victorfoxtrot

It's the concept of the Stop sign that I think sums up the lack of anticipation. THose of us used to roundabouts understand the principle of checking who is coming from the right before you actually get to the junction, then giving way if called for or continuing to drive if it is clear. I find Stop signs sooooo dumb - I understand their purpose, but to come to a dead stop, look for traffic and then move when you can clearly see there is nothing coming for miles really sums it up for me. Anyone else think Stop signs are dumb?

Alan2005

Everybody thinks they are dumb. They are bad for the environment and don't help with traffic flow. 99.99999% of them should be replaced by either round-abouts or yield signs.

Gremmie

Not all of them

Almost Canadian

I don't think they are dumb as, generally, they do not cause the traffic to grind to a halt when someone doesn't know what they are doing, as would happen in the UK.

In addition, most of the one I can think of, allow for pedestrians to cross. Something that most roundabouts in the UK don't allow for.

Further, most busy roundabouts in the UK provide for a "preferred access" situation where traffic crossing east to west and west to east (for example) constantly will completely prevent all traffic wishing to travel north to south and south to north. This doesn't happen at 4 way stops

cheeky_monkey

Im surprised it does not mention as one reason is that immigrants have learnt to drive on much more challenging roads with greater amounts of traffic with pedestrains that can cross the road at any point and any time.

Almost Canadian

What jurisdiction gives better rights to pedestrians than Canada? I can't think of any and, certainly, not the UK

cheeky_monkey

Thats my point In the UK pedestrains can walk out into the road anywhere at anytime so you need to be aware of things like that..This doesnt happen in Canada

Steve_P

I find it quite amusing that most of the posters in this thread assume that the immigrant groups in this study "the highest proportions from China and India" had driver licenses prior to their arrival in Canada.

This is not necessarily the case.

Steve_

One thing I notice in comparing Europe with the US and Canada is that in the UK etc. they have too many roundabouts and in the US and Canada there are too many four-way stops and traffic lights. For example you will come to a roundabout in the UK where there is a massive flow on a main road and it's almost impossible to merge with traffic coming in from the smaller roads, there you need a traffic light. But here you have four-way stops on four-lane roads sometimes, or forests of traffic lights that could be done away with using a properly designed roundabout(s).

When I lived in the US I spoke to someone in city planning about it and they said four-way junctions with lights are much cheaper to put in than roundabouts, although personally I think it depends on the junction.

There needs to be some happy medium between the two extremes.

Almost Canadian

I think you have that backwards. In Calgary, they do have the right of way, so they will do so all the time, completely oblivious to what the traffic is doing. In the UK, they would get run over.

In the UK, people generally look before they cross. From my experience, you have things backwards.

Alan2005

Is jay walking not a crime in calgary?

cheeky_monkey

im talking about jay walking

ducktastic

The very nice lady who bought my car, asked me how to use a roundabout whilst on the test drive, she went to go around it the wrong way

Almost Canadian

Sure it is, but the cops appear to turn a complete blind eye to it. Calgary drivers are not the world's greatest, but they do appear to go out of their way to make room for pedestrians, i.e. red hand up, person running 20 metres away from the junction, usually, the driver will not pull into the junction, pedestrian then gets to the junction, stops running and walks across at a snail's pace looking at the driver with a "Watcha gonna do about it?" look on their face. It's the only thing about driving around here that winds me up.

Almost Canadian

Are you arguing that jay walking is more prevalent in Canada or the UK? You have me completely baffled as to what your argument is.