Snave

I despair at the quality of driving in the Ottawa region. I saw a thread with Rae and ExMetCop in it indicating they are Police officers so I'd like their opinion as well as anyone else on BE.
The general standard of driving here is poor in my opinion. Every day you see someone who is driving on high beam, or at night only on day notice lights. You will see someone with the car halfway across a stop line. You'll see someone who is wandering between the two lines and can't keep their car parallel to them, or is tailgating terrifyingly close. You will see someone dashing out of a junction in front of you. Speeding, texting and emailing is the norm. A colleague of mine openly admits to browsing the web on his iPhone while driving. There is no courtesy whatsoever. If you give way to someone they will just drive away without a wave or acknowledging your consideration. I would like to ask the next one to pull in front of me causing me to brake - would he have done that had I been standing in line in a Timmies? Of course not - so why does the anonymity of a car make them think it's acceptable? There seems to be no pride in peoples driving quality.
So I'd like to ask - how come the quality is so poor? Is it because Canada has so many immigrants from different countries bringing different driving standards? Is it because the Police are too overworked to catch offenders of minor offenses? Have the Police been told to turn a blind eye to minor offenses in order to only concentrate on major ones? Is the Police force under manned, under resourced and under financed?
Anyway - rant over, anyone got anything to add?

Lychee

From my experience in and around BC, Alberta, Ontairo, and Quebec, I can definitely say that driving habits vary depending on where you are in Canada.

fledermaus

I have no idea why Canadian drivers are so bad.

This week's driving has seen

Today I signalled to turn left at the lights in order to turn into the parking lot for a strip mall. The lanes on my side of the road were down to one due to construction so I pulled forwards to let the cars behind me out. When there was a gap in the oncoming traffic I went to turn but couldn't because some woman had driven into the left hand lane....So I was stuck in the middle. A police officer just watched.

I was tailgated almost all the way into town, she was so close you couldn't see her lights.

A truck pulled out onto the road from the left, in front of me, the driver braked suddenly and then moved onto the shoulder, he pulled out again once I had passed and then tailgated me.

A minivan turned left at the lights in front of an car transporter which fortunately was empty otherwise it may not have stopped in time.

A man pulled out over a stop sign in front of me. Three way stop, I had right of way.

Coming home I was behind a farm vehicle, waiting until the was a broken yellow line and clear sight of the road before I overtook. The car behind me just went over the double yellows and overtook us both.

AdrianR

Ya' think them Canucks are bad? Come to Mexico!

Here, there is not even a driving test - you just pay the license fee and away you go. It's like playing dodgems - most people can make the car go forward and that's about it.

MOT/safety test? Ya' gotta' be kidding!! If you ever wondered where all the US and Canadian clunkers end up...they're down here! Including clunker school buses, clunker fire engines, clunker dustbin lorries etc etc.

Canada is an orderly paradise as far as I am concerned.

Alan2005

It's cos they all drive automatics and are therefore driving babies.

jericho

Here in Edmonton, the standards are ridiculous.
People cutting right across 3 or 4 lane highways at the very last moment before they exit, the use of "traffic circles" is just down right dangerous, and tailgating I find to be a problem also... even when the conditions are really poor.
You cant blame that on automatics/manuals- it's just poor driving.

brian_munich

absolutely 100% right - absolutely appalling.
- no concept of fast/slow lane on the highway (not even in their highway code)
-edging forwards at the traffic lights, and ending up halfway over the line on a red light.
-stopping over a pedestrian crossing
-what is the point of having the lines at junctions 6 feet away from the actual junction?
-they fail to use slip roads when joining main roads.
have you seen them attempt a roundabout?!?
and you are also correct about the 'courtesy wave' - if you let someone cut in, for example, nothing, nada - how rude.
maybe it's just Ottawa?!?

Alan2005

I do though. Auto's give you no feel for the car, the engine, or any connection with the road. Driving a manual transmission at some point in your life will make you a better driver than those who have not.

sheadboy

I think they're bad sure, but I saw my fair share of idiots on British roads too man.

I've only been cut up once in Ottawa so far, it used to happen every week back home.

Kirstine

Edmonton drivers are ridiculous, I never met sooo many people on the roads who just cut you up or pull out without looking in the mirrors. And of course on Highway 2 you get the slow people clogging up the fast lane. Tailgating is another issue and speeding around everywhere, so some of the accidents that happen around here really don't surprise me.

My other half also often complains about rude drivers, guy in a pick up cut him up one day coming home from work, my other half beeped at him and the guy suddenly moved over into a gravel/dirt in the road spraying all this up over OH's car, then swerved out again.

It's just rude, careless drivers who don't take their time in my opinion.

Alan2005

I don't think canadian drivers are rude (brits are far ruder and much more aggressive in my experience). I just think they drive badly because they are incompetent.

terese677

It's not just Ottawa, believe me Vancouver is just as bad, I could write a novel about the insane drivers that I have encountered here

XCMTBer

I have a list just a long as the ones above, this week I have seen the car in front of me mount a central reservation as he was reading a paper.

Was pulling of the 417 at carp road and was cut up by a Hummer who wanted to get in front of me (maybe 4 inches at highway speeds)

And this morning when it was foggy I opted to take quite back roads past Scociabank place as opposed to the 417 as fog+tailgating+ottawa drivers was just not worth the risk!

What grates is the urgency to get somewhere round here, into work in the morning, then when in the office I see none of the urgency! (maybe to go get a timmies)

wire

I regularly drive between Canada and the Mexico ports of entry (Laredo TX, San Diego Ca, Etc) and in fairness the standard of driving is pretty much as poor everywhere in North America. The one positive point is that i personally feel that this is not due to malicious intent and pure selfishness as one finds in the UK but rather straight forward lack of roadcraft and skill. When a native driver fails to acknowledge a courtesy or does something foolish it is not usually to get the better of you but simply because they don't know any better. This is of course a small consolation sometimes.

jandn

I can confirm that
One of the biggest problem is lack of good street lights the amount
of times I have nearly hit a pedestrian is scary, and I have good eyesight