Category: Road Sage

f you want to play, you’ve got to pay. You won’t find this philosophy written in the margins of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, nor carved into the base of the Statue of Liberty, but it permeates most of our post-capitalist-midday-Marxist-pre-apocalypse society. Congestion…

There are trips and there are drives. Trips are made back and forth without much fanfare. You make a “trip” to the store. Drives leave an impression. Drives are tied to an occasion or special destination. You’ll always remember the first time you drove…

Visibility is a key issue. In cities such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, there are more charging stations than gas stations. You just don’t notice them because they’re smaller and spread out in parking garages and other locations. Mobile apps such as ChargeHub, Chargeway, ChargePoint and (bucking the “put-the-word-charge-in-your-name” trend) EVgo, help EV drivers locate the nearest charging station.

I’m referring to the “drifters,” motorists who, due to fatigue, distraction or ambivalence, drift from their vehicle’s lane into an adjoining one. Sometimes drivers glide slowly in and out, or absentmindedly straddle the hash marks and appropriate two lanes. At other times, they jerk…

For now, at least, in Ontario, the police are not allowed to stop pedestrians and ask them if their walk is essential or pull over cars and ask if it is really of the utmost importance for them to be on the road. They…

Nobody likes the driver who cuts in line when, as the Spice Girls once sung, two lanes become one. Is there any act more selfish, more asinine, more galling than the guy who noses in front of you after you’ve been waiting patiently for your turn? It happens all the time. Construction has closed a lane and drivers must merge. There are those who get into the remaining lane early and wait their turn and there are those who speed by, avoid the wait, and cut in line. We have names for these motorists – “creepers,” “cut-in-liners” and more colourful terms not suitable for a newspaper to publish.

Halloween is up for grabs this year. Like everything else, COVID-19 has put the kibosh on it. Will kids be allowed to trick or treat? Will candy-givers deliver their confections via drain pipe or hockey stick? Will somebody dress up as a sexy kitten?

Drivers neglect to remind themselves that fall is also one of the most dangerous times of year on the road. Blame the sun. In autumn, the sun is lower in the sky and this causes a more direct angle to its glare. The result?…

My friend attended a Toronto International Film Festival drive-in screening (thanks to COVID-19, in-theatre shows were not possible). She drove her recently purchased Audi. Everything went fine until it was time for the film to begin. Like many new cars, this one had headlights…

It’s only early autumn. Winter is coming. By the time the snow hits, the only people taking public transit will be those with no alternatives. They built bike lanes, though those are not exactly crowded, and only the diehards cycle during the winter. Driving…