A group of Richmond residents has pleaded with ICBC to change its driver testing route in the city - because their quiet street is being plagued with learners.
A number of people living on Dover Crescent, near Westminster Highway and No. 2 Road, say their formerly sedate neighbourhood has become a dangerous hive, buzzing constantly with driving instructors and their students, as well as parents teaching their kids and, of course, the ICBC examiners themselves carrying out an actual road test.
The reason for the swarm of novice drivers is the poorly-kept secret that Dover Crescent is a well-trodden testing route for ICBC, possibly due to its speed limit signage, kids playground and opportunities for parallel parking.
But over the last year or so, one of the residents, Nik Raniga, said the matter has gotten out of control, with the street filled with student drivers from morning until evening, resulting in numerous scrapes and dents from the parking practice and near misses with kids and other vehicles at intersections.
Indeed, the Richmond News went down to Dover Crescent themselves last week to see what all the fuss was about.
In a 30-minute spell between 9 and 9:30 a.m., the News recorded no less than 15 different driving schools using the U-shaped street for all manner of practice manoeuvres.
“I’ve noticed it for many years, but it’s gotten real bad in the last year or so…progressively worse,” Raniga told the News.
“(Dover Crescent) has been on the test route for more than 20 years and, what compounds the issue is, word gets around among the instructors that this is the place where people are getting tested.
“They want to make sure their pass rate is high so they deliberately go where the testing is. But it’s against their code of conduct.
“Schools are also coming in from Surrey, New West and Vancouver because it’s easier for their students to get a test here.”
Learner driver hit resident's car while parking
Raniga said one neighbour spotted a learner driver hitting someone’s car while trying to parallel park.
“He went out and stopped the instructor from driving away. There’s been several near misses with kids and several near, multiple-vehicle collisions,” he added.
Raniga said his entire strata building of more than 100 units has “been mobilized” to take action and has urged ICBC all summer to do something to help them.
“We contacted the manager at the Richmond branch in Lansdowne Centre in June and they sent someone out here to monitor it for a short period of time…they acknowledged there were far too many instructors in the one place,” Raniga said, adding that one of the ideas ICBC apparently came up with was to contact the driving schools to tell them to stop using Dover Crescent.
The subject of changing the test route also surfaced with ICBC, who told Raniga that it has asked the City of Richmond to put up more speed limit and warning signs at or near parks so it can add more testing routes.
“ICBC has to use its power to stop the amount of traffic in this street. Ideally, just change the route,” said Raniga.
“If they can’t stop the instructors coming here, then change the route before someone gets hurt.”
ICBC hoping to vary driver road test routes
ICBC told the News it was aware of the residents’ concerns but said it has “multiple test routes in Richmond, as is the case with all of our other testing locations. We evaluate and adjust our test routes regularly.”
It did confirm, however, that it is working with the city to increase signage which will “help increase the number of potential test routes and improve road safety.
“It’s important that drivers have experience in all types of areas such as school and playground zones.
“We encourage driving schools to practice driving skills with their students rather than practicing test routes.”
