Vancouver + Snow = Worst. Drivers. Ever.

Vancouver’s already got a bad reputation when it comes to drivers.  But, add snow to that mix and you get even worse drivers.  Everything just slows down so much, and people don’t use any common sense.  It snowed overnight again, but by morning a lot of the snow was mostly slush.  Slush is definitely still slippery.  Especially with the majority of people using all-season tires since we don’t usually get that much snow here.  But for some reason, instead of taking 7 minutes for me to get to work, it took me 50.

I normally take two major streets on my route that connect.  I think I made the mistake of staying in the left lane of the first street as there’ll be random drivers trying to turn left off of it.  Of course, turning left with snow/slush is slower with oncoming traffic being slower, and drivers not anticipating their turns.  So it took me about 25 minutes to get through that first street instead of about three.  To get to the second main street, I turn left off a left-turn signal lane from the first.  I think I had to sit through about four or five signals before it got to my turn.  During this time I saw drivers try to get through the lights when they turn orange, but again, of course, the light turns red by the time they slowly make it half-way through the intersection and therefore slowing up the next direction of cars to go through.

Onto the second main street.  When I made the turn, it was already backed up to the intersection.  So I just made it into the lane, however I had to cut to the second lane out of three instead of taking the inner lane, which I usually avoid doing ’cause I hate it when drivers automatically cut over to the middle lane without signalling or anything.  In the lane to my right there was a truck going really slow for some reason even though he didn’t have any cars in front of him for at least 50 feet or something.  Eventually when space cleared I managed to switch to the right lane and get off that main street to a smaller one which I hoped was going to have less traffic, but didn’t.

On this smaller street, again everyone was going slow.  I admit that the slush was compacted quite a bit and it was downhill, so if your tires sucked, you could’ve done some sliding.  The bus that was a few cars ahead of me was definitely sliding quite a bit.  Ironically, the quickest parts of the street to drive through (I think I hit 20 kilometers per hour) were the school zone and hospital area.  -_-  Finally, I was into work after.

Overall, I really hate Vancouver drivers.  I don’t claim to be the best driver, but I do think I’m one of the better drivers.  The following things piss me off:

1.)  Drivers running stop signs and red lights.
There have been multiple times where I’d get to a stop sign where no one else was at yet, and had I been there 5 seconds earlier and started to go, then someone going 70 kmph would definitely have t-boned me.  Regarding people running lights, I’ve seen two cars run a red light when it was definitely red while an ambulance was trying to go through the intersection with sirens on and everything.

2.) People who suck at parking.
Granted, sometimes I have my off-days and just can’t park for the life of me.  The other day I spotted an open spot a bit late as I was slowly driving and decided to try to pull in instead of backing in like I would prefer.  However I didn’t clear enough space for pulling in so after two or three attempts I gave up and ended up backing in (much easier too).  A woman who was standing at her car saw me attempting the pull in and probably thought I was one of those bad Asian drivers, and made hand motions about doing a bigger curve to pull in, but I didn’t want to reverse a whole bunch and create that curve ’cause I was lazy.  But, it wasn’t a busy lot so I wasn’t in anyone’s way, therefore what I did was only an embarrassment to myself.

I was at one of the malls in Richmond last year and the parking lot was just a horrible design.  There were spots all along the sides that are angled but if the traffic going in/out of the lot is backed up, then it’s tough for anyone to get out of their spot.  I was going up the first ramp and traffic stopped so I was stopped.  A car in a spot to the left of me (so there was me to the right, then the lane for opposing traffic, then the parking spots) was trying to back out.  He started to go, turning the car to the right, but then wouuld think he had no more room to continue to back out (he had at least a meter before hitting me), and end up pulling his car back into the spot to try again.  But instead of straightening his car out as he pulled back in to make for more space to back out, he’d pull back in the same angle he had pulled out.  His passenger in the back then rolled down her window and waved at me to move, but where the hell was I going to move to when traffic wasn’t going anywhere?

3.) People who don’t signal.
Like Clive Owen’s character ranted in Shoot ‘Em Up:  “I move my finger one inch to use my turn signal. Why are these assholes so lazy they can’t move their finger one fucking measly inch to drive more safely?”

4.) People who cut to the further lanes after a left turn.

5.) Slow drivers in the fast lane.

6.) Being a passenger when the driver isn’t very good…  Makes me nervous.

7.) Drivers who do something wrong, but have the audacity to think you’re the one who was wrong and honk at you.
The fact that they don’t realize that they did something wrong is what really annoys me because this means they won’t correct for the future.

8.) Drivers who use the horn excessively.
I wish there was a “quiet” horn though, ’cause sometimes you want to let the person in front of you know that they can go or something, but blasting a loud horn isn’t really polite.

9.) Drivers who block intersections.
Seriously, GTFO of the damn intersection. If you see the stop light for the pedestrian blinking, it means your light is going to turn orange soon, so don’t speed up! Or if traffic looks to be backed up at the other side of the intersection, stop and wait!

10.) And I also hate bicyclists who can’t decide whether they’re drivers or pedestrians.  It sucks getting to a 4-way stop and you think the cyclist who’s just getting there is going to stop at the line like a car, but instead he goes straight through as though he’s a pedestrian.  Make up your mind!

Posted by tastethehappy February 2008

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