Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Canadians might have a reputation for politeness, but they are some of the rudest, entitled, whiniest, and most lackadaisical drivers I’ve encountered anywhere.
Drive in busy areas in the US and there’s always a flow to it (even when you’re in traffic for 2 hours). People cut in and out of lanes, take space available, lane split, whatever. There’s no stress. The odd time I’ve seen an incident of road rage, granted, it’s much worse than here, but here is just a constant din of people who are mad at everyone else on the road.
People here will give you the finger for just about anything, cut you off on purpose for some perceived slight, close gaps, or just generally refuse to let you in as though somehow you being in front of them is some slight to their character or will cause them to be delayed to their destination by two hours. It’s nonsense. Especially when they’re driving like the road is theirs, no hustle, and still get annoyed when you prefer to set your own pace.
Driving in the US is like a breath of fresh air.
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While I do agree with a lot of what you're saying here, especially the "cut you off for perceived slights, close gaps, just generally refuse to let you in", I find that drivers in Calgary are also way too timid and passive for their own good. At merges, for instance, I often find the incoming traffic from the on-ramps will try entering going waaaaaaaay too slow to safely complete the manoeuvre. They put the onus on the free-flowing traffic to slow down and accommodate, and it becomes this awful feedback loop: the free-flowing traffic slows to accommodate, the merging traffic slows because they don't think they can make the merge, the free-flowing traffic slows even further, the merging traffic slows further... I don't know how many times I've tried to let people merge in and they're so incredibly chicken#### about actually taking the space given to them that I speed up, blow past them and let the next sucker behind me figure it out. Probably not the safest thing to do on my part, but it seems preferable to the alternative of coming to a complete STOP to let these doofuses in.
I also find Calgary drivers can be courteous to the point of being unsafe and unpredictable. For example I'll come to a stop at an intersection at the same time as someone to my right, and
they'll wave
me through. "NO, goddammit, YOU have the right of way so ####ing GO!" Another common occurrence: a driver stops mid-block to let a pedestrian jaywalk across the road. It puts the pedestrian at risk of getting hit by a car coming from the opposite direction, or another car in an adjacent lane on a four-lane road. Drivers should never, ever do it but in Calgary, sometimes, they do! They think they're being
nice!
I think the part of your post I really disagree with though is "Driving in the US is like a breath of fresh air". It really depends on where in the US. In the parts of the US I've been to—most states west of the Rockies, plus Florida, Virginia, DC and the Maryland suburbs of DC—I find the average skillset to be shockingly poor. DC drivers I found to be not bad; aggressive but predictable. "A flow to it," as you put it. Other urban areas—e.g. Orlando, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Richmond, VA—were hit and miss. (No pun intended.) There was no "flow to it" in these places. I found traffic/drivers to be generally unpredictable, which is... scary. "Manageable" at best. Rural areas are a total crapshoot: could be decent, could be entirely inept.
EDIT: The most incompetent driving I've ever been mired in was in Vancouver. Brutal lack of driving skills out there.