Driving In Toronto

Do you know what I hate?

It's driving in Toronto.

Image above: @BlueBunnyBlog/Twitter from November 19, 2014 - Avenue Road, Toronto. 

I'm a good driver. I don't have any tickets, I don't swerve in and out of traffic. I will let cars change lanes in front of me if they are signaling to do so. I drive the speed limit and even more if that is what traffic around me dictates - keeping up without being stoopid.

I even keep my car in good shape, topped up - thanks Kelly's Garage in Etobicoke - tires filled… I even clean off the snow from my car so that it doesn't blow all over the cars behind me… you know… because I don't want to be an a$$shole.

Also… I don't (no longer) drive excessively fast… not that I could even if I wanted to.

Welcome to Toronto… a supposedly world-class North American city that now - infamously - has longer traffic commutes than even the oft-parodied Los Angeles.

Yeah… next time you see Hollywood or TVLand make fun of the pains of driving in LA, just know that it's worse in Toronto.

Plus we have snow.

Now.. we don't have as much snow in Toronto as say… Buffalo… or Minnesota - just two examples that come to mind… in fact, I wonder if we even have as much snow as Boston, Chicago or New York… you star athletes keep that in mind when choosing your destination - I'm talking to you NBA players! yeah… I'd rather play in Miami or someplace warm, too. Wimps.

I don't mind the cold. It's 24F this day, and I'm not wearing a sweater and I'm still wearing my spring jacket. It's Toronto and it's not really that bad yet.

Yesterday evening - Wednesday, November 20, 2014 - it was a nice brisk day… I went for a drive at lunch - just around the block because sometimes one has to clear the mind. No snow on the ground… nothing.

But… by 4PM, snow had fallen. Big whoop, I thought. How bad could it be?

Snow wise - no big deal… maybe two inches (five centimeters) - maybe three inches (7.5 cm).

Maybe.

I left work at 4:15PM.

I essentially drive on Highway 401 (4-lane), get off at Highway 409 (3-lane) (grand total of 20.5 kilometers), exit onto Martingrove Road (2 and then 1-lane) and drive the remaining seven or so kilometers to my house.

It's 27.5 kilometers. Not much.

Back in 1999 I first worked in the very same area (one street over).

Travel times (average):
1999: 20 minutes
2014: 40 minutes
November 19, 2014: 3 hours and five minutes. Yes… 185 minutes.

Take into account that the last bit of that ride - the 7.5 kilometers was done on city streets and only took about 15 minutes.

That means it took 170 minutes to drive 20 kilometers.

I'm not even going to talk about my bladder, suffice to say I did painfully walk up the stair of my house to get there in time.

Granted we had our first snowfall in Toronto - for fer crissakes it was only 5 centimeters (2-inches)!!!!!!

Look at the photo above... that was last night... not even any accumulation on the vehicles. 

I can't even blame construction - which is constant activity to prep for the games… Commonwealth? Pan Am? Whatever…

Olympics and World Championships… the rest is just a cash grab. You aren't even up against the best global athletes in many cases at events like the Pan Am Games or Commonwealth Games.

There were no accidents along my route. It was just traffic. 

Now… there was a salting truck on Highway 401 going westbound - but it was salting the shoulder.

I don't blame it… there was no need to salt the four-lane highway because there were NO snowplows doing their job - at least not in front of us.

Why should snowplows be on the road? It had only been snowing for three hours by the time I left work. Why would our already snarled highways need to be shoveled for the completely incorrectly termed "rush hour" commute.

We've elected a new mayor, but he doesn't take over for a while...

We still have another mayor, but he's in name only as he had most of his powers stripped away BEFORE the election owing to personal misconduct.

I don't even effing know who to complain to about the snowplow thing.

It doesn't matter.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Oh… It IS the Pan Am Games? When is it? July 2015? Good. Construction might ease up a bit by then… then again there might be more crowds (might)… but surely they will all take our superior city transportation system known as the TTC.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Sorry… I couldn't even type that with a straight face.

I still love Toronto for some reason but…

Don't move to Toronto.

Do you know what I hate?

Plenty of things, but let's stay on topic.

I hate…

Driving in Toronto.