Tourists I tell you.

"gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee" (gogmorgo)
08/06/2017 at 12:07 • Filed to: None

Europpos take note if you’re ever driving in North America.

Cool Saab(s) I saw down in Waterton for your time.

I live in a tourist town. Naturally I’m exposed to lots of people under qualified to be driving their massive RV’s, people dawdling around lost and making terrible last minute dives without looking first, etc. And then there’s the people that will straight up peg the brakes and come to a complete stop (and sometimes reverse!) in the driving lanes of a 90km/h highway, ignoring blind corners, crests, and other traffic on the road, just to take a picture of something.

We have a lot of four-way stops as well. It’s to be expected that there are people who don’t know how they work, although generally you can tell and avoid too much chaos. But we also have a huge amount of international tourists as well, and apparently four-way stops don’t work the same way everywhere. One of my coworkers is Bulgarian, and recently told me that in Europe they aren’t “first-come first-serve unless two cars arrive at the same time (then yield to the right)”, it’s just “always yield to the right.” Four-way stops are made much worse when there’s a subset of drivers who think they’re using them correctly when they most definitely aren’t.

One other thing I’ve noticed is a refusal by some drivers to turn right on a red light. Although less dangerous than poking an RV into an intersection out of turn, this is hugely aggravating to me. But I do realize there are some jurisdictions even in North America where it’s unacceptable to turn on a red. (Looking at you Quebec).

Any other big or small difference in traffic conventions between jurisdictions that would be useful for travellers to know?

Last time I was driving in California I learned it’s acceptable to merge onto an interstate, cut accross two lanes of traffic, and then drive 5 mph under the limit in the left lane, and then brake check the very displeased guy who changed lanes specifically because he saw you merging at way too slow a speed and didn’t want to run into you but is now stuck behind you anyhow because traffic caught up on the right because you’re going 5mph under the limit. I refuse to replicate this behaviour.

Some official Lada propaganda for your time.

Right.

DISCUSSION (16)

X37.9XXS > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/06/2017 at 12:14

VERY IMPORTANT

If you have ANY interaction with our police forces in the lower 2/3 of North America

GROVEL

You will get over it

Your self-respect is not worth dying for

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > X37.9XXS
08/06/2017 at 12:19

In Europe?

X37.9XXS > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/06/2017 at 12:22

Europpos take note if you’re ever driving in North America.

Actually, I should edit it to just the lower part of North America.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > X37.9XXS
08/06/2017 at 12:34

Yeah. I definitely once got out of a ticket up here by repeatedly saying “no you’re wrong.” in an annoyed tone.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > X37.9XXS
08/06/2017 at 12:35

Also I opened the floor to suggestions from everywhere I thought. It definitely makes more sense now.

AndyG_UK > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/06/2017 at 13:51

4 way stops are just plain weird and we don’t have them in the UK, we stick a roundabout or traffic lights there if 2 major roads intersect. If one is a major and the other a minor road then the minor road will have stop\give ways and the major road will just go right through or if it’s a busy junction maybe traffic lights.

Cé hé sin > AndyG_UK
08/06/2017 at 15:19

If they’re the ones with a flashing red light aloft, I came across them totally out of the blue in America and couldn’t figure out what to do. I tended to wait and see if anyone else was going to move before proceeding gingerly.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Cé hé sin
08/06/2017 at 16:15

A flashing red light just indicates a stop sign. It’s mostly just to make them more visible in the dark out in the middle of nowhere, and should be treated as just a regular stop sign.

Alternatively if there’s a power failure to a set of traffic lights, they usually default to a flashing red, and you just treat the intersection as a four-way stop.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > AndyG_UK
08/06/2017 at 16:42

Roundabouts probably flow better, but they’re not super common over here.

pip bip - choose Corrour > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/07/2017 at 05:52

4 way stops? not down here.

unless you count traffic lights

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > pip bip - choose Corrour
08/07/2017 at 10:01

I’m not a huge fan of traffic lights that stop you in four ways at once. That brief intersection-clearing moment between directions excluded. Completely bringing traffic to a stop really screws with flow.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/07/2017 at 10:54

You live in Waterton? Neat. Well, sort of. I heard it was so busy there yesterday they were turning people away.

(I’m up in Lethbridge).

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > BaconSandwich is tasty.
08/07/2017 at 11:02

I actually don’t. I’m in Jasper. I’ve just managed to make my way down there a few times. It really wouldn’t surprise me if they were turning people away down there. It’s been a whole ton less busy up here than I expected, and that traffic’s got to be going somewhere. Waterton’s pretty tiny in comparison.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/08/2017 at 12:10

Interesting. My wife came across an article that said they were turning people away at the gate, as the park was “at capacity”. That’s the first time in the history of the park that’s ever happened.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > BaconSandwich is tasty.
08/08/2017 at 14:38

I’ve actually not been aware until that national parks had a capacity. And I’ve been working for Parks Canada for 5+ years.

I can see the campgrounds all being full, that happens a lot in smaller parks on busy weekends. I can also potentially see there being physically nowhere to park in town. But having the whole park at capacity, that’s a new one.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/08/2017 at 16:13

Yeah, new one to me too. The town itself does get crazy busy, with nowhere to park.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/calgary/waterton-national-park-closed-capacity-1.4237395