The Hongcouver | Here’s the real question, Vancouver: Why are non-Asians such lousy drivers?

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Asian immigrant drivers are statistically safer on the roads than non-immigrants, according to Canadian and Australian studies. Yet the opposite view is widely held.

Published: 10:15am, 9 Apr 2014Updated: 11:52am, 23 Feb 2016

Are Asian drivers really so bad? Judging from some of the recent reaction to a series of dash-cam videos shot in and around Vancouver, you’d think it was a scientific fact.

The videos, posted to YouTube and highlighted last month by local media, depict a cringe-worthy array of terrible road skills. Vancouver drivers reverse into moving traffic, sail through red lights and inexplicably collide with stationary objects.

Plenty of people claim their city to have the World’s Worst Drivers, but some Vancouverites who did so after watching the videos pointed the finger of blame at the city’s 900,000-strong immigrant population – in particular, Asian and Chinese drivers. This was in spite of the fact that the ethnicity of the drivers at fault in the videos was almost never visible.

“How many of these drivers were new international migrants, DWA or foreign taxi drivers? answer: MOST … DWA = driving whilst Asian... for those that didn't know!,” came the confident assertion from YouTube commenter “Ryan Smith”.

“Welcome to Hongcouver,” observed an anonymous poster.

“Vancouver and Metro area drivers are probably worst in Canada because of the high amount of immigrants and foreigners in the city... would be interesting to know how many of the drivers were Asian - sorry but it's just a horrible sad fact,” said another.