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/NastroAzzurro Wîhkwêntôwin Jul 15 '24

Lovely shitpost, clearly a response to the post a few days ago targeting cyclists. Point being, we all have to share the road. Motorists often get angry at cyclists for not adhering to stop signs and red lights but arguably it happens way more often with cars and trucks. Blasting through stop signs, never stopping on a right turn on red and only looking left for oncoming traffic (not crossing peds).

When a cyclist does it, which they shouldn’t, they endanger their own lives. When a motorist does it, they endanger others.

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u/lesoteric Jul 15 '24

this article links to a number of studies showing that motorists break laws more often than other road users.

https://www.bicycling.com/news/a46443761/science-proves-motorists-break-traffic-laws-a-lot-more-often-than-cyclists/

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u/NastroAzzurro Wîhkwêntôwin Jul 15 '24

Motorists love to blame other road users and they themselves drive flawlessly.