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Aggressive Testing |
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| FTLComm - Tisdale - Friday, September 12, 2003 | ||||||
As I drove toward downtown Tisdale this morning I noticed a motorcycle signal into the right lane to turn toward the Post Office and surprisingly a maroon Taurus signal left wheeled into that same lane dangerously close to the motorcycle. As the motorcycle turned East the Taurus did a sharp turn and sped off in pursuit of the motorcycle past the Post Office a street that has pedestrians and lots of slow moving traffic at that time of the day. It looked like a simple case of an overly aggressive driver. As the Taurus increased speed East I realised that at that rate of speed a collision was a very high probability and I signaled left  from main street. I figured if the Taurus kept
up that aggressive movement, I might as well tag along and get a picture of the wreckage.I drive slow, having walked and ridden a bicycle in Tisdale, I think the 40K speed limit is fair and most Tisdale drivers seem to agree, for they too keep the speed down. This is not Winnipeg where cars rocket away from stop signs and snap roll through lane changes. I kept my usual pace and could see the Taurus dashing from intersection to intersection and indeed he was keeping pace with the motorcycle maintaining a close distance of just slightly more than a car length. To keep |
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 pace with motorcycle the Taurus driver jumped out in front of traffic and all in all was driving in what could only be described as very aggressive. I was now puzzled at the way the motorcycle was turning this way and that and the Taurus seemed to be dashing off in no clear pattern of direction. I then realised that this must be a driving examination and the Taurus driver was in radio communication with the motorcyclist. As they juggernauted their way around the core of Tisdale I simple moved toward intersections along their probable course capturing a side look at the two vehicles seen at |
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 the top of this page. I realise the need for a motorcycle road test, but perhaps the examining officer might be better able to cope with the process if someone else were handling the driving of the pursuit car, or why not do the test on a parking lot and the examiner remain stationary. Think through for a moment what he was doing, and if due care and attention was being paid to the task of operating a motor vehicle. The examiner was giving instructions to the motorcycle operator via a radio, let us hope he was wearing a head set, he was maintaining a |
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 separation with the motorcycle of less than two car lengths at 11:00 in the morning through the streets of Tisdale, there was lots of traffic. Oddly enough the motorcycle seemed to be accelerating well above the 40K speed limit in town, if not, it is hard to understand the reason for the Taurus' rapid speed. In the picture below the examiner is holding a clip board and going over the notes made during the test. Hold on, . . . does this mean as well as driving, and driving aggressively, evaluating the motorcyclist's performance on each direction, he was operating the radio and TAKING NOTES? Just judging by the driving alone, I felt that the Taurus should have had emergency lighting to warn the public of its erratic behaviou,r but when you add up the tasks the operator of that vehicle was expecting himself to perform, I feel everyone on the street was in danger. If we are going to have little multitasking demonstrations like this on Tisdale's streets, maybe we should have some warning; sirens, flashing lights, even a sign on the car warning of its possible unpredictable motion, or perhaps a notice in the paper that on specific days "watch out for driving tests." (If you are concerned about the multitasking behaviour of the photographer, he was driving slow and maintained a half block to a one block separation. Each image was taken with the vehicle stopped, or nearly stopped and the camera was fired each time using a zone aiming technique, no camera viewfinder to eye business here. You will also notice that pictures were only taken when no other traffic was in sight.) |
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