There’s a new TV show this fall featuring the worst Canadian drivers. I’m befuddled as to why the people described in the linked article are still on the road, at all. Is it because insurance companies can’t legally refuse to insure someone? Is it because our driver testing programs aren’t rigorous enough?
I know that here in Alberta, our bad driver problems have been caused, in part, by privatization. I had an opportunity to eavesdrop on two teens while riding the bus home from work last fall, and they were talking about which government licensed registry agencies to take a driving test at. Word gets around about the ones that are careful not to fail students and their business goes through the roof as a result. The licensed registries that actually do a good job of failing bad students are rewarded by having future customers go elsewhere once the news spreads. This is definitely one area where privitization failed. Badly.
Anyhow, what can we do to keep asshats who have no business being behind the wheel off our roads? My own preferred solutions includes bumper mounted gattling guns and heat seeking missiles that allow me to take out bad drivers.
I tried photon torpedoes once, but they kept burning out the brushes on my alternator.
lol!
I don’t know how many times I’ve said the same re; gattling guns!
This is one area (maybe the only area) where we could learn from Germany. The German driving exams and licensing is the most painful in the world. If you are not a stellar driver, you do not get a licence. Once you get a licence, you have proven you can actually drive. Therefore, highways without speed limits are not suicidal.
We could learn a lot. I watched about 20 mins of that show and had to turn it off before I hunted down that jackass in the red Pontiac and beat him to death with a hammer (legal disclaimer: I mean that figuratively, not literally. I’m generally not homicidal.)
Where’s the stats that new drivers in Alberta are worse than they were ten years ago, Sean? Do they exist?
I totally, totally reject your argument in the absence of better evidence than “something you heard on a bus”.
I took my driver’s exam through a government controlled office in Saskatoon. It was fairly tough and involved all the normal traffic & roads.
Of course, I could have done what many of my friends did which was go to the SGI office in a nearby small town to take the test. One stop sign, no other cars to parallel park behind etc. If you showed up sober you could pass. A government system is not necessarily the answer.
Amazing and very scary I could’nt watch those retards race.
Please, if there is a road god, take them straight to hell and spare the innocent.
Here are some stats, but they can be interpreted in a multitude of ways:
http://www.ama.ab.ca/advocacy/traffic_progress_reportS04_3F.pdf
What I can tell you, annecdotal though it may be, was that when I started driving 21 years ago I didn’t crest hills hovering by the breakdown lane because there is a 50/50 chance some dumb arse in a pickup is in the middle of an illegal lane change in my lane. This is something I have to do regularly now, and it’s save my life since August.
When I was about 17 we used to practice 360s in the parking lot of the Jubilee Auditorium, at three in the morning in the middle of the week in February, when the ice saved the tires and the desolation kept campus security at bay.
It is possible that the reflexive skill I learned there saved my life twice, once when some idiot tried to pass in one-lane traffic during a white-out on highway two just north of Red Deer, and once when my steering started to fail on the south-bound entrance to the fifth street bridge.
Turn the wheel into the skid they say. Nonsense, there’s no time to think in the middle of a skid. I want new drivers to practice that maneuver on a ball-bearing race track until it’s natural.
And don’t get me started on traffic circles. If you can’t pirouette through a traffic circle, I don’t think you should have a drivers license.
But you try and tell the young people today that… and they won’t believe ya’. http://tinyurl.com/dzr2g
Germany’s licensing system is also one of (if not the) most expensive in the world. We’re talking $1,000+ just to get your license. BUT, once you have it, it’s a for-life thing.
One comment I must make is that everyone seems to think the other guy is the bad driver. I’ve listened to people who regularly drive with a cellphone in one hand, gear shifter in the other (knees on the steering wheel) complain about “the idiot who didn’t signal his lane change”. Duh.
I’m not for re-road-testing every 5 years, since some people just freeze right up in driving tests (and it would just be an excuse for our government here in Ontario to collect another $75 each).
— Steve
Ohh, and we could use more traffic circles.
I consider myself an excellent driver, drives my wife nuts when she is giving me directions. I want the direction spelled out to me 5km away from the next turn so I can concentrate on the driving and not looking around at the street signs. Been driving for 15 years and have not had a accident yet (knock on wood). Unlike most city drivers, I have spent many winters up north driving in near white-out conditions. Eash winter, when the first snow hits, I hit the local mall parking lot to practice my lockups, and threashold braking. Last winter a cop caught me doing this at 3 in the morning, after explaining what I was doing, he was actually impressed that I got out of bed in the middle of the night just to do a little pre-season practice. I did admit to him that I also found it fun to ripping around. When I decided I had enough and was going to hit the coffee shop, I passed the cop on the otherside of the mall, he was doing the same thing, LOL.
I watch that show, and I couldn’t believe how bad some of these people were. At least some of them know they are bad and are trying to improve. The others who were willing to make up excuses and the ones (that lady from Alberta) should have their liciences pulled. That speed demon ass-hole drive should be charged, but maybe he learned his lesson, he wsn’t a bad driver, it was just his extremely poor attitude and sence of responcibility while on the road his actions criminal.
Any bets on who is going to Canada’s worst driver?
The show is very funny, in a very scary sort of way
Prior to moving to Edmonton in the early 1990’s I commuted from London to Toronto for 2 years through the infamous “death alley” on the 401. In my first 6 months in Alberta I witnessed more accidents than I had seen in the previous 30 years.
The wisdom of Dave Barry:
“The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.”
Link
And note that Mike S’ anecdote would see to indict the pre-private system in Alberta, since it came in in 1993 (94?).
Can a 40mm grenade launcher be mounted on the handlebars of a motorcycle? How far away from the target do you have to be, to avoid the frag? (Here in Toronto, the fuzz are dealing with around 70,000 REPORTED CAR ACCIDENTS a year- so don’t expect much of an ‘investigation’ if somebody whacks you here.)
(Even less- if the cow who hits you, (parked in a driveway, waiting to enter the road), hikes up her skirt and shows some leg to the cop You called to investigate!)
And I thought I was the only one to practice “low traction” driving in snowy parking lots. When the skid happens, it is too late to remember some theory you might have heard some years before. You must react, and not think about what to do. Think ahead; many “oh s**t” moments happen when people run out of space and ideas at the same time. (Learning to drive on gravel roads and some stock car racing helps also.)
I use to love road rallies in my stock Miata (well I did add to the frame and supension a bit, and tinkered with the timing to get 20% more hp in bottom 50% or the rmp scale) Best driving was on the old dirt gravel roads in SW Ontario and on the Bruce. Taking corners sideways and still in control. The only thing bad about the Miata was it truly sucked in the snow, not even good snow tires were much help. Never won a rally, never came close, but had lots of fun and the driving experience is worth it’s weight in gold.
Personally, I think retesting should be mandatory at least every five years for all drivers. I wonder how something would stand up against a court challenge in a country like ours, though. I mean, hell….is there anything in Canada that isn’t considered a Basic Human Right up here?
I would put radar detectors on every street corner.The idiots might get 4 or 5 tickets on the way to the grocery store and 4 or 5 on the way home. The ticket@75.00ea or750 they won,t speed long
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