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Peeve Patrol

By Marc Lostracco

24Nov09_driving_peeves.jpg
Photo by SirCharlie from the Torontoist Flickr pool.


A few weeks back, Toronto Police Traffic Services Sergeant Tim Burrows asked Twitter and Facebook followers to submit their Top Ten driving pet peeves [PDF].
According to Burrows, motorists not using their signals was the top peeve (and we’d have to agree), with curb/shoulder lane-cutters butting into second place. The inexplicable and dangerous practice of tailgating also irritates Toronto drivers, along with unsafe lane changes, left-lane dawdlers, slowpokes, and “cyclists who disobey the Highway Traffic Act.”
In the sergeant’s policey way, his own peeves were slightly different than the public’s, with impaired drivers being at the top of his personal list, followed by speeding or aggressive drivers. In response to “slow drivers” being a top pick by respondents, Burrows disagrees, reminding you reckless speed-demons that it might not be that they’re too slow, but rather that you’re too fast. Like the respondents, however, late left-turn signals “drive [him] nuts too,” because it destroys traffic flow.
Interestingly, the complaint about disobedient cyclists seems to be dismissed by Burrows, who insinuates that it’s a “degree of lawlessness” that doesn’t compare to more egregious infractions, but it was included because so many drivers complained about it. Now, if only we could get those who park in bike lanes properly ticketed and fined. Perhaps a Top Ten list of cycling peeves is on its way.

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Comments

  • http://undefined TokyoTuds

    I just read this and it is a good list. Indeed, I’d like to see a cyclists list of Top 10 Pet Peeves.

  • http://undefined spacejack

    #1 cycling peeve: getting run over by motorized vehicles.

  • http://undefined Peter K

    Stop cutting in and out of traffic, blowing through stop signs, squeezing passed cars on red lights, riding the wrong way on one way streets, and riding on the sidewalk and you’ll find the number of times you nearly get run over will go down dramatically.
    It’s time cyclists took some responsibility for what happens to them on the roads too and stop putting it all on drivers.
    …and as a pedestrian, I would have cyclists on the sidewalk right near the top of my list.

  • http://undefined Marc Lostracco

    A pedestrian peeve list too! It’s a peevestravaganza.

  • http://undefined Peter K

    Why do I feel like Andy Rooney all of a sudden?

  • http://undefined mark.

    How about a internet-commenter pet-peeve list?

  • http://undefined Peter K

    Okay. I’ll start:
    The Belgians…thinking their so great with their waffles and tasty tasty chocolate.

  • http://undefined sunnycuts

    No doubt the guy who “teaches” cyclists how to properly ride has got to be up there on a internet-commenter pet-peeve list. Might as well just copy and paste the peter k comment to every post on the internet about cycling.

  • http://paul.kishimoto.name Paul Kishimoto

    Ignoring Peter’s attempt to start an INTERBUTT FIGHT!!!111one, here are a few:

    • Rude overtaking. I don’t always stop at stop signs, but I always stop at red lights. In either case, I hate when another cyclist squeezes past me (stopped) in order to run the red/sign. Sometimes these people will actually yell or ring their bell or horn in complaint. Invariably they are not moving quickly, and I later have move into traffic to re-pass them.
    • Drivers who advance out of order at four-way stops, when I’ve also stopped and have the right of way.
    • Any cyclist doing two or more of the following simultaneously: riding at night without lights, riding without a helmet, riding two abreast on a narrow street, using a phone (texting, in some cases) while riding, riding with a latté in hand, running reds/stop signs.
    • Drivers who accelerate rapidly before passing me in the same lane.
    • TTC buses, dump/cement trucks, and other large vehicles that won’t share a lane, or do a half-lane change and return to my lane before they’ve fully passed me.
    • Drivers in gridlocked traffic who angle their wheels and inch towards the curb to close the curb lane when they see a cyclist in their right side mirror. This happens almost daily on Dufferin north of Finch.
  • http://undefined Peter K

    Your last point: they do that because the cyclist HAS NO LEGAL RIGHT to pass them on the curb lane.
    As a cyclist you also have no legal right to blow through those stop signs. That is the equivalent of a car going through and you can, and should, be subjected to the same penalties.

  • http://undefined mark.

    I propose that cyclists in Toronto follow all the legal rules to a ‘T’ for one week and watch the mayhem ensue

  • http://piorkowski.ca/ qviri

    Legal or not, they do it, and in cases where traffic is gridlocked and not moving anywhere, it is not unsafe and makes sense.
    All the (bad) drivers’ action accomplishes is force the cyclist up the curb for five metres and generate bad will. It does not make anyone safer, it does not make anyone less polluting, it doesn’t make for less congestion, and it doesn’t make anything more or less legal. Congratulations.

  • http://undefined yaz

    Agreed 100%.
    Also, cars using the bike line as their own personal lane.

  • http://undefined _K.

    Uhh, some clarification is needed here. A cyclist does have every legal right to pass a car in a curb lane, or any lane for that matter in exactly the same fashion as a car has the legal right to pass a cyclist in any lane. A major premise of the HTA is that cars and bicycles share the lane in the majority of normal trafffic situations. Any and all passing must be done safely and according to the HTA. It may be done by changing into a separate lane, but it is entirely legal to pass within a shared lane. Now as to whether the overtaking vehicle must always pull out to the left when passing within a shared lane, I believe that is the law. So your comment could state that the grid-locked car drivers on Dufferin north of Finch are just trying to be helpful by preventing a cyclist from passing illegally on the right in a shared lane and sending a helpful reminder that it is quite legal to pass on the left within a shared lane.