When I lived in Victoria, many years ago, we had mandatory annual motor vehicle inspections.
At a government facility all vehicles were tested for working lights, headlight alignment, effective brakes, tailpipe pollution and other functions. Vehicles which failed repeatedly could not be licensed for the road.
Fast forward to 2015. Now any conveyance capable of self-propulsion can be licensed and driven. No longer do we need working brakes, lights, steering and other minor functions. As a result people are dying on our roads, but this is a minor inconvenience for a government more interested in appeasing owners of rolling junk than in improving safety for the rest of us.
Is there junk on the road? Just drive at night and count the number of burned out headlights. Be blinded by oncoming vehicles with misaligned or overly bright lights. If an owner cannot even be bothered to replace a dead headlight, what else might he or she neglect?
I was moved to write this letter by news that cars in the Lower Mainland will no longer require "Air Care" emissions checks. Is this an indication that Vancouver and environs have overcome their pollution problems? Or, perhaps, is our government willing to subject citizens to bad air just to appease those who find inspections an inconvenience?
James Loughery
Prince George
