Half an inch would not be cleared from residential streets in Calgary. The City would not grind to a halt though

If you want to get into exact measurements I don't recall England stopping for a just a half inch of snow either. An inch or so of the slippy stuff and no snow tires means trouble in the UK or here. The difference is that in England its not going to be around for long and so people take the day off work if they can. Here we know it's going to happen again and again so you have to go in, plus most sensible people have snow tires.

- Though some of us have jobs where you have to go in regardless of the weather

I remember that about half an inch of snow once fell in England and the town in which my car was parked ground to a halt.

As you will no doubt be aware from this forum, most in Calgary do not drive with winter tires and, as you do, we frequently have inches of snow and the City does not grind to a halt, although with the first snowfall of the year, the accidents may number more than a hundred.

I didn't want to get into an argument about this, I merely wished to highlight that comparing English and Canadian drivers is like comparing apples and oranges: I doubt many English lorry drivers would be able to drive a semi through the Rockies in the middle of winter and I doubt that many Canadian semi drivers would be able to back a semi into a supermarket delivery thingy in a narrow street in Burton on Trent.

I just moved from Edmonton to Perth in August. I've lived in Edmonton most of my life.

And I think, despite what Aussies say about their drivers being so dismal and rude, that Edmonton is much worse. In Edmonton, I've had cars fly by me on the QE II (you know, when you're doing 10km over the limit and the cars zoom by like you're parked). Or the Whitemud...

Last spring, I had a driver on Whyte Ave cut me off and when I honked at him that he was about to hit me (I swerved out of the lane to avoid the collison), he gave me the finger and then tailgated me for blocks.

In Perth, twice now, cars have let me into their lanes when mine was closed for construction etc. That never happens back in Edmonton. No one will hold up traffic to let you in. I'm so unused to it...I was surprised drivers still do that.

I don't think it's lack of skills (although I'm sure that's part of it) as just plain lack of courtesy. Apparently, it's everyone for themselves out there.

I also feel it's an age thing. The don't recall older generations having the attitude that 'as long as I'm okay, I couldn't give a damn about anyone else' that younger drivers seem to have.

Perhaps in time you'll also figure out it's Crowchild not Crowfoot.

It's partly to let emergency services know in the event of an accident. My (former) in-law is a paramedic and told me it's one of the first things they look for on attending an incident.

Canadian drivers tend to have a "my problem is yours" attitude, when on the roads. There is general discourtesy too - simply amazing how many fail to acknowledge gestures of goodwill by other drivers. Nowadays witnessing a kind act on the road, leaves me thinking of it for the rest of the day; it's so unusual.

Generally Canadian drivers are aggressive, unskilled, discourteous and incompetent. Sure, multiculturalism is part of this. You don't need to apologize for identifying which cultures are the worst - it's a fact.

There's a lot of self-loathing on this forum. Yet British drivers are much more highly skilled, rational, compliant and courteous than most of the driving I've seen here. Driving in the US and UK is notably different to Canada. I even note how soon after crossing back over the border I see a dumb-ass act when arriving back in Canada.

Let's face it, this graduated driving system is just BS. Canadian youth are about as bad and incompetent on the road as anywhere. The system simply fails to work other than raising more money for the government and driving schools.

Why?

I guess it's easy to not spot something small in a mangled car.

That seems improbable, babies are in those cumbersome seat things, they're hard to miss. Anyway, why "first"?

In a mangled car it's not so obvious. As the sign is normally on the rear window, it's often found near the vehicle in the event of an incident.

An upside down vehicle in a ditch it's not going to be so obvious that there's a baby in the vehicle. Of course bearing the sign is not a guarantee, but something to check.

Re: Canada vs USA

I've driven a fair bit in both countries. In my experience, I wouldn't say there was a marked difference in standards between the two.

Here are the death stats:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tr...per_capita.svg

What alarms me most about driving in North America is people's relaxed attitude toward seat belts. I know someone in the US who genuinely thinks they'd be better off in an accident without one.

Road fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants

Canada 8.8
Germany 6.0
United Kingdom 5.4
United States of America 13.9

Road fatalities per 1 billion vehicle-km

Canada 9.2
Germany 7.4
UK 6.3
USA 9

Source OECD International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD). http://cemt.org/IRTAD/IRTADPublic/we2.html. "Selected Risk Values for the Year 2006"

Moose and winter are going to contribute to that more than bad drivers. Plus its a vast country, you could easily bleed to death waiting for an ambulance that would be there in 5 minutes in a higher population density area if you crash in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even where I live, not exactly a wilderness area, it can take 20+ minutes for an ambulance to arrive, and that can be the difference between life and death.

Im not saying some Canadian drivers are not terrible, but there are other reasons for stats like that too, and in wintertime sometimes things really are beyond the control of the driver alone.