Probably dealt with in the Calgary Next thread, but I hope that they fix the horrible over/under/through/swirly pass that is Crowchild/Bow/Memorial. What nonsense that is. If you were new to the city, who knows where you would end up coming from downtown.
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It's important to note that this only ranks cities where Allstate has offices in Canada, so it doesn't include provinces with government-run auto insurance. It only includes cities in four Provinces: Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
There are 11 cities in Canada with populations over 500,000. Four of those (Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Quebec City) are in provinces not included on this list. The other 7 cities are: Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton, Mississauga, Brampton, and Hamilton.
This is the ranking of those 7 cities on the Allstate list:
Calgary (55)
Hamilton (58)
Mississauga (64)
Edmonton (66)
Toronto (69)
Brampton (75)
Ottawa (78)
In fact, you can expand the list to cities larger than 250,000 and Calgary still comes out on top. You actually have to go to Kitchener, Ontario (219,153 population in 2011 census) to find the largest city in Canada that is higher on the list than Calgary.
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Insisting on turning left in front of oncoming traffic who now have the green light, even though your own left-turn signal has changed to red.
As someone who drives SB Macleod every day, I always see someone (usually a big truck) try to fit in that left turn into Chinook, and almost always ends up blocking a lane of traffic, sometimes two.
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Well, after stuck behind someone who wouldn't move at a green light, as I passed her and saw a small dog in her lap, AND her texting, I can see why we have accidents...
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Well, after stuck behind someone who wouldn't move at a green light, as I passed her and saw a small dog in her lap, AND her texting, I can see why we have accidents...
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Could it be there are too many drivers? Calgary doesnt have a transit or car pool culture. Many single drivers drive to work everyday fighting each other
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Funny to read all the talk about aggressive Calgary drivers. After driving in the Middle East, I get soooo frustrated when I come home and have to deal with the ridiculous passivity Calgarians exhibit on the roads.
Speed up to merge? Nope, why, would that help?
Slowing down for green lights? Yep. A pedestrian might come...
Doing 90 in the left lane on Deerfoot? Why not? 100 is the MAXIMUM.
Overly polite waiting to see what others will do at stop signs? All the time!
I get frustrated with the ignorant, ultra-aggressive, flat-out rude driving in the UAE but it's pure pleasure after experiencing Calgary for a week or two. Polar opposites.
I often think about posting videos of the traffic here in Ulaanbaatar. It is orders of magnitude worse than Calgary. The only city that I have been to that can compare is Bangkok and Beijing circa 2000. Laws are barely a suggestion and the only way to get anywhere is to be a bigger a-hole than the next guy. When I get to come home and drive in Alberta it is an absolute joy. I don't think that comapring Calgary to the worst there is out there is exactly the best way to make a point, but everyone that thinks Calgary is terrible needs to realise that things could be much worse.
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Damn, I miss the days back when traffic wasn't even a concern.... so much space to drive, less stress ..ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
That's probably part of it. 15 years ago rush hour traffic lasted an hour. Outside of that traffic was never an issue. Now it is much busier, but people still think they have a right to move as quickly as they used to, so they drive aggressively to "achieve" that.
I have to admit when I am driving in the US or even other Canadian cities like Edmonton and Vancouver I usually find that I'm sticking out like a sore thumb because of the aggressive nature I drive. I consider myself a very good driver (never been in an accident outside of being rear ended twice) but it's pretty obvious that the aggressive nature of driving in this city does rub off on you.
Having lived in a few cities both in Canada and abroad I've found that the Calgary driving culture is aggressive and generally nerve-wracking.
People speed, tailgate, weave in and out of traffic, don't signal, don't make space and are generally 'on edge'. Which is funny because I've also found Calgarians to be really nice outside their cars. It may be a Dr.Jekyl/Mr.Hyde thing. Drivers in Calgary almost seem to be competitive on the roads. It's an odd dichotomy.
This is sometimes an adapted behaviour. When I was in Calgary, I found that if I needed to lane changed and signaled, the car in the next lane would just punch the gas to box me in, because god forbid someone gets in front of them. I found the same thing with Vancouver drivers.
The GTA is a nightmare to drive in as well, but I do find that people are more accommodating to lane changing and merging at least.
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I found driving here was good training for driving in Spain and Italy. I can't imagine surviving the roads there as a tentative person from elsewhere in North America. Overall I think its all pretty relative, driving here is largely passive and safe compared to the rest of the world.
It's important to note that this only ranks cities where Allstate has offices in Canada, so it doesn't include provinces with government-run auto insurance. It only includes cities in four Provinces: Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
There are 11 cities in Canada with populations over 500,000. Four of those (Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Quebec City) are in provinces not included on this list. The other 7 cities are: Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton, Mississauga, Brampton, and Hamilton.
This is the ranking of those 7 cities on the Allstate list:
Calgary (55)
Hamilton (58)
Mississauga (64)
Edmonton (66)
Toronto (69)
Brampton (75)
Ottawa (78)
In fact, you can expand the list to cities larger than 250,000 and Calgary still comes out on top. You actually have to go to Kitchener, Ontario (219,153 population in 2011 census) to find the largest city in Canada that is higher on the list than Calgary.
Can we change the thread title? Gotta love when the headline is the EXACT OPPOSITE of the facts.
Yup, in light of getback's awesome post, thread title should be changed to Calgary ranks one of the best for big city traffic transgressions. Talk about about BS reporting.
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People calling Calgary drivers aggressive should give driving in LA a whirl.
I personally love it. Everyone is on the same page there.
I find LA drivers are more polite than here.
Actually, the biggest difference I find is that people know the rules there (except when it rains, where they immediately all start to panic), and drivers here have no idea what the hell they're doing.
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They're nicer but they drive more aggressively I find. They just don't care that you cut them off and forced your way into their lane cause they'd do the same thing.
reading the above posts about other cities, is it too organized here? As in are there too many traffic lights and stop signs here?
if there were more merging passive drivers would learn that if they always let people go they'll never get anywhere.
I've been to Bangkok too, signalling is important and traffic just flows.
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