Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

The 401 is great at the mo, while school is out. I drove Ajax to Weston Road in 30 mins easy peesy at 7am, wens thur fri.

Be back to same ole crock o shite next week. :thumbdown:

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

Although there are no yellow lines, if the curb is painted yellow there are parking restrictions up to and including no parking.

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

You have to bear in mind the road system in Alberta is pretty awful, especially how some of the exits and merges are laid out on the Deerfoot Trail, Glenmore, etc.

It's not quite as horrendous in BC and Ontario I find. What blows my mind on the QE2 is that the exit for Olds is simply a turn lane in the middle of the road, it's so dangerous and there have been bad accidents there, you'd think they'd put an overpass in. Then you go down I-15 in Montana and they have overpasses for Joe Blogg's farm, it seems to me.

But there are lots of really bad ones on Deerfoot, Memorial Drive being the main one that comes to mind, way overcapacity. Also the Bow Bottom Trail exit is a nightmare in rush hour.

Also total lack of consistency in how merges and exits work, every possible way of doing a merge or exit or slip lane appears to exist on the Deerfoot. When I first moved to Calgary it took me ages to learn the layout of each junction so I knew what to do at each one.

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

What lines (in Alberta)? You can't see them in the winter and they get worn off by gravel, and they take until late summer to repaint them.

Also I find in Alberta you have to be really careful not to be fooled by paving lines on the road, i.e. due to construction. I can think of several accidents on Calf Robe bridge where people made the mistake of following the lines in the paving slabs (which are diagonal) and ended up driving into the barrier. Saw it happen once. I think they've resurfaced it since to cover up the lines, it was such a problem.

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

Lots but I think the two you will notice first is that people don't flash their headlights to mean whatever it is they mean, which I like because I never knew what they meant. In Canada the junctions are too large to be able to see them and cars have daytime running lights so it's impossible.

So I found one good thing.

The other one is that people are less keen on letting you into traffic.

There is a myth that circulates the world that Canadians are good drivers because of the weather. That myth is very, very wrong.

The thing that immediately blows your mind is the sorry state of some of the cars. People driving rust buckets with nearly bald tires in the middle of winter. Bald tires are illegal, the police will stop you for it, but OMG I can't believe some of the things I've seen. No equivalent to the MoT test in Alberta. Some provinces have vehicle inspection requirements but none of them are anywhere near what you have in Europe.

Probably the main reason car insurance rates are so much higher in Canada, but I don't think my rates are that bad. Not as cheap as in the UK but some of the figures people have put up on here blow my mind.

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

One of the things I noticed when I moved here was how much more often I was waived out into a slow moving queue....


I guess there are really no hard and fast rules, its just variations in personal experience.

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

I don't think Canadians know what a red light is.
Crazy bastards keep on going turning left on an intersection when lights are red and cars start coming towards them :blink:
I saw one car today just go straight across an intersection on a red light totally crazy!

They will not let you pull out in front of them in slow moving traffic here (NS). You signal to pull out and they totally ignore you and carry on. It's not like they are going anywhere fast!

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

They don't let you out round here either and they have a third hand for steering as the other 2 are occupied by a timmies and a cell phone.

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

To be honest how often around here are there queues that you end up waiting to get out in anyway? Granted, around Xmas up by the mall its a bit crazy, but mostly there isnt much waiting around anyway.

Maybe Im just blessed...

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

or living a long way from civilisation (and kingston doesn't count as civilised) :D

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

The Tim's drivers are the worst. Crazy fools swing right in front of you if they want to pull into Tims!

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

To be fair I moved here on Dec 1st so a pretty busy time of year I guess. I passed thru your place on Saturday, it was closed I think :rofl:

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

I'm in the same place as Canadian Carpers, thats why I responded to their post about being let in, or not...

To be fair I seem to get let in in Toronto too though. Maybe its just good "carma".

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

Or drive a really flash motor or have a stunning blonde in the next seat:thumbup:

Re: Differences between Canadian drivers and UK drivers?
 

Must just be good karma then...