Quote:
Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor
I will most certainly agree with you that the highways in general flow much better in Europe than in Canada because they allow for people to go 130kmh plus. They need to increase the speed limits on many of the highways in Canada.
Also, having a lot of traffic circles helps the flow. But, my limited experience driving over here has shown me that near accidents, jam ups, horn honking and near pedestrian hits is far more common in Europe than in Alberta at least.
Also, I want to clarify a point I made in my first post. I didn't mean to label European drivers as "bad" drivers, just drivers who do not follow driving laws.
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I meant inside the cities. It's awesome how traffic works, particularly in Italy. I loved it so much, sometimes I'd rent a car just to drive around for fun. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder though.
One thing that continued to amaze me was how traffic would dictate itself instead of using signs and lines. If there was way more traffic going one direction than another, the side with more cars would just start taking over the side with less cars. And instead of freaking out and crashing, the cars on the less dominant side would just move over and let it happen.
Try that here... In fact, I sorta did once and boy oh boy did I get reprimanded. I was going WB on Heritage, and I wanted to turn SB onto Elbow. The green arrow was flashing, but the two lanes were clogged to the point where I either had to wait for the E/W traffic to start moving, or else I could pop half my truck over the center line, and advance to the turning lane. I went for it, since there was no oncoming traffic, but just then, a NB guy turned EB and then continued to get into the left lane, even though a dump truck (me) was using half the lane to sneak into the turning lane.
Holy shiz did the guy get offended! Like I was pissing on his father's grave or something. The a-hole had EB Heritage drive all to himself, save for a dumptruck using half his lane for about 20 meters, and the guy loses it. That's Calgary driving for you. God for-forking-bid you have to move over a little bit to let a dump truck catch a light instead of stopping and idling in an intersection.
Another thing about euro driving... Motorcycles always go to the front at lights. And why shouldn't they? They take off way faster. They're using less fuel and space. The reward is that they get to where they're going faster. Not here, though. I don't drive a motorcycle, but I do know that the attitude around here is that if a biker split a lane at a light, some jackass would probably open his door or something. NO WAY IN HELL ANYBODY IS GONNA GET IN FRONT OF ME!!!11! The drivers here are jerks. Just look at the a-holes in this thread with the attitude of "I can drive whatever speed I want in whatever lane I want, and to hell with you people that want to break the law and go faster". There is an a-hole epidemic on the streets of Calgary. Buncha dicks that dont care about anyone but themselves and actually take pleasure in screwing someone else over - because they can.
Over the 14 months I lived in DT Rome, I saw maybe 2 car/car accidents, and about 10 car/scooter accidents. I see two accidents a week in Calgary.