You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I notice this is more of a Calgary (Alberta?) thing. Every time I drive in Vancouver or Toronto, people don't bat an eye if someone cuts in front of them. But here, it's like people take it as a personal offense. Are Calgarians just more ahole-ish when they drive?

Ontario is the same in my experience. Once a guy lost it on me and flipped me off because I moved over for an ambulance in gridlock traffic.

[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.

[CroFlames]

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.

Yep. I had some soccer mom in a soulless SUV lose her #### at me the other day. We're on Stoney at the SE curve where there are just two lanes. I am passing a guy in the left lane doing about 112, again on a curve.

Out of nowhere crazy soccer mom comes up behind me like a bat out of hell and tailgates a mere few feet. I estimate she was doing 140.

I continue to pass the guy, throw on my signal to get back into the right lane, but she cuts in before I could do it and passes me on the right. She cut off the person I was passing aggressively.

I look over and she has both hands off the wheel flailing as she's yelling at me as she's passing me. Like absolutely losing her ####.

She passes and takes off doing 140 or 150km/h.

Entitlement indeed.

[JD]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Ulaanbaatar > Istanbul > Toronto > Calgary

Long, but honestly wasn’t terrible. Two legs with Turkish Airlines which was great.

My wife just did Tashkent > Istanbul > LHR > Calgary yesterday, far but not quite Mongolia far! No issues for her at all, smooth sailing, despite transiting through one of the worst airports in the world. Looking at you, London!! To be fair, they've improved quite a bit since I started traveling overseas a lot.

[Old Yeller]

When I was much younger and dumber I bought a ridiculously cheap ticket Calgary to Bangkok return for like $650. I couldn't understand how it was so cheap... 42 hours total travel time (including horrendous layovers) later, I learned valuable lesson.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by JD

My wife just did Tashkent > Istanbul > LHR > Calgary yesterday.

Nice! Is she from there, or just visiting? The Stans are definitely high on my list.

And yeah, Heathrow is a pain, and up there with Toronto and Frankfurt on places to try to avoid whenever possible. Istanbul's new airport on the other hand, is pretty amazing.

[Table 5]

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.

Canadian drivers have this weird combo of low skill + high arrogance. Compared to the rest of the world, our traffic is relatively mild and roads are stupidly easy to drive on... yet for some reason many people are stressed out whenever the slightest inconvenience/transgression happens. Perhaps because things are so easy, it's easy to get thrown off?

[JD]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Nice! Is she from there, or just visiting? The Stans are definitely high on my list.

And yeah, Heathrow is a pain, and up there with Toronto and Frankfurt on places to try to avoid whenever possible. Istanbul's new airport on the other hand, is pretty amazing.

She is as Uzbek as they come, and yes, Uzbekistan is extremely interesting to visit. The people are always so eager to show off their country, they're very proud. It's opened up a lot more, definitely way easier to visit than when I first went in 2015. But that has its up and downsides.

Personally I've always found Frankfurt to be seamless, despite being depressing and occasionally soul crushing.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

Oh man, this has been driving me bonkers lately. I let someone in, and the next thing you know they are doing freaking 10-30 under the f'ing limit. I don't know when '10 over' became '10-30 under', but it can swap back at any time.

It seems like 10 years ago everyone had somewhere to be and my fast driving was still slow in comparison. Now it seems like no one is in any rush, knows the speed limit, or even knows where they're going.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Yep. I had some soccer mom in a soulless SUV lose her #### at me the other day. We're on Stoney at the SE curve where there are just two lanes. I am passing a guy in the left lane doing about 112, again on a curve.

Out of nowhere crazy soccer mom comes up behind me like a bat out of hell and tailgates a mere few feet. I estimate she was doing 140.

I continue to pass the guy, throw on my signal to get back into the right lane, but she cuts in before I could do it and passes me on the right. She cut off the person I was passing aggressively.

I look over and she has both hands off the wheel flailing as she's yelling at me as she's passing me. Like absolutely losing her ####.

She passes and takes off doing 140 or 150km/h.

Entitlement indeed.

She must have been late for her spa appointment. You're supposed to know that and GTFO of the way. It's not her fault that her Netflix program didn't finish early enough!

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Johnny199r

Getting stuck in a fast food lineup behind a parent trying to practice having their young, overwhelmed kids try to order and back up the line. Also, asking your kid every detail, just order for them and save us all 15 minutes we’ll never get back.

Again, the main gear grinder is lack of awareness. I've had my young overwhelmed kids order and gone through the every detail charade. But usually when it's not busy, like 3pm, and especially not when someone else is in line!

[Fuzz]

She could have been rushing her injured child to the hospital in Calgary with the shortest wait times, becuase ambulances were 2 hours to LOL away.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

It seems like 10 years ago everyone had somewhere to be and my fast driving was still slow in comparison. Now it seems like no one is in any rush, knows the speed limit, or even knows where they're going.

I was heading EB on 9 Ave into downtown and a car from the 14 St. SB ramp was entering 9 Ave. I was about 4 or 5 car lengths behind them, and I needed to get into the left-most lane, so I throw my left signal on and anticipate pulling in behind them. They want to get into the far right lane so they put their right signal on.

As I am starting to move over behind them I have to hit the brakes as they proceed to come to a complete stop in the middle of 9 Ave so they can drive damn near perpendicular to the lanes to get into the right turn lane. I almost wore out the horn.

[DownInFlames]

The old adage is true. Good drivers sometimes miss their turn; bad drivers never do.

I’ve ranted before about the lack of skill and attention drivers display, and it’s especially frustrating with today’s vehicles being so large. The extra care required to drive them is lost on them.

It used to shock me to see someone signal after the light changed but it’s the norm for a lot of people. If they do signal before it’s probably right before the intersection. If I know which way you’re turning before you signal you’re doing it wrong. I give 5 flashes at minimum before a turn, and 3 before a lane change.

And lane discipline is not a thing. The number of times I’ve tried to turn in at a red light but can’t because people don’t know how to make room when they’re stopped is immeasurable. If the road isn’t straight as an arrow they can’t stay between the lines. I drive Bonaventure daily and make sure no one is beside me to avoid getting sideswiped.

People don’t zipper merge but they sure do try to squeeze in front of you because they were in the wrong lane that goes somewhere other than their way. I’ll let people in front of me most of the time, but if you’ve slowed right down, or even stopped, don’t expect me to do the same to accommodate you. It’s frustrating to see people change multiple lanes in a matter of feet because they didn’t notice their lane exits. The 4th Ave flyover is awful for this. The signage doesn’t help on that one.

The flyover also pisses me off because people will be in the right lane but once they’re on 4th they need to get over three lanes immediately to get on to 1st St. I’ll be so glad when the lower deck of the Centre St bridge is open again.

There’s no reason people can’t be doing 80 coming off SB Deerfoot onto WB Glenmore. Take the racing line in the exit ramp, people! It fun.

I could go on and on. This city is so easy to get around in but so many people can’t manage, or be bothered to pay attention enough, to do it without being a hinderance.

[GirlySports]

The ctrain here is so bad. There a track issue at McKnight and I'm delayed at 69th st station. I know it's the same blue line but come on.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

The old adage is true. Good drivers sometimes miss their turn; bad drivers never do.

I’ve ranted before about the lack of skill and attention drivers display, and it’s especially frustrating with today’s vehicles being so large. The extra care required to drive them is lost on them.

It used to shock me to see someone signal after the light changed but it’s the norm for a lot of people. If they do signal before it’s probably right before the intersection. If I know which way you’re turning before you signal you’re doing it wrong. I give 5 flashes at minimum before a turn, and 3 before a lane change.

And lane discipline is not a thing. The number of times I’ve tried to turn in at a red light but can’t because people don’t know how to make room when they’re stopped is immeasurable. If the road isn’t straight as an arrow they can’t stay between the lines. I drive Bonaventure daily and make sure no one is beside me to avoid getting sideswiped.

People don’t zipper merge but they sure do try to squeeze in front of you because they were in the wrong lane that goes somewhere other than their way. I’ll let people in front of me most of the time, but if you’ve slowed right down, or even stopped, don’t expect me to do the same to accommodate you. It’s frustrating to see people change multiple lanes in a matter of feet because they didn’t notice their lane exits. The 4th Ave flyover is awful for this. The signage doesn’t help on that one.

The flyover also pisses me off because people will be in the right lane but once they’re on 4th they need to get over three lanes immediately to get on to 1st St. I’ll be so glad when the lower deck of the Centre St bridge is open again.

There’s no reason people can’t be doing 80 coming off SB Deerfoot onto WB Glenmore. Take the racing line in the exit ramp, people! It fun.

I could go on and on. This city is so easy to get around in but so many people can’t manage, or be bothered to pay attention enough, to do it without being a hinderance.

It's almost a daily occurrence that I'm stopped to turn left at an intersection waiting several steamboats on an oncoming vehicle that doesn't have their signal lights on so I'm assuming they are going straight through, only for them to signal and turn left or right at the very last minute when they are in the action of turning. The lack of courtesy and respect for other drivers is so disappointing.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It's almost a daily occurrence that I'm stopped to turn left at an intersection waiting several steamboats on an oncoming vehicle that doesn't have their signal lights on so I'm assuming they are going straight through, only for them to signal and turn left or right at the very last minute when they are in the action of turning. The lack of courtesy and respect for other drivers is so disappointing.

What about drivers who don't activate the green light left turning signal? They stop so short of the crosswalk that it backs up 10 cars behind them.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It's almost a daily occurrence that I'm stopped to turn left at an intersection waiting several steamboats on an oncoming vehicle that doesn't have their signal lights on so I'm assuming they are going straight through, only for them to signal and turn left or right at the very last minute when they are in the action of turning. The lack of courtesy and respect for other drivers is so disappointing.

It is a lack of courtesy and respect from some for sure. Others it’s just a lack of knowledge, not knowing the simple things that can be done to move traffic along - safely.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

What about drivers who don't activate the green light left turning signal? They stop so short of the crosswalk that it backs up 10 cars behind them.

Oh yeah, gotta love those drivers who are so bad at judging distance/vehicle size that they are a car length or more off the stop line.

[topfiverecords]

4 way gridlock at a two way stop this morning at a generic single lane residential road near the school as some major idiot in their BMW sedan wouldn't drive their clear side of the road because there were parked cars and a school bus stopped at the stop sign the opposite way. I was a few cars behind the bus watching this unfold. There was enough room for a Yukon to get through but she was absolutely sure her BMW was 15' wide and was going to scrape both the bus and parked cars all the way down. The bus couldn't go because it was turning right and didn't have the radius since the curb lane was all blocked with construction pylons for no construction.

Everyone turning right and left to head our way sat until it was 30 cars deep until people finally started waving this idiot through. A couple could have walked, holding hands, around her car.

Then, finally the bus makes the turn and now and the rest of the cars move up to the stop sign. The car, one of those super little hatchbacks moves so far over from the pylons, scared that they're going to jump up and attack her, that no one turning in behind BMW can even fit between her and the parked cars so they're stuck in the intersection. She was further over than the edge of the bus was. What a riot!

Now two cars are in the intersection waiting for her to move, while 30 cars are backed up way. But hatchback lady won't go, because she has the stop sign and the other road has the right of way. She's so clueless that she's now the cause of the gridlock continuing. Finally everyone starts honking and waving out their windows. Epic stuff.