Getting on the highway near Oshawa on the 401 at 5:40 am in an attempt to be at Queen and River by 6:30 am for a conference, only to be greeted with a wall of traffic that crawled for 2 hours all the way to the DVP and Bayview Avenue. All the while watching four westbound GO trains pass you from the highway.
No crashes. No construction. Just volume. I have driven in before, also around the same time and never, ever, have I had such an experience.
If I didn't have to then go west, after the conference, for an appointment at 6pm that I had to keep, I would have exited the highway and driven to the nearest GO station.
I don't care what you car lovers profess about the benefits of privacy and comfort in personal space compared to shared space, two hours to get downtown when a train trip is less than an hour is not worth the aggravation and frustration.
Then again, the train can lose a wheel, be put out of service and also make a commute more than a hour. But at least I can read, sleep, play a game, stare out the window, read emails and write text messages without needing two hands on a wheel and eyes on a road.
cj, reading and sleeping aside, you need to learn how to make traffic more entertaining. 1. i've been texting and driving for the past 6 years, no accidents ... it's a skill i'm incredibly good at. sure there's a law (whatever, people still do it just like drinking and driving) but most people are so freaked out, they're the ones who cause accidents. 2. nothing beats being able to fart and belch when you need to and eating whatever you want and listening to the radio as loud as you want.
ReplyDeletei only ride go cuz my wife needs the car for her job which is east of the shwa, else i'd be driving. it's not like that everyday. just like go delays, hit or miss!
And you can't have se...oh, wait, Corridor Club. Nevermind!
ReplyDeleteA nice quiet train ride is always nice though. Especially when you get the entire car to yourself in the afternoon (shades of the Bramalea midday service...).
Lol @ texting and driving. Just wait for it. Maybe you should work on some other skills other than texting and driving. Put your talents to good use.
ReplyDeleteBricklaying, drywalling, plumbing ... these are skills. Texting and driving is a dangerous habit. You've been lucky nothing has happened to you yet. Thanks for the advice but that's a "skill" I prefer not to have, let alone master.
ReplyDeleteI drive a few days a week. Not so much because it's private and comfy, but because it is almost always faster and only $2 more than taking the GO. I'm in the inner 'burbs, though, where my drive to work is only 12k.
ReplyDeleteTexting and driving - it's not at all dang
ReplyDeleteTexting and driving - it's not at all dang
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY!
Texting and Driving are Illegal!! @Anon you are an asshat.
ReplyDeleteI don't text while driving but I still text when the light is red. Someone please explain how that's illegal???
ReplyDeleteI have to drive sometimes and it's a good hour and a half for a trip I could do in 30 minutes with no traffic. I don't know how people do it every day, I would much rather be on the train.
I agree with you, CJ.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather be surrounded by people and be able to nap and/or text and/or read and get to my destination relatively on time, then have to sit in my car and play 'Stop and Go'.
Thank goodness my hearing aids can be turned out. They're like built-in earplugs.
Texting and drving not dangerous?
ReplyDeleteAnd you have a five out of six chance of not getting shot while playing russian roulette.
Perhaps we could sit down and discuss this further over a case of beer and then drive ourselves home.
Great idea.
I will tell you, from experience and from common sense, that texting while stopped at a light or a stop sign is still dangerous.
ReplyDeleteSituational awareness is critical to every second you are behind that wheel. You are still susceptible to a collision even when stopped as the person flying down the road behind you engrossed in their own text message doesn't notice the red light, doesn't even see your stopped car. You, while engrossed in your own text message, have not looked once at your rearview mirror and you're oblivious to the danger behind you.
Those crucial seconds where you're looking at your phone means you have not planned your exit strategy, you have not analyzed where you are stopped in traffic and have no recourse for escaping impact.
Texting while stopped at stop signs and red lights also means you aren't looking out for wayward pedestrians who run across the intersection at the last second, or cyclists who ride in front of your car, because when you look up from your message to glance only at the light, your brain needs at least two seconds to switch gears and readjust to the situation it's now being asked to take in. So many things can go awry in two seconds.
I don't use my phone period when in my car. I shut it off when I unlock my doors. I have used my horn and rolled down my window to warn other drivers texting and pedestrian at lights and stop signs to pay attention to the road. I saw a woman step out in front of a car on Bay Street while the driver had his head bent down texting. He looked up, only looked at the light, saw it was green and stepped on the gas pedal. The woman got out of the way in time. Yes, she was stupid to do that but drivers have to be always on the look out, even when stopped.
I don't care if someone wants to be an asshole by texting and driving - if you want to put your own life in danger, fine. But don't put my safety and everyone else's safety in danger. You DO share the road you know.
ReplyDeletefirst time i've been compelled to comment. our 17 year old daughter was rear-ended while stopped at light. both her and her friend were texting at the time as witnesses did tell police she had her head bent down the whole time. this guy in a dumptruck was speeding along Audley in Ajax and experienced mechanical issues with his truck. he even blared his horn and still my daughter didn't register something was wrong because she was stopped. also, her friend said they had the music cranked. the impact pushed our Yaris 16 metres through the intersection. she was in the curb lane. if she had been watching her rearview she could have stepped on the gas and driven the car out onto the shoulder and out of harm's way. she's no longer driving as she's still traumatized and in rehab but i have to agree with cj. i was just as bad but you still have to watch traffic even when you're not moving...
ReplyDeleteWhile I totally agree that texting and driving is dangerous, it's not like I'm doing it at every red light or stop sign so yes I'm still gonna do it. Well at least until they start pulling over people that are driving around with their damn dogs on their lap or jumping all over the car!!!
ReplyDeleteI come from generation of NO seat belts, I still put mine on kicking and screaming.
@Ian, sorry about your daughter, I hope she'll be okay and get past this. I doubt though that a 17 year old and probably most of us would have had the wherewithall to react that quickly, easy to say we would, much hard to do it.
ReplyDeleteFYI - I had a horrible accident when I was 18 but my parents made me get back in their other car the very next day so that the fear wouldn't set-in.
I was going to say no problem with texting at a stop light, but Cj brings up some good points. It's been so long since young drivers I forgot about the possibility of being rear ended while stopped (Just happened to my sister inlaw recently) I am guilty of occasionally checking texts while driving and call me unskilled or a meathead but I do find it distracting when doing it. Even looking around the car for something that fell on the floor I have realized at times "if someone stepped into traffic while I was looking down even for 2 seconds, I would not even have the time to stop.
ReplyDeleteAs for pedestrians, I feel the onus is on them to make sure that drivers see them before they cross, I know ultimately pedestrians have the right of way, and if the worst did happen then the driver would be held responsible but if eye contact was made then there would be no "accident"
My mom is of the same generation. She won't wear a seatbelt but she's getting better. Thankfully, she has no idea how to send a text message let alone read one.
ReplyDeleteUnder the Ontario Traffic Act, a driver is not allowed to have an animal in their lap while driving and as much as I would love increased enforcement for all the stupid things drivers do that distract them from the road or interfere with the safe operation of a vehicle, I also don't want to live in a nanny-state. We're adults, the traffic act is online for everyone to read. When you sign your licence, you bind yourself to these rules.
I used to advocate, *tirelessly*, for road safety. I am certified carseat safety inspector; a nationally recognized speaker on the dangers of street racing, a member of the Canadian Road Safety Council, a trained driving instructor, a trained winter driver, have my collision-avoidance certification from two accredited driver's training centers and a member of two anti-drunk driving organizations. I ran a whole website about driver education. Right now, I'm burned out and on a sabbatical from it all for reasons I will keep to myself but let's say it was incredibly exhausting, emotionally draining and stressful. This website is what keeps me sane, believe it or not.
Just know that tons of research backs up the benefits of wearing seatbelts and I hope you reconsider how you feel about them. You don't ever want to know what it's like to be ejected through a windshield.
Part of my personal mission was to ensure that every new, young driver was trained with the wherewithal to know how to react in exactly the kind of situation Ian's daughter found herself in. Ian, I hope when your daughter is ready, you will consider advanced collision avoidance training for her. Please email me and I will put you in touch with a few instructors who offer these courses.
ReplyDeletehi cj
ReplyDeletecheck your inbox. ;)
texting and driving is dangerous, but mostly because the people people who crash while doing it can't properly drive to begin with. As long as you aren't writing a novel, you should be able to safely text now and then without veering out of control and crashing.. some people just can't do it and I assume these are the same people who say "its illegal" etc etc.
ReplyDeleteI often drive with my knees as well as text and drive. I have never had a accident in over a decade of driving an average of 29k/year.
No, no, C.J., I do wear a seatbelt, it just took A LOT of getting used to and to clarify, I might be a little younger than you mom ;-)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that about dogs, interesting and you are VERY educated in the driving world. I don't consider myself a perfect driver but I think I'm pretty good, I can only do so much about the idiots around me and sadly, there are waaaaaay too many of them.
Oooops meant "your mom"!
ReplyDeleteAnd one more thing, I know of people who scare the crap out of me when they say things like they are afraid of driving on the highway or in the rain or at night, etc. Then MAYBE you shouldn't drive at all!!! Driving is a privilege, not a right.
Hi Willy
ReplyDeleteThanks for the input. Some people make it through life by the skin of their teeth and you're definitely one of them and I do hope you play the lottery regularly.
I have a book I'm writing and hope to be done by the end of 2012. It's called "Driving at the speed of stupid" and will include stories from people like you.
CJ
ReplyDeleteYou're bloody brilliant. That was probably the best reply you've ever written to a troll so far.
Are you really writing a book?
Yes.
ReplyDeletejust googled cindy smith driving
ReplyDeletealso, what happened to the website eftdm
Hey Anonymous
ReplyDeleteIt's not a big deal or a secret. You can stop now. I'm on a self-imposed sabbatical. There's a facebook page too!
more on facebook
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=321742868860
Um, like I said ...
ReplyDeleteoooo... I so need to read that book when it is printed!
ReplyDeleteI don't text & drive. I had always refused to talk & drive as well. No matter how well you think you are driving you can always spot the a-hole who is doing either in a moving vehicle.
I am even one of those rare ones that will stop and wait before turning right on red. Only because I never know what the pedestrians are going to do. The number of times they are facing one way at an intersection, then switch and cross the other way is scary.
CJ a book about driving? i don't think you're qualified to write such a book seeing as you commute by train. Maybe you should write a book about how to play life safe until you're 80 and then regret it all.
ReplyDeleteYou should work for the Liberals if you lump everyone who texts and drives in the same category. Some people can do it just fine and other can't.
Willy,
ReplyDeleteThere are enough studies that have been conducted on enclosed tracks and in simulators that prove otherwise. You know this but don't care because nothing has happened to you, yet. And that's great. For now. It's all on YouTube and Google.
People pull it off because they haven't encountered a situation yet where the Grim Reaper has come along for the ride.
Those who say they're skilled texters and drivers get their asses handed to them at the workshops I've been to. Had one guy go so far to say that in 32 years of driving, he'd never had a kid cycle out between two parked cars in front of him so the situation we put him in where he did hit the hologram child wasn't realistic. Just cause it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
I'm not here to fight or argue with those who disagree with the studies that have been done. I gave the advocacy up because I can't do this anymore in this medium.
Good luck, Willy.