There have been a number of interesting observations from readers over the past few weeks — from brake lights on electric vehicles to spooking horses on the side of the road. There’s never a shortage of thoughtful and often witty insights showing up in my inbox.
David wonders why the province did away with vehicle inspections given the number of defects he’s seen on other cars during his travels. My own pet peeve is being “gassed” out by an oil-burning car chugging along in front, a vehicle that could never pass an emission standards test.
David worries more about the bald tires, cracked windshields and defective signal or brake lights he sees regularly out there.
A few things happened many years ago to sink the inspection program. It was a question of economics. Inspection facilities were expensive propositions with lots of staff and infrastructure to maintain. There was also a fairness question as city dwellers were subject to tighter rules and annual inspection fees, things which were not imposed on their rural counterparts.
Second, the quality of vehicle manufacturing has improved exponentially. Robotic efficiency, with the ability to build vehicles to a micrometre level of correctness, means simply that vehicles are way better built than my parents’ 1964 Ford Fairlane.
That led to an increasing number of studies North America wide showing that vehicle defects caused very few crashes. It was an easy out for government to save some money.
That said, all our vehicle equipment rules still apply. You can be ticketed for any number of defects on your vehicle as well as being issued an inspection notice, requiring your vehicle to be fixed appropriately. Ignoring an inspection notice can be costly — often way more than the minor defect you were ordered to correct.
Mike wonders why electric vehicles, which are able to slow so much quicker than their internal combustion equivalents when the foot comes off the accelerator, don’t have better brake light warning systems to alert drivers behind them.
The best answer I can find is that the engineers haven’t yet figured out where the threshold mark is between slowing abruptly and actual braking.
Traditionally brake lights are only activated when the brake pedal is pressed. EVs changed that game with regenerative braking. Lifting the foot off the accelerator in an EV causes the energy from your spinning wheels to reverse the direction of the energy flow from the electric motors to the battery.
The electric motor not only acts as an electric generator, but it also helps slow your car down because the energy is consumed by the wheels as they rotate the shaft in the electric motor, according to the Alberta Motor Association.
So that drag created by the electric motor to recharge the battery is great for saving wear on brake pads, but may be a big surprise for the person driving behind.
So why not have the brake lights come on when any deceleration happens? For one, not all foot lifts mean significant deceleration, for example, on flat or downhill terrain the EV might just be coasting like any other vehicle.
Next, we actually don’t want frequent or early brake light activation. Just remember the humans you’ve come across who are always on the brake — uphill, downhill or just going straight — you have no idea about what to expect. Too many “false positives” ultimately mean that people stop paying attention to brake lights.
They are working on this though. Things like variable intensity brake lights, flashing brake light alert systems and dedicated deceleration indicators are currently on the drawing board. Keeping a safe distance at all times remains, as always, the best defence.
Ted raised a good point a few weeks back: Why are tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) mandatory in the U.S. but not in Canada? TPMS is the thing which shows up in your dash instruments when a tire is running low. Having a blowout, especially at high speed, is one of the most dangerous moments any driver can experience. So why isn’t that mandatory on all vehicles here?
I’m waiting on some official responses but what I gather so far is that Transport Canada feels that the safety benefits do not outweigh the cost imposed on manufacturers, given Canada’s unique challenges like harsh winters and frequent seasonal tire swaps, which would interfere with the reliability of tire pressure sensors.
Really? There aren’t variable climate and terrain differences between Alaska and Florida? Like Ted, I’m not buying that one.
To be fair, most vehicles now sold in Canada come with TPMS anyway because they’re built with US standards. So it’s still widely available in vehicles here as it should be. Proper tire pressure helps with fuel economy, tire life and most importantly, your safety.
