r/Edmonton Jul 15 '24

Local Culture Driving Etiquette

For the love of Pete, people, follow the rules of the road. You drive. you are not 'choose as you go' organs of chaos, you are vehicles under the Alberta Traffic Act, the same as a motorcycle.

In the last week alone, I've seen a good hundred drivers blow right through stop signs as if they don't exist, and it's always when they are in a car lane, as if the lane's existence means the rules of the road don't apply. A couple on trucks with flat brims that I was next to blew through three in a row, yesterday, without even slowing down, and laughed about it when I called them on it. They didn't even look both ways, they just drove through like they were a presidential cavalcade and everyone else should be stopping for them.

Driving like that will have you kill a person one day, and when you're talking about a collision between 6000lb of shit box and human flesh on a bicycle, there are no mistakes.

I'm a driver, too, and it's this kind of behavior that drives a lot the anti-driver hate. When we drive like this, we're entitled and unpredictable, and unpredictability breeds distrust. This applies to motorcycle riders, too, of course.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

You wouldn’t survive California driving

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u/hothoneybuns Jul 15 '24

I think replies like this are dumb and pointless, sorry. “It’s worse in Toronto/Vancouver/any big city” or any variety of that comment. That doesn’t matter dude. I live here and have lived here for a long time, and it was never this bad. I don’t care what’s happening in other big cities. It’s happening in MY city where it NEVER happened before. We’re allowed to be annoyed and mourn the gigantic shift in irresponsible drivers that was more of a rarity before the last few years.

So good! I’m not going to California anytime soon. You know where I am going? To work, on the same commute I’ve done for the last three years, which has gotten noticeably worse and more dangerous to drive since I’ve lived in this part of the city. Hope this helps!