Observations while driving in Toronto & The GTA.

After driving this streets and highways in and around the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) which is Niagara, London, Barrie, Kingston region of Southern Ontario I have some news on what I have seen these past ten years.

1. Passing on 400 series of highways is always done on the RIGHT hand lane. The left hand lane is reserved for those who are self described "I am too important to share the road or am too busy to think about how my driving skills are lacking."

2. There is zero difference between a person using a cellphone and a drunk while driving. These drivers don't signal, don't keep their speed or lane, don't see other drivers, and do cause accidents. Using a cell phone even hands free is not safe. Turn the cell off. Also you can't txt while stopped at a red light its still a ticket. The only time you can be texting while in the car is either while parked off the road, or while a passenger.

3.  Drivers enjoy the thrill and challenge of going from the far left lane into the off ramp at the last possible second while causes everybody behind them to slam on the brakes and cause a possible crash.

4. Fender benders block lanes. If you bump into another car then just pull over into the curb lane and then swap insurance etc. Stop blocking the live lane and causing a more dangerous situation. In some states its illegal to block a live lane if the cars involved can be driven off the road.

5. Trucks and other heavy equipment is NOT the cause of how slow the traffic is going. Truckers want to go as fast as possible in a safest possible way. We are professionals and though we all have our bad days, we are out here in traffic more than you are.

6.Speed limiters on Truck only causes more slow moving traffic and blocked lanes. Our provincial governments. Decided to limit trucks to 105kph. None of those politicians were or have ever driven a truck before. The end result is that trucks in an effort to pass other slower moving trucks are blocking our roads and making all traffic move slower. This might be a good result as speed kills.

7. Driver testing: All G class drivers once they have passed their final test are not tested again till they are 80. This needs to change. Did you know that all professional drivers Class A-F are tested every 5 years? These driver need to pass written and practical tests to keep their licence. We should start to pressure the government to force G class drivers to at least take a written test every 5 years. How often have you come to a set of lights and been confused about the signals? Do you really know what that sign means? Do you know how to safely navigate a "round a bout"?

There is so much a driver needs to learn and keep learning about the roads they are driving. Driving is VERY dangerous. Its a contact sport where we try not to hit each other, but when we do we can kill each other.

Driving is not for the faint of heart, the overly cautious or overly confident. Every day I am reminded how dangerous my job is.

We should be warned.

I had an idea when driving back from my wife's Aunts cottage....

We need to create a system where by if the person driving in front of you is doing a speed which is less or more than the posted speed limit it would flash up on the rear window.

We could have these messages:
+ 30 kph "I have a death wish and am going to take somebody out"
+ 20 kph "I am late and need to get there..."
+10 kph "I know this road, and know you are behind me."
0 kph "I know what I am doing, but need some space to drive safely."
-10 kph "I am just wondering around and not really thinking about what I am doing."
-20 kph "I am scared of driving and you should really be at home or riding in a cab."
-30 kph "I am either drunk, texting, yelling into my phone, or too scared. Please call the police"
-40 kph "Please push me off the road and call the Police"

I was thinking about this as driving along a road where the tire tracks were on bare asphlate and the person ahead of me was doing -30 around the corners and then speeding up to -20 on the straight parts and I was becoming annoyed with them and knew I would be safe at +10 driving. So the person cost me an extra 30min on my drive, and about $5.00 in fuel. Though I was safe and got home.

I did pass by about 4 wrecks in the ditch. But there were all single car accidents.

Giving out parking tickets???

So this past week I was getting more and more annoyed with 4-wheelers who parked in and around loading zones which would make it impossible for me to get loaded and unloaded at the shippers .... So I found online a site which you can get funny tickets to use for jokes... The ones I found were very insulting and nasty. I didn't want to be that mean. So I made my own tickets up and had them printed on neon orange paper at the local copy shop.

Friday I used 6 'tickets'. Four at a grocery store downtown Toronto. This store has a very narrow ramp for the trucks to back down to get unloaded. At the street level there is just enough space to back the truck into and open the rear doors before backing down the ramp. The truck and the ramp are very visible to the car passing that area. The problem is that there looks to be enough space for the truck to get out from the vantage place of the 4-wheelers who decide that they can park in the loading zone... marked by paint and sign age on the wall that its a loading zone and they can be ticketed for parking there. Yet people park there. Its not very close to the store entrance.

So of course while I was trying to back off the street and into the Loading Zone. two cars tried to park in the spot where I needed to go. I just pulled the horn and starting to back up. They moved away. once in the dock I walked back up and told two other cars that it was a loading zone and to find parking in back (which is closer to the store than the parking in front) they moved. I had grabbed a bunch of 'tickets' from the truck knowing that I would have to use them when I was trying to leave. After unloaded for all of 10min. I found three new cars parked in the loading zone. I walked up to each and made a show of witting the 'ticket' and then placing it under the wiper. By the third ticket was being issued. A lady with bags of food came running up to me and starting to plead with me about the ticket. She has no clue that its only the city parking authority who can give out tickets. She was freaking about another ticket which she could not afford.

I took pity on her, and told her that it was a joke ticket and that it is how I vent when people block trucks and myself from working.

What a great laugh!