You must not drive anywhere near Vancouver, Toronto, or most major US cities then. Calgary is definitely on the timid side of the scale in my experience
I've gotta say...almost everywhere else I've driven the level of...lets call it 'assertiveness' is a lot higher than Calgary and most of Canada.
Going all over the country, I'd say the craziest drivers are in Montreal.
Thats not to say 'terrible' or 'bad' just that they've got a place that they want to be and they're not going to lightly suffer having you in their way.
And even then...Montrealers are ##### cats compared to most of Europe.
An Italian will hit you and then reverse over your corpse to make sure, and then casually go about the rest of their day.
If the French see a pedestrian they wont even slow down so you'd better be nimble. They will hit you and then snatch your airborne baguette and never even look back.
Its their baguette now. Won gloriously in the heat of combat.
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I've gotta say...almost everywhere else I've driven the level of...lets call it 'assertiveness' is a lot higher than Calgary and most of Canada.
Going all over the country, I'd say the craziest drivers are in Montreal.
Thats not to say 'terrible' or 'bad' just that they've got a place that they want to be and they're not going to lightly suffer having you in their way.
And even then...Montrealers are ##### cats compared to most of Europe.
An Italian will hit you and then reverse over your corpse to make sure, and then casually go about the rest of their day.
If the French see a pedestrian they wont even slow down so you'd better be nimble. They will hit you and then snatch your airborne baguette and never even look back.
Its their baguette now. Won gloriously in the heat of combat.
Montréal drivers have that ... Latin passion about their driving. I got passed in Montréal on an on-ramp.
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Montréal drivers have that ... Latin passion about their driving. I got passed in Montréal on an on-ramp.
Sounds about right.
I spent some time in Montreal and it was an intriguing blend of that French 'Laissez-Faire' attitude of calmness and relaxation...and the Latin passion.
"I want to relax...and sip wine, but I WANT TO DO IT OVER THERE AND I NEED TO DO IT RIGHT NOW!!!!"
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If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
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In China if you aren't on your horn 10 times a minute you are going to get hit!
They definitely use the horn differently in Asia. It's very much an "I'm here! I'm here!" tool, while in North America it's a tool to tell someone that they're an idiot, or to #### off.
When I visited my wife's family in Vietnam, I was the white guy on a scooter in this video
I had experience on bikes in Thailand before that, but Ho Chi Minh is another level. If you're timid, you're not getting anywhere
It's way worse when you're just looking at it. I found once I was in it, it was actually quite logical. There still were several moments I thought I was about to die though.
In China if you aren't on your horn 10 times a minute you are going to get hit!
Yeah, but it's different because drivers use that as a form of communication there. It's not like North America where people are laying on the horn because they're mad or whatever.
Thanks ice storm. Just got power back after 22 plus hours. My whole town was out. Branches and trees littered the ground everywhere. My house is currently 59 degrees. Will take a while to warm up. Probably will have to throw out some food. What a mess.
This was many years ago but in Chicago, if you weren't already moving by the time your light turned green, you'd be honked at.
In Washington—as a pedestrian in a crosswalk—I'd get honked at by drivers making right turns on reds, even though I had a walk signal and thus the right of way.
You must not drive anywhere near Vancouver, Toronto, or most major US cities then. Calgary is definitely on the timid side of the scale in my experience
Agree 100%. I drove a lot in all major Canadian cities last year and Calgary is the only place where on perfectly bare and dry expressways/highways traffic moves 10 under the limit for no conceivable reason. How I'd assess it:
Vancouver: Fast but not overly aggressive
Montreal: Very aggressive but only moderately fast
Toronto: Very aggressive and fast
Calgary/Edmonton: Timid and slow
Speed in Vancouver/Richmond must be attributable to very little enforcement, because EVERYBODY goes 70 in a 50.
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Most places I visit, I enjoy the mentality of, "Do what you gotta do, but don't hit me or cause a situation where we might collide" type of thing. No horns when signaling and crossing 2-3 lanes to get onto an off ramp. Just other drivers adjusting speed and understanding.
Other Calgary bitch about driving in LA. I ####ing love driving out there, other than the fact Google maps and other map apps are inexplicably ####e vs Canada. I am unsure if this is more road design or whatever, but the phone will say I have a few miles to go randomly pause or freeze, then basically say, "Turn off here" and that's why I was signaling, making some type of loud noise and cutting across 2-3 lanes to get to where I need to be. Awesome.
Back on topic... today I saw the clearest snow dog I've ever seen in my life. Beautiful. Minus the fact I want to crawl back into bed because it's too cold and I'm feeling really sick.
Vancouver [drivers]: Fast but not overly aggressive
I've heard this before from others, but frankly I don't see it. In my experience the stereotypical Vancouverite driver is neither fast nor slow, neither aggressive nor passive, but rather on the whole woefully inept and incompetent. My overwhelming impression of Vancouverite drivers is not knowing where they're going nor what they're doing. Basic navigational skills and basic driving skills are just... bad.
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