It seems I'm not the only Auto123.com writer who's faced the wrath of back-to-school traffic these last few weeks. Montreal traffic is already God awful, so the prospect of stressed-to-the-max parents piloting their cars with emo-powered teens skulking in the back seat, and toddlers screaming for their blankies as passengers in the cars around me added to the mess, and frankly scared the poop out of me.
It was with a heavy heart and much deep breathing that I took to the roads, ready to tackle the worst of it all. And the worst came.
There's something about change that gets people all uppity and unreliable. The saying “a bee in her bonnet” isn't far from the truth when you look at back-to-school traffic. There's something truly chaotic, haphazard and buzzy about it all; and as an “outsider” sans grouchy children and a day-care schedule to follow, I'd like to offer some advice:
How about we all work together on this one?
I've heard that Quebec (Montreal in particular) has the most aggressive drivers in Canada. God knows where we get that stereotype (says she who drives with one thumb poised on the horn at all times, just in case someone needs to learn a lesson), but we've got it. And back-to-school time is the perfect time to showcase our rage, apparently.
From riding bumpers just centimetres away so fellow cars can't merge to rash, abrupt lane changes and aggressive acceleration just to “make a point”, we do it all, and we do it with a glare and probably a few profanities thrown in for good measure. But why? We're all in this together. Your fellow motorists are not the enemies, although you may hate them all.
My husband often chastises me when I berate fender-bender-ers for causing traffic delays. I throw around adjectives like “idiot” and “dummy” and wonder why people can't pay more attention to their surroundings. And he'll calmly tell me it could happen to anyone. Pff, yeah right. That's why it was a beige Corolla at the front of the pile-up pack...
And that proves that I'm just a part of the problem. On a daily basis I have to remind myself that everyone around me on the road is feeling as frustrated as I am. They are not out to make my life a living hell (though it might feel that way) and they are not the ones who are pushing on my bladder and causing me to panic at the red lights up ahead.
Imagine we all took a moment to consider those around us? Every morning I make it a point to leave space between myself and the car in front of me. I rarely ride my brakes and hate to stop-and-go. This allows a kind of zipper effect to take place and helps traffic move more smoothly (at least around me). I signal all the time, and I try my best not to cut anyone off unless it's a life-or-death situation (read: I needed to get to the Tim Horton's drive-thru lane and you were clearly in my way, so you deserved that).
We cause traffic. We are the reason we're late for work, the reason we miss meetings, use bottles as urinals and break buttons on our radios thanks to crappy music. We're constantly fighting each other on the road and so wecause more problems than poor infrastructure and volume already has.
If we added courtesy and a bit of etiquette to our daily rush-hour commutes, I bet we could shave our drive times down by at least half. Shall we give it a go?
It was with a heavy heart and much deep breathing that I took to the roads, ready to tackle the worst of it all. And the worst came.
There's something about change that gets people all uppity and unreliable. The saying “a bee in her bonnet” isn't far from the truth when you look at back-to-school traffic. There's something truly chaotic, haphazard and buzzy about it all; and as an “outsider” sans grouchy children and a day-care schedule to follow, I'd like to offer some advice:
How about we all work together on this one?
I've heard that Quebec (Montreal in particular) has the most aggressive drivers in Canada. God knows where we get that stereotype (says she who drives with one thumb poised on the horn at all times, just in case someone needs to learn a lesson), but we've got it. And back-to-school time is the perfect time to showcase our rage, apparently.
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From riding bumpers just centimetres away so fellow cars can't merge to rash, abrupt lane changes and aggressive acceleration just to “make a point”, we do it all, and we do it with a glare and probably a few profanities thrown in for good measure. But why? We're all in this together. Your fellow motorists are not the enemies, although you may hate them all.
My husband often chastises me when I berate fender-bender-ers for causing traffic delays. I throw around adjectives like “idiot” and “dummy” and wonder why people can't pay more attention to their surroundings. And he'll calmly tell me it could happen to anyone. Pff, yeah right. That's why it was a beige Corolla at the front of the pile-up pack...
And that proves that I'm just a part of the problem. On a daily basis I have to remind myself that everyone around me on the road is feeling as frustrated as I am. They are not out to make my life a living hell (though it might feel that way) and they are not the ones who are pushing on my bladder and causing me to panic at the red lights up ahead.
Imagine we all took a moment to consider those around us? Every morning I make it a point to leave space between myself and the car in front of me. I rarely ride my brakes and hate to stop-and-go. This allows a kind of zipper effect to take place and helps traffic move more smoothly (at least around me). I signal all the time, and I try my best not to cut anyone off unless it's a life-or-death situation (read: I needed to get to the Tim Horton's drive-thru lane and you were clearly in my way, so you deserved that).
We cause traffic. We are the reason we're late for work, the reason we miss meetings, use bottles as urinals and break buttons on our radios thanks to crappy music. We're constantly fighting each other on the road and so wecause more problems than poor infrastructure and volume already has.
If we added courtesy and a bit of etiquette to our daily rush-hour commutes, I bet we could shave our drive times down by at least half. Shall we give it a go?