Bad driving in Burlington

Lorraine Sommerfeld

While it’s fun to write pieces about your top 10 driving pet peeves and terrible faux pas, I’ve been doing this long enough to know that nobody can ever agree at any given time. The fact is that the worst road mistakes are the ones that are happening in front of you right now. Many of us are cranky, impatient drivers, our roads are overcrowded and there is exactly one great driver on the road — you — and then there is everyone else.

While I try to dodge peak traffic periods when I can, my son recently started a job at the north end of Burlington, our home town. I drop him off or pick him up once in awhile, and therefore have to navigate all those places I try to stay away from, at the times I try to avoid.

Burlington has several notorious intersections. Large and multi-laned, they make rushed people do odd things. They make angry people do stupid things. And they make rushed, angry people do dangerous things.

There is a selective breed of driver I call Oops. Oops enters the intersection on a dying green or yellow light, even though Oops can see a long line of cars that will very obviously prevent Oops from ever clearing that intersection.

As the light goes red, Oops sits in the intersection, blocking all now-legal traffic from commencing in the opposite direction. Oops always, always clutches the steering wheel and stares straight ahead, because if Oops doesn’t see the mess he or she has created, then it doesn’t really exist.

It’s a stressful situation Oops has instigated, most notably for them. People honk and yell. Basic physics shows everyone that Oops can’t put a car where there is no space, and while space may be comprised of thin air, it can’t be created out of it. Someone must move, as the traffic signals continue their robotic carousel, oblivious to the drama playing out beneath them.

Because I think Oops is pretty much a passive aggressive idiot, I don’t play that game. My kid isn’t going to go anywhere if I’m delayed a couple of minutes. I stop before the intersection on a green when it’s obvious I won’t be able to clear it. This isn’t noble — it’s the law. And when everyone recognizes that, it works quite well.

Until, of course, Sneaker messes it all up. Making a right to join my lane of traffic, Sneaker knows exactly why I’m stopped on the green signal. But Sneaker figures this is a perfect time to wedge around the corner. After all, I’ve stopped to let them in, right? Wrong.

If there isn’t room for me, there isn’t room for Sneaker. The fact they are pretending they can bend their vehicle around the corner is lost on nobody, especially not the pedestrians who must now navigate through a crosswalk full of car. Again, both rude and illegal.

I’m always curious about stories that emerge after a power failure. Though I know it’s illegal (don’t try this at home, kids), when ordinary people take on point duty at busy intersections, I’ve watched as people obey. It’s not a uniform or a safety vest; it’s just Some Guy. Yet at a time you would think should produce the most chaos, the people who regularly risk offending an inanimate traffic signal respect Some Guy.

I like this. It reminds me we are capable of being good to each other even if we don’t always do it.

Lorraine Sommerfeld appears Mondays in Living and Saturdays in Wheels. Reach her at: www.lorraineonline.ca.

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