It’s back to school season, Canada! Lots of young scholars are heading out to get their education on, which means an increase in local traffic, new young drivers on the road and plenty of tykes and bikes to watch out for on your daily commute.
Because it never hurts to have a refresher on safety, we’re sharing a round-up of our top back to school safety tips:
Most of our safety tips are for drivers, but it’s important to talk to your kids about safety. The RCMP Alberta have put together a short video that you can watch with your kids to discuss getting to school safely, whether walking, riding their bike or taking the bus.
Stay safe out there! And have a great school year!
For our summer vacation this year, we've decided to forgo one big, long, far-away trip and, instead, stay a little closer to home and do shorter day or overnight trips. We've treated some out-of-town guests to the usual things you do in Vancouver and area (Stanley Park, winery tour in the Okanagan, Vancouver Art Gallery). But what if you want to do something out of the ordinary? Luckily, Canada has a lot of unusual places to visit. I thought I'd highlight a few of them in a three-part Road Trip Trio. First up: Quirky Canadian Museums!
First off, right here in Vancouver we have the Vancouver Police Museum. Golly, this place is cool and creepy. I attended a ‘20’s themed dine-around in Vancouver a few years ago and the cocktails and appetizers were served at the museum. In the morgue. WEIRD but awesome. The VPM has great exhibits, tours and educational programs. If you have an interest in crime or forensics, it's definitely worth a visit. And if you can't make it out to the West Coast, check out their Instagram!
Next up, another museum that features bones ... this time dinosaur bones! The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta is the next best thing to visiting Jurassic World. The Royal Tyrrell hosts several educational programs as well a number of incredible exhibits, including the "Grounds for Discovery" exhibit where the Borealopelta markmitchelli, a new genus and species of armoured dinosaur that was discovered in Suncor's Millennium Mine, is housed.
If you have some time on your hands, check out the Canadian Clock Museum in Deep River, Ontario. Canada has a rich history in clock manufacturing. From Wood Gear clocks manufactured in the 1820s and 30s, to Kitchen Clocks manufactured by GE in the mid-20th century, to hand tools and benches for watch repair - the Canadian Clock Museum has a little something for everyone. My faves are the animated alarm clocks - I'm pretty sure my brother had the one with a Mountie on it! The Canadian Clock Museum has seasonal hours; make sure you check their website if you plan on visiting.
As someone who came of age during the Cold War, one of my favourite quirky museums in Canada is the Diefenbunker outside of Ottawa in Carp, ON. Commissioned by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in 1959, the Diefenbunker was part of the government’s reaction to escalating tensions in the Cold War. It was meant to house key members of the government and military in the event of a nuclear attack on Canada. Today, it preserves the history of the Cold War in an immersive and interactive environment. The Diefenbunker has rotating exhibits (like a recreation of a military canteen from the 1970s), educational workshops, an escape room experience and an annual zombie invasion. Check out this video for more info.
As our final quirky museum, something more lighthearted - the Accordion Museum in Montmagny, Quebec! This museum traces the musical importance of the accordion (aka the Squeeze Box) in Quebecois culture. They have on hand dozens of instruments and hundreds of hours of recorded archives for the public to listen to. This video describes the various exhibits and other interesting things at the museum.
Have you been to any of these cool museums? Are there any other quirky Canadian museums we should know about? What do you hope to discover this summer? Stay tuned for the second part of our Road Trip Trio - next week I’m sharing my favourite under-rated Canadian natural wonders: Niagara Falls, I’m not talkin' about you!
Last month was the 2018 North American Auto Show and folks - the future is sleek. Enhanced safety features! Imaginative headlights! Cars that look like they should be in video games!
I was out walking the dog the other morning when I saw a car get T-boned at an intersection near my house. The driver was turning left as the light turned yellow and a driver coming from the other direction decided he would hit the gas to try to make the light. The result was a resounding crunch. Both drivers walked away unharmed but the left-turning driver’s car was totaled.
One of the most frustrating things about turning left at an intersection is not knowing if an oncoming car is going to slow down as the light turns yellow or if it’s just going to roar on through. Since front brake light technology doesn’t seem to have taken off, all you can really do is use your best judgment to make the turn safely. Wouldn’t it be great if your car could communicate with the oncoming car and see if it is actually slowing down?
That’s where vehicle to vehicle communications technology (V2V) comes in. V2V allows your car to communicate with the other cars around you, within a certain range, to allow you to take preventative action where necessary. V2V uses a WiFi-like technology called DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication), which allows cars to communicate directly with each other in real time.
With V2V, your left-turning car would be able to detect that an oncoming vehicle wasn’t slowing down, allowing you to brake. If a car three cars ahead of you on the highway suddenly brakes, your car will know about it before you even see it. If a vehicle with V2V ahead of you slips on wet pavement or ice , V2V can warn you about slippery road conditions ahead, so that you can slow down.
Check out this US Department of Transportation video for more about how V2V will work:
Obviously, V2V works best when all cars are equipped with the technology. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that collisions could be reduced by up to 80% once the technology is integrated into all cars and light duty trucks. In the US, a regulation has been proposed that would make V2V systems mandatory in all new vehicles as early as 2023 and if that regulation passes, it’s a good bet that Canada will follow suit.
Personally, I’m excited at the advent of more V2V communications; not only is it a great advance in automotive safety, but it will also cut down on my yelling: “What are you DOING??” at other drivers.
What do you think? Would V2V be helpful to you as a driver? Let us know in the comments.
While I was learning all about the latest car technologies for our post on understanding your car’s safety features, I came across a great invention that could have been a real game changer in my grandparents’ day; a parking assistance innovation that never made it to the mainstream.
Modern day parking assistance became available to the masses in 2003, when Toyota introduced automatic parallel parking in Japan with the Prius. But parking assistance technology was first invented by a fellow named Brooks Walker from San Francisco, who patented his ParkCar mechanism in the 1930s. ParkCar used a car’s spare tire as a fifth wheel to help the car get into, and out of, tight spaces.
In the 1950s, Cadillac built a prototype, but ParkCar was never mass-produced, which seems like a shame. Sure, it would eat up a lot of your trunk space and would be murder on the front tires; but ParkCar would certainly be handy when parallel parking on a crowded street!
Check out this video from Tech Insider of Brooks Walker’s invention in action:
These days, most car manufacturers offer some kind of automated parking assistance, but parking is still a skill worth cultivating. Because no matter what technology you’re using to help you park, you’re still responsible for the end result!
Does your car have some kind of parking assistance system? Do you find it useful? Let us know in the comments!
