Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Stupid drivers have returned

So fall is sort of more or less here, schools are now in session all over Calgary and people that have no clue how to drive in rush hour are out in full force. I understand the odd lapse of focus when driving specially in the morning as we have all done it but at this point in life people should know simple rules of the road be able to follow them.

We will start with last night, I was driving home from the football game it was almost 8 o'clock by the time I got up to my area of living and due to construction they have closed one side of the road and the other side is turned from two lane to one lane two way traffic. Once you get through that you have to turn into a community and follow a detour through the community and back into the main road. So as I am driving up the main road a red van is following just behind and to the right of me (I was in the left lane they were in the right lane, both lanes end as you have to move over and everyone that lives up here knows that as it has been like this for almost a month). I get to the area where it has turns to a two way traffic and move over, the red van swerves very badly (no turn signal) and pops in behind me. He uses no turn signals all the way through the detour even though you need to turn left, right, right and left. I came to a stop sign where you have to stop as vehicles can go straight from the other side or turn left or right to go around the construction zone plus dump trucks also come out of there. The red van speeds up and goes around me blowing through the stop sign and then takes a wide left turn cutting me off so I laid on my horn. I then follow him and he turns right on to the road that I turn on to as well. He slows down and rolls down his window and yells at me, I just drove past him but he speeds up to catch me and starts yelling again so I opened my window and he yells "What is your problem". I told him it was a stop sign and you are supposed to stop. He then says "What you want to teach me how to drive". I proceeded to leave the situation as I did not want to get into it with this guy. He followed me all the way to my house and then turned into the condos beside my home. I was a little disturbed that he now knows where I live and is obviously hot headed and can't drive but I will wait and see if anything happens with that.

Then we get to this morning. I am driving the kids to school and for the most part it goes pretty good, except for when I am on Bow trail at Sarcee, Bow trail is 3 lanes but after you cross Sarcee it turns into two lanes (shitty development by the City of Calgary). The problem is so many people don't want to wait in the two lanes so they flip to the third lane and then speed up and cut people off in the second lane as they have to get over in hurry. This causes traffic to slow down even more and comes close to causing accidents.
Once I drop the kids off at school I have to turn right on to 17th ave, I was stopped at a stop sign waiting for traffic to clear and then I see a person on a bike come up to the controlled cross walk, I think awesome he will hit lights and I can go. He hits the lights and a car blows through the cross walk just as he is about to enter. I think to myself well that was rude, he then enters and I am about to go then I see the fear on his face as a car slams on their breaks and almost hits them because they obviously don't see the large flashing yellow lights either. Once I am sure they have stopped I then go shaking my head at how dumb people are. I proceeded down 17th ave slowly as there is a lot of traffic and finally get to another controlled cross walk and a person is crossing, my side is moving so slowly not a big deal everyone is stopping as a person has hit the lights and is crossing, but on the other side no less than three cars blow right through the intersection while the person is crossing one almost hitting them. Again I am sure they just missed the large yellow blinking lights.

Finally I get downtown and I am crossing a road where cars turn left as it is from a one way to a one way. A guy just in front of me almost gets hit as a van not realizing people are crossing (even though several people are crossing) figures they can beat us. Luckily they stopped and no one got hit today.

I am just simply amazed how bad drivers are these days, no turn signals, not letting people cross the street even though pedestrians have the right of way and doing everything they can to cut other people off as they are way more important than the rest of us and have to get everywhere first.

If you are reading this please don't be one of these people, drive responsibly and maybe we will all get home and to work in one piece.

1 comment:

  1. Turn signals are way of communicating with other drivers what your intentions are!!!

    As Chan would say: ITS A BINDING CONTRACT once you use it!

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