched to the right in the 1920s in order to conform with the rest of Canada and the USA. Newfoundland drove on the left until 1947, and joined Canada in 1949.In Europe, the remaining left-driving countries switched one by one to driving on the right. Portugal changed in 1920s. The change took place on the same day in the whole country, including the colonies. Territories, however, which bordered other left-driving countries were exempted. That is why Macau, Goa (now part of India) and Portuguese East Africa kept the old system. East Timor, which borders left-driving Indonesia, did change to the right though, but left-hand traffic was reintroduced by the Indonesians in 1975.In Italy the practice of driving on the right first began in the late 1890s. The first Italian Highway Code, issued on 30 June 1912, stated that all vehicles had to drive on the right. Cities with a tram network, however, could retain left-hand driving if they placed warning signs at their city borders. The 1923 decree is a bit stricter, but Rome and the northern cities of Milan, Turin and Genoa could still keep left until further orders from the Ministry of Public Works. By the mid-1920s, right-hand driving became finally standard throughout the country. Rome made the change on the 1 of March 1925 and Milan on 3 August 1926.Up till the 1930s Spain lacked national traffic regulations. Some parts of the country drove on the right (e.g. Barcelona) and other parts drove on the left (e.g. Madrid). On the 1st of October 1924 Madrid switched to driving on the right.When the Nazis marched into Austria on 12 March 1938, Hitler ordered all of Austria to switch to driving on the right.The break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire caused no change: Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Hungary continued to drive on the left. Austria itself was something of a curiosity. Half the country drove on the left and half on the right. Not surprisingly, the dividing line was precisely the area affected by Napoleon’s conquests in 1805.The Austrian states of Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Carinthia, as well as the western half of Salzburg switched to driving on the right between 1921 and 1935. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Hitler ordered the rest of Austria to make the switch overnight. The change threw the driving public into turmoil, because motorists were unable to see most road signs. In Vienna it proved impossible to change the trams overnight, so while all other traffic took to the right-hand side of the road, the trams continued to run on the left for several weeks. Czechoslovakia and Hungary, among the last states on the mainland of Europe to keep left, changed to the right after being invaded by Germany in 1939 and late 1944 respectively.Meanwhile, the power of the right kept growing steadily. American cars were designed to be driven on the right by locating the drivers’ controls on the vehicle’s left side. With the mass production of reliable and economical cars in the United States, initial exports used the same design, and out of necessity many countries changed their rule of the road.Gibraltar changed to right-hand traffic in 1929 and China in 1946. Korea now drives right, but only because it passed directly from Japanese colonial rule to American and Russian influence at the end of the Second World War. Pakistan also considered changing to the right in the 1960s, but ultimately decided not to do it. The main argument against the shift was that camel trains often drove through the night while their drivers were dozing. The difficulty in teaching old camels new tricks was decisive in forcing Pakistan to reject the change. Nigeria, a former British colony, had been driving on the left with British imported right-hand-drive cars, but when it gained independence, it wanted to throw off its colonial past and shifted to driving on the right in 1972.After the Second World War, left-driving Sweden, the odd one out in mainland Europe, felt increasing pressure to change sides in order to conform with the rest of the continent. The problem was that all their neighbours already drove on the right side and since there are a lot of small roads without border guards leading into Norway and Finland, one had to remember in which country one was.In 1955, the Swedish government held a referendum on the introduction of right-hand driving. Although no less than 82.9% voted “no” to the plebiscite, the Swedish parliament passed a law on the conversion to right-hand driving in 1963. Finally, the change took place on Sunday, 3 September 1967, at 5 o’clock in the morning. The day was referred to as Dagen H or, in English, H day. The ‘H’ stands for ‘Högertrafik’, the Swedish word for ‘right-hand traffic’.Sweden H day September 3, 1967Samoan workers are repainting road markings in 2009All traffic with private motor-driven vehicles was prohibited four hours before and one hour after the conversion, in order to be able to rearrange all traffic signs. Even the army was called in to help. Also a very low speed limit was applied, which was raised in a number of steps. The whole process took about a month. After Sweden’s successful changeover, Iceland changed the following year, in 1968. On 2 April 1972 Nigeria swapped sides and Ghana did the same thing in 1974.In the 1960s, Great Britain also considered changing, but the country’s conservative powers did everything they could to nip the proposal in the bud. Furthermore, the fact that it would cost billions of pounds to change everything round was not much of an incentive… Eventually, Britain dropped the idea. Today, only four European countries still drive on the left: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta.On 7 September 2009 the Independent State of Samoa (not to be confused with American Samoa !) became the third country ever to change from right- to left-hand driving. Samoa had been driving on the right since it had become a German colony in the early 20th century, although it was administered by New Zealand after the First World War and gained independence in 1962. Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi wanted to swap sides to make it easier to import cheap cars from left-hand driving Japan, Australia and New Zealand.Click here for a full list of all countries of the world and the side of the road each of them drives on.Click here to find out why the steering wheel is on the left side of the car in right-driving countries and vice versa.List of left- & right-driving countries - World StandardsWhy do the Japanese drive on the left-hand side of the road?Aya Nakazato, Translator, Linguist, Cross-Cultural ConsultantAnswered Sep 5, 2017It was actually a combination of factors that led the Japanese to drive on the left side of the road.There is a record that tells us how the Japanese roads were impressively orderly in the Edo period. During the time of the 5th shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (徳川 綱吉), there was a German physician and explorer named Engelbert Kaempfer. Kaempfer stayed in Japan for 2 years (1690-1692), during which he wrote “日本誌” (The History of Japan). (Seems hard to write the whole history from your view in two years, but what do I know.)In his travels, he noted “Roads in Japan were kept clean; there were clear signs, and there were strict rules in place to keep to the left side of the road.”At that time, roads were typically narrow, and if samurai swordsmen were to pass one another on the right, their scabbards would have bumped into each other. So passing on the left was a way to avoid unnecessary confrontation.Well, that makes sense in the Edo period, sure, but the times change. The Edo government ended and the country entered the Meiji period (1868–1912). There were no more swordsmen.At the time Japan was interested in deepening the friendship with Great Britain, so the infrastructure was developed with that in mind. Having received engineering advice from the British, in 1872 train services started. This effort included horse-drawn trams and tramcars on surface streets. (Nowadays it’s more common to see them in the middle of the street, but they used to run on one side of the road.) Since the technology was modeled after the British trams, roads were constructed accordingly.Then in 1923, the Great Kantō earthquake happened and the country suffered a damage exceeding US $1 billion (or about $14 billion today). With it, the tramcars’ rails were heavily damaged - that gave a push towards more buses.Since the buses’ doors and stops were set up on the left side, too, the tradition continued. After the WWII, there have been moments of pressure to change. At one point, the law was changed in 1949 according to the Allied Powers so the pedestrians walked on the right side. They tried to switch the sides for drivers in Okinawa. (Although everyone expects Japan should have turned into America overnight, one should note that it was the Allied occupation of Japan, not the U.S. alone - it included the U.K.)GHQ (what the Japanese called the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers) also insisted Japan should change the law for driving. To that, Japan responded “That would require an astronomical expenditure to change the existing structures on the roads as well as vehicle equipment (doors on buses etc.), and would take a long time”, and opposed the plan. So they met in the middle, and just changed the sides for pedestrians since GHQ believed that would improve safety.Changing the laws for vehicles would have required changing the streetlights, signs, intersections, etc., too, so that would have been a major upheaval - for which Japan didn’t have resources at the time.There are people who wish to buy imported cars, so that becomes a little tricky. But 35% of all the countries drive on the left side, so Japan is not alone in that regard.Blue areas: 76 countries (or protectorates) that drive on the left side.Source: NLI Research Institute, Cartop