Getting There

This remains one of our biggest concerns re highway driving here. Appreciate that not all entry/exit points involve accelerating joiners crossing over with decelerating (sometimes ) leavers but as far as road design goes, these junctions are accidents waiting to happen, especially when combined with the driving habits outlined by many above.

Eamonn & Janet.

Rich_007

[QUOTE=Butch Cassidy;6699639] What he said ^^^

It's just hilarious.

Old folks who can't see ten feet head, yoots in big raised trucks, a small micro-car full of kids ripping up shit down the highway, old folks in rusty old beaters belching black smog, or the old folks who can barely walk from car to mall doors driving $100k Escalades, trades guys in monster trucks carrying 30 foot pieces of pipe hanging out the back, a dude with three huge dogs in the pick up bed running wild, people driving along talking in cell phones, applying make up, drinking coffee and talking animatedly - all at the same time, folks driving along skinning up or smoking a huge fatty blowing plumes of blue smoke out the window as the RCMP drive by with their hot coffee and Timbits.

It's like the Wild West. Actually, it IS the Wild West.

R.

MikeUK

The best I’ve seen so far is a police car use the right hand turn lane to over take cars on the inside then cutting in front of a car in the junction (heart lake road and mayfiled)
Or a police car speeding down middle lane of the 410 whist on a cell phone

Jingsamichty

Also, given that there is no MoT or equivalent, some of the cars on the roads are genuine deathtraps.

Mobile phone use is everywhere, and I fully expect to see somebody watching their favourite TV programme while driving before too long.

Long straight roads = drivers on autopilot, virtually oblivious to the world outside.

This time of year, monstrous RVs trying to overtake other monstrous RVs by going a whole 1kph faster. (The 10km battle of the sloths.)

But traffic congestion certainly isn't as bad as the SE of England. The biggest traffic jams I've seen are outside Tim Horton's Drive-Thrus.

Rich_007

In BC we would refer to this as the The 10km battle of the Albertan sloths.

R.

Ramsey

I've been in Calgary now for 10 weeks.... And it has been an insight when it comes to driving!

Calgarians are pretty laid back..... UNTIL they get in a car, Then they are some of the most impatient a-holes i've ever seen!

Undertake/Overtake - What's the difference?
Deerfoot Speed Limit? - That's a minimum speed right?
Cellphones? - They only work in a car right?

My favourite is on the way out to the mountains.... dead straight road, no one overtaking me.... I'm approaching a car which i'll need to overtake, but see a car coming up on the outside.... it should pass me in time..... but no!... It will get to you just as you really need to pull out and then slow down and take ages to pass.

Calgary's traffic lights do seem to be just at the wrong height to see when you need to see them (i.e. when they change!)

And the town planners must be on a search for the worlds best traffic intersection.... there are hundreds of unique examples.... in fact I dont think any two are the same!

I've learnt to just take it easy.... and watch the excitement unfold in front of me.... (and pray I dont get rear-ended!)

Ramsey

This amazes me!... I've seen cars with no front-end left, cracked-screen to the point of not being able to see through, the emergency spare on, and rust everywhere!

Then I get a photo-radar ticket for doing 60 in a 50 (I thought dual-carrigways automatically had a different speed limit.... WRONG!) on an empty road with no housing nearby.

At least my car's safe.... how about pulling some of these seriously dangerous cars off the road?


And while i'm at it..... what's with the seriously random speed limits in Calgary??.... from 80 to 50 to 30 to 60 in less than 3 blocks! awesome!

Ramsey

And.... Deeep Breath.... 1, 2, 3, 4, ........

dbd33

I saw that on the 401 last week.

dbd33

Seen that. Kingston Road and Woodbine. Tricked up Honda with a screen on the dash, mounted on a swivel. Driver watching "Friends".

Flossie and Jim

Hey you - lay off the town planners.....its traffic engineers who design traffic intersections (this is one of the big misconceptions in life).....its the planners who have to design round the engineers' creations you know!

From a Town Planner.....

Rich_007

I suppose the thing that stood out most last week was the old lady reading a tabloid newspaper propped up on her steering wheel, as she weaved across the three lanes of the Okanagan Lake Bridge. Holding up 20 vehicles in the process.

R.

Rich_007

Why does that not surprise me.

Maybe you could show me a Geo, Neon or Tracker that doesn't have a hypersonic boom box. Then I'd faint.

R.

Beastie

We recently returned from 3 weeks in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (report to follow shortly) where we covered 2960 km in a variety of road conditions and at differing times of the day. During that time I found most drivers on the road to be fairly courteous and willing to overlook the rookie mistakes made by someone who had never driven on the wrong side of the road before, at least not intentionally.

In Fredericton I could not believe how laid back and polite drivers were. It didn't matter how slow I drove no one ever tried to overtake or tailgate me. Around the town itself, pedestrians would walk out into the road and cars would automatically stop to allow them to cross without swearing or offensive gestures of any kind. If that happened in the UK A&E departments would be overflowing. All in all I found the experience of driving there a positive and relaxing one.

In Moncton it was far busier and drivers showed less consideration for pedestrians or each other but still not a sign of road rage. The same thing with Halifax, very busy, especially during rush hour, but on the whole none of the deliberately aggressive and dangerous driving I witness in the UK on a daily basis.

In between these larger cities the roads were quiet and drivers gave me plenty of room. The only danger was from lack of concentration due to the boredom of mile after mile of trees, trees and more trees. Oh, and of course the possibility of running into a moose or deer.

There were however some annoying habits that had the potential to create serious accidents the main one being hardly any of the drives seem to indicate for anything. Time after time I was behind a vehicle that suddenly stopped dead to turn into a driveway. Don't they teach people how to use indicators in Canadian driving schools? I was also surprised by the speed of people joining dual carriageways without even considering whether drivers already on it were going to make room for them to join. Where exit and entry slip roads were close together giving a cross over of accelerating/decelerating vehicles, it was more by luck than judgement that there were no accidents.

On the whole I consider my first experience of driving in Canada to have been a positive one. My only real complaints are not enough islands, too many traffic lights and 3 way/4 way stops? how ridiculously stupid but they seemed to work in a fashion. It was also frustrating when I tried to let other drivers out either by gesturing or flashing my headlights only to be met by a blank stare. Hardly any drivers took me up on the offer to make way for them or seemed to know what I was trying to do and those that did made no attempt to say thank you.

Compared to driving on UK roads, driving in Canada was a breath of fresh air. From what other posters have said, no doubt that opinion could change when we make the move permanently.

Rich_007

That's because they're all either dead, half asleep, stoned, or retarded.

R.