A Rant About Vehicles

I really hope that this blog does not become just a ranting arena. However, I really felt the need to address this issue.

I hate cars in the UK. I mean, I hated them in Toronto as well, but this is a worse, deeper, more abiding hatred.

Let me give you the background on this: In Calgary, if you are a car (and indeed, a driver) and if a pedestrian steps on the road as if to cross it, you stop for them. If a pedestrian even sort of slows down on the side of the highway, all cars would probably stop just in case they wanted to cross. Of course, this does have largely to do with the fact that if you do not stop for a person walking, or if you are start driving before the person has finished crossing the road then you will be charged a rather hefty fine. But I think it is more than that, I think it is more ingrained in us Canadians (or perhaps more in Albertans) to respect pedestrians. When I moved to Toronto I was a little bit shocked at the treatment that drivers had for walkers. Sometimes, cars would even *gasp* honk at pedestrians. What the fuck!?!? In fact, one of the moments I realized I had turned into one of the Toronto crazies was when a car loudly honked at me while I was crossing the road (when the little man sign was lit up!) and I just absolutely lost it. I stood there, in front of the car, in the middle of the crosswalk, in a huge Serpico moment screaming, “Fuck you! I am walking on this sidewalk! YOU ARE A CAR AND I AM A PERSON!!” and then I noticed people staring and angrily strode away. Anyway, even in Toronto you could obnoxiously walk in front of a car and they would begrudgingly stop for you. They would signal when turning and would stop at stop signs at the end of every corner and would sometimes even be nice enough to wait for you to cross before barreling their huge SUVs through (yes I am looking at you Rosedale! Who the hell needs an SUV in the middle of downtown Toronto anyway? Where are you even off-roading!?). Never would I imagine that one day I would long for the respect that Toronto drivers had towards pedestrians (Nina, I know you are shaking your head in disbelief!).

Now. In Aberdeen (and I’m pretty certain all of Scotland and further to that pretty much the whole of the UK…and probably the continent of Europe) every time you cross the road, walk near the road, think about walking across or near a road—you feel like you are taking your life into your own hands. Actually, it is the scariest goddamn thing you have ever encountered. And cars will honk at you, loudly and get all pissy when you decide to cross the road because for some reason you didn’t notice the speeding car that you couldn’t have possibly seen whizzing around a corner and not signally to turn for some unfathomable reason. Why in god’s name wouldn’t you know that that car was coming and that it wanted to go first? You stupid Canadian woman!

Anyway, basically my rant is thus:
Why, Scottish Drivers?? WHY DON’T YOU STOP FOR PEDESTRIANS? Nay! Why does it seem like you purposely try to HIT THEM at every turn?!? You honk, speed, don’t signal, seemingly drive faster when you see that someone is crossing, alarmingly veer into side streets and grocery stores with no warning whatsoever, as if you just offhandedly thought, oh yes, I probably should turn in there—pulling a hard left now! And, perhaps worst of all, you think you are in the right. You get comically appalled when I forget that there isn’t a stop sign at the end of every corner and just blithely amble on. You don’t even think about stopping, because, well why would you need to? After all, you are a car and I am a person and it’s not as if you would be hurt by the collision.

Can you tell I walk to work every morning and every afternoon for an hour each way? I dread, absolutely dread getting to a corner and having to make the decision—should I go? Should I not go? Will I be killed right now?
It’s all very disconcerting.

A minor aside, just so this isn’t all about a rant…although the word ‘rant’ is in the title…

There is this one part of my walk that crosses a bridge (the Bridge of Don maybe? Who knows…I’ve just asked my coworkers and yes, it is the Bridge of Don) and it really makes the whole ‘death defying’ walk thing worth it, especially in the morning. It goes over the river Don, but it opens up to this inlet (or outlet? Is that the right term?) which goes right into the North Sea. So after a long and agitating walk I get here and look out onto the waves crashing into the Scottish shore and I am kind of reminded why I am here and not at home, being respected on the road by Canadian vehicles. Just a little bit.