Well, after surviving nearly 10 years of driving in S. Ireland I find that the driving here in BC is 100% better. I think that the Irish driving test must include how to speed, tailgate and drive with the mobile surgically fixed to your ear. As for roundabouts, we won't even go there!....
I have rediscovered the pleasure in driving. Drivers around here, in general, are courteous, leave plenty of space between cars,especially when they have overtaken you, and crossing the road is never a problem.
Maybe it's just the small town thing again.

thanks you guys, you fill me with so much confidence and HORROR.
having been here for a year now, we just bt a car, oops sorry sml suv on friday and ive been out one day.
back in the uk i was a driving instructor but i havent driven since we arrived.
its not the physicality of it, as im used to sitting on that side of the car, its the signs and rules, also the lack of being able to see road markings in the snow.
basically boys and girls i was petrified, not like me a all.
the car has now sat there for 4 days due to the weather and after reading all of your comments i think is going to stay there till hubby gets home from his jaunt up north (ironically hes a truck driver)
i may get back on the bus

Being a crap driver myself, I feel like I've come home.

Bloody immigrants!

Yes, I believe it must be. Try driving in Vancouver or Richmond. The cell phone seems to be fixed to many ears here, and in the other hand is often a Tim's. So scarey watching them navigate through traffic with just an elbow on the steering wheel.

I used to do all of that and smoke at the same time. Now that I'm having a break from smoking I pass the time at the wheel by flossing my teeth.

At least that's healthier for you.

I tried car sharing with a girl last year - it lasted a week, during which apart from eating breakfast (ok - but garlic bagels covered with garlic spread first thing in the morning) whilst driving, she would send text messages, drive practically up the arse of the car in front, pass a line of trucks at breakneck speed, all the while hurling abuse because they wouldn't pull over! But the best one was to pull down the interior mirror on the back of the sunblind and check her eyes....I don't mean her makeup, I mean her actual eyeballs, which she said got coated with slime! After a week of this I couldn't uncurl my fingers and my knuckles had almost broken through the skin so I went back to driving my self.

cant believe u lasted a week lol ,well done

... Add overtaking on the inside lane.

Can only speak with a little experience of the highways around the GTA but Canucks have a lot to deal with - poorer signage, more traffic, mad 'no right/left turns between 7 and 9, 6 and 5, 12 and 12' etc, rules that are 'meant to be broken' according to the locals I've been driven by (like speed limits it seems) but there's so MUCH road here don't you find? Even with the monstrous vehicles you see everywhere you'd think there'd be room for everyone.

I took my driving lessons at Kennedy/Sheppard soon after moving to Canada (17 at the time)...the driving school was at the SE corner of Kennedy/Sheppard...the first thing I had to do was inch across the nb lanes and turn into the sb lanes and then get on the 401 in rush hour....quite stressful but I made it.

I know what you mean about the distance and the # of lanes you have to switch to get off at Kennedy.