The other day, while I was driving to work, dodging aggressive drivers, slamming on the brakes to avoid a lane change collision (the other driver did put their signal on and didn’t even look over their shoulder), and… ya know, the usual drive to work. When something hit me, I began to wonder how driving here where I live, Salt Lake City, compares to driving in other places.
With over 1 million people living in the valley, the streets and highways become jammed with vehicles everyday. Everyday I am blown away (literally and figuratively) how people drive extremely dangerous and frightening in ways that include and are not limited to: speeding, neglecting the use of the turn signal during a lane change and/or not looking over their shoulder, speeding down the turn lane (Wikipedia: Turn Lane) or shoulder to the next light (usually only when traffic is backed up). Roadway rules state one cannot travel more than 100ft (30.5m). Continuing, running red lights, entering an intersection while pedestrians are crossing the street, violating right-of-way conduct, the list goes on… It’s not like it’s just a few drivers here and there, it seems like the majority of drivers do this. The worst is when you see someone working their way through traffic, as they pass you, you look over and it’s a parent with a car full of their kids. Wouldn’t that be considered child endangerment?
Anyway, I would like to know what it is like driving where you live. What you see daily that constantly amazes you. Oh, and if you are one of these insane drivers, please do us all a favor and settle, even if it’s just a little bit.
BTW, I’m considering doing a piece with the feedback I get from this thread…!
where I live, there’s almost no traffic by the time I get close to my house. I don’t have a single neighbor within a 1.3 mile radius and the roads are almost always icy or muddy (the roads are dirt and not asphalt) and the driving conditions are always terrible…that’s why I hate driving…
well i used to live in Ethiopia in East Africa which is also the highest road fatality rates in the world!!
To me it seems appauling because you cannot have a day where there is not a traffic accident…infact a person i used to know was killed while crossing a road…drinking and driving is a common thing im my country and usually brings deaths:( …i hope to help Ethiopia in many ways in the future if i have the money…
Driving here seems to have gotten a lot worse over the last couple of years. There are constantly potholes all over the place (when will someone invent good quality asphalt?!) that take forever to repair, and then half the city seems to be populated by Sunday drivers :rolleyes:. Then there’s also the rednecks with their raised trucks and hummers and whatnot who have to show everyone they can go faster than you. I guess that happens in most of North America though…
As a pedestrian (no car, no license, never bothered to get it, just walk everywhere), I must say the driving is just amazing here. People don’t look where they’re going, pay no attention to traffic signs, and think turn signals are for pussies. The right of way belongs to whoever has the biggest vehicle, regardless of who got there first or the color of the light. It seems convenient to be able to stop, go, or turn at red, yellow, or green lights. What of us pedestrians? Moving targets. Flies on the windshield. Speed bumps, even. And as a general rule of thumb, each parking space only gives you a third of the room you need, so make sure you take at least three. The more handicapped, the better.
Seeing as I’m not of th legal driving age, I use the bicycle to transport myself. Driving here is not too bad with one MAJOR exception. You have this long road connecting several towns and a lot of vehicles pass by. Not far from where I live there’s a shopping mall (sort of) next to that road. 500 meters away from both sides of this shopping mall is a railroad.
Now, trying to cross this road is a hell. No driver lets you cross the road and if you’re in bad luck, one of the railroads just went open again and cars are flooding from that side. Every few months an accident happens there, usually between a car and a two-wheeled vehicle and most of the time the person driving the two-wheeled vehicle dies.
Ignoring some refuse to use turn signals, others won’t let bicycles pass first (even when it’s raining like hell and the wind is clawing in your face and they are inside a comfortable, warm car and you’re on a f*cking bicycle).
Not much traffic where I live anyway. Brussels and Gent and the like are worse where that’s concerned.
Being a student in Ghent and living a like 7km from Ghent I mainly use the bicicle. In the morning on such a distance your sometimes even faster then cars. And when u enter Ghent the man with the bicicle is KING. You don’t have to start doing annything stupid but the cars are so accustomed to us bicicles that its chill to ride a bicicle in Ghent (kindof a shok when I read an article about bikes in NY and the US and how they were allmost seen as criminals and end up death most of the time). The only ones you have to look out for are the streetcars.
But its really a good town to ride with your bike. The accidents that happen (and they do) are mainly caused by drunk drivers and driver who speed.
Another way to slow the traffic is to have brothels along the way it’s really remarkable to see all the cars slow down when they pass one of the many windows allong the main road near my house (kortrijkse steenweg charlesworth probably knows it).
So I’d say depending on where you live most drivers aren’t suicidal. And most of them couldn’t cuzz each day we have traffic jams on like all highways so you can’t really do much dumb things.
FadieZ, I really liked Canada when I was there in the summer of 2005. Actually I was just barely in Canada, Langley to be exact. Not very far into the country but the difference was astounding. I really liked how everyone was really cool there!
valarking, I can’t count how many times I’ve been through Vegas and had wait in a traffic jam due to construction… Vegas is a mess!
Charlesworth999 & snelleeddy: I wish I could ride my bike to work and/or for transportation; however, a total of 30 miles everyday would be tough and I would have to get up very early… plus it is too cold this time of year. Though you can’t beat the gas mileage of a bicycle… lol.
Aorus: Everyone here has that attitude as well. Except you would replace raised trucks and hummers with SUVs and rednecks with families. (The local populace, in general, has large®, not fat-though to some extent that would be true-families, ie Mormons).
The other thing that stinks about all of the traffic is the pollution. Granted, we are not as bad and Los Angles; when we get an inversion the air gets pretty icky…
As you might already know there is no general speed limit on german autobahns. Meaning it’s far from useless to look in the rear view mirror from time to time even at a speed of 150 mph. There are cars and motorbikes which can go considerably faster than that. And sometimes they do. However i don’t feel like it being a warzone. It’s much more like driving on an aeroport runway.
