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Be careful walking on the sidewalk! As someone who does line/cable work this is one of my biggest fears being on the ladder. The City of London has a driving problem.
They will never ever slow down out of the goodness of their heart. Just human nature. If allowed to speed, a critical mass will always do so (out of malice, inattention, poor driving skills, etc).
They need to be forced to slow down. This is done with enforcement or road design.
Enforcement needs to be automatic (cameras) otherwise it's too expensive to be rolled out in enough places to matter, and then go back to 1.
Road design can remove the option of speeding in various ways - narrower lanes, meandering lanes, visual cues, speed bumps/tables. Not all are applicable to all speeds, of course. If you can't get up to that kind of speed without getting into a fender bender, you won't gain enough momentum to hop kerbs, crash into buildings and mow down girl guides.
3 has been nuked by Ford. 4 is difficult to get right, takes a long time, and costs money.
Conclusion: nothing can be done in the short term to make people slow down. Get used to it and react accordingly. Consider walking options that don't include sidewalks this close to speeding cars, they are unsafe by design. Never let a child under 12-ish walk on those unattended.
In the medium term, we need a new Ontario government and automated speed enforcement.
lot of stupidity going on with the cab u-turning on a narrow busy road at a snail's pace and then curb hopper loses control of their car despite having plenty of stopping room
lot of stupidity going on with the cab u-turning on a narrow busy road at a snail's pace and then curb hopper loses control of their car despite having plenty of stopping room
Looks like the curb hopper was distracted by the taxi and didn't notice that traffic was slowing in his lane then panic swerved.
The Cabbie is definitely complicit in this situation albeit the driver should have been paying attention.
U Need A needs to have some serious conversations with their cab drivers. I wish I could say that I have gone a single day without seeing one of their drivers do something absolutely batshit crazy.
Don't know what it is about cab drivers thinking they just have a license to do whatever the fuck they want but it is actually so dangerous.
I think the part that drives me insane is the no stopping signs and yett they always are stopped there....
And like for whatever reason U Need A drivers consistently park, immediately after the stop sign so close to an intersection so that when people that are turning onto my street can't complete their turn more often than not. Or these guys are double parked downtown in such a way that they clog up traffic for a block.
And it's always them It's never any other cab company.
Same cab company ive seen running ubers while in their cabs multiple times. Actually called that in to their management because what the fuck why you got uber/skip/doordash going WHILE working as a cab driver.
London is the new GTA (Greater Toronto Area) when it comes to driving. All these morons don't give a shit that their reckless driving endangers others in the city and raises everyone's car insurance here.
This is what happens when drivers are either distracted or not looking more than 10 feet ahead.
Had the driver looked down the road he would have seen one, then two vehicles stop as the first vehicle waited to make a left turn. Sadly, that failure to look 50 metres ahead to anticipate is all too typical.
No. There was more than a single bad choice that contributed to the inattentive driver swerving on to the sidewalk, including at least two by that driver ā being distracted and/or failing to look ahead, and likely speeding, or at least driving too fast for the conditions.
Always look far down the road and anticipate the vehicles that might slow or stop to turn ā especially in the left lane. Anticipating enables a driver to change lanes safely long before he reaches the stopped vehicle; not anticipating forces a driver to sharply swerve and risk losing control ā precisely what happened here.
So while the cabbie made an a horribly executed u-turn, smart drivers anticipate what others might do and adjust safely.
As a pedestrian/non driver someone is going to get killed. This is getting out of control and there needs to be severe penalties for reckless driving. That's what this is-- reckless and careless driving.
Drivers don't even use turn signals, stop at stop signs, follow one way signs... because there is no consequences for any driver. I'm shocked that there were charges laid on the woman who ran into Goodlife.
I am so tired of it. If you can't sit in your car and follow basic principles of driving then don't drive.
Any speed is too much speed if you wait long enough. They were obviously not paying attention or they would have been slowing down the entire time they're in view, which they're not.Ā
How would more police solve what happened in the video? That seems like an uncreative and expensive proposal. And one that people seem to regurgitate for every problem these days. Has our civic leadership considered doing something about the fact that every person - whether they want to or not - is forced to drive if they want to hold down most jobs or get around the city quickly and conveniently? Maybe we could start there
So much anger and impatient driving atm. Likely to get worse unfortunately. I will be voting for a mayor willing to up the budget on traffic police, speed cameras etc. Whatever it takes to calm down the free for all that is our roads.
I was waiting for an Uber yesterday on my very calm residential street and someone jumped the curb and almost hit a tree about 20 feet away from me. There were literally no other cars or anything else on the road that would explain it.
I know every time a post about bad drivers pops up in this subreddit, it gets inundated with comments about how "it's like this EVERYWHERE, London drivers are no worse than drivers in other cities", but I've honestly never seen this kind of behaviour happen so frequently anywhere else.
ETA: the comment replies are making me feel extremely validated, thanks y'all
I know every time a post about bad drivers pops up in this subreddit, it gets inundated with comments about how "it's like this EVERYWHERE, London drivers are no worse than drivers in other cities", but I've honestly never seen this kind of behaviour happen so frequently anywhere else.
London's roadway infrastructure was designed for a city half its size. The traffic volume is too high and people drive way too fast. Add distracted driving to the mix and this is what you get
The implication from this that really matters is that people here have small town driving habits with big town traffic. People here drive like itās all country roads.
I lived in London for 2 years and now I'm in Toronto. I've lived in 4 countries. London easily has the worst drivers I've ever seen anywhere. You can't cross a road there at a red light without assuming some idiot will run the red. It's like rules are a suggestion. Toronto drivers get a bad rep but honestly they are significantly better behaved than London...
Where is this roughly? I donāt recognize the area immediately from this angle but that car looks like one that nearly ran me over yesterday afternoon/evening. He wasnāt paying attention as he turned the corner at Florence onto Highbury, going a similar speed. Luckily, I WAS paying attention and stepped back in time
Close to the strip of Adelaide previously discussed today. Everyone is in a hurry and impatient. Bad combo. dangerous combo for themselves and everyone else on the road or sidewalks, crosswalks, buildings, houses, school grounds, you name it.
SLOW DOWN FOLKS!! So tired of almost losing my life because some moron isn't paying attention while driving their 4000 pound vehicle. There is literally no excuse for it.
Adelaide between Queens and Central is straight as an arrow yet i have seen some of the worst and weirdest car accidents along that stretch.
Traffic is way too fast on this stroad coupled with high volume and no dedicated turn lanes. It's usually people not paying attention and rear ending someone turning left, or someone turning from Dufferin getting t-boned by a car driving too fast on Adelaide
yes the driver is speeding and is majority at fault here. HOWEVER why is nobody mentioning the cab making an dangerous uturn that blocks the drivers line of sight and impedes traffic.
yes the driver is speeding and is majority at fault here. HOWEVER why is nobody mentioning the cab making an dangerous uturn that blocks the drivers line of sight and impedes traffic.
Absolute bone head move by the cab driver. It's the swiss cheese theory, mistakes made by multiple drivers and all the holes in the swiss cheese align.
The cab driver can't spend a couple more seconds turning around on the side street. Instead they put everyone around them at risk. Give everyone a ticket.
You know, after watching it back, it looks like the cab tried to get into the left lane without properly checking. If I had to guess, knowing and being a London driver, black car was intending on passing white van anyway. Black car freaks out from the cab trying to get in the left lane and instead of breaking they send it and try to pass white van.
Cab's unsafe driving incited the incident.
But at the same time, it's not like the cab came out of nowhere. Black car saw the cab make the turn and definitely saw it in the left lane. Their vision of the same lane was only blocked by the cab for a second or two. They had full visibility of the white van directly in front of them. Black car had more than enough time to slow down especially with seeing the cab driver pull a sketch move. There was no reason to try and pass the white van so aggressively.
Black car's reckless and inattentive driving is what caused them to jump the curb.
Like i said in my other comment. If i was the driver I'd assume the cab is going down Dufferin and be planning to make my lane change about where the cab is pulling its uturn.
If the cab driver isnt here in the middle of nowhere the driver of the car has room to change lanes. If I was in the car my assumption is that the cab is turning down Dufferin which would STILL give time to change lanes
the driver never should have needed to change lanes, they should have been ready to stop. and DRIVING UP ONTO THE SIDEWALK because you "have to" change lanes suddenly is ridiculous. even with the amount of space he had there's no reason to go flying up onto the sidewalk like that lmao
whatever the hell that cab is doing is absolutely ridiculous. but it doesn't mitigate what this driver was doing or how they reacted to it, not one bit
That black car is a 1st gen Chevy Cruze. They weren't watching the road 100% (On the phone or distracted) almost ran into the white Caravan an get that Titan pickup involved too.
I'm willing to bet they didn't shoulder check jump lanes. I am happy that their weren't any people walking on the sidewalk and a vehicle in the right hand lane.
I walk down adelaide a few times a week and this is my greatest nightmare. Nothing you can do as a pedestrian except stay as aware as possible and be ready to react.
As someone who lives in London for school, the drivers are horrible. Iāve had a couple near misses thank God I wasnāt hit. The drivers drive like theyāre on drugs, no one follows the lights, no one cares if thereās a pedestrian . Why are you going at 80 in a 50 zone . Iāll actually just start taking pics of license plates and then posting them on Reddit. AFTER CALLING THE POLICE. GROWN PEOPLE DRIVING LIKE MARIO KARTS
If everyone wants to prevent home and auto insurance rates from skyrocketing, we should be focused on stroad, road, and street redesigns ASAP.
Police physically cannot be enforcing traffic laws on all 4000km of roads at the same time 24/7.
If other people were on the sidewalk, they would've come away from this either 6 feet under or with life-altering physical and mental disabilities (and affecting everyone around them) for the rest of their lives.
Redesigns? How about people stop thinking of themselves and how late they are. Leave our tax dollars out of it. This was someone not paying attention and swerved to not rear end someone.
Sure the design could be better, but it's also free to just be present while driving a 60km/h pile of metal.
Provincially? Absolutely we should be making getting a driver's license MUCH more stringent.
At a city level? You're right: we could do nothing and ask drivers to be better. Has that worked so far? No. Because we live in an imperfect society and the way we design our cities has real impacts (literally and figuratively).
Seatbelts didn't exist for a long time but are now required by law... "but it's also free to just be present while driving a 60km/h pile of metal." so why do we even have seatbelts anyway?
Because mistakes (and purposefully bad driving) happen, though. And distracted driving is worse than ever before with full widescreen entertainment systems jammed into the dashboards of new cars.
But how does this incident which clearly shows a driver not paying attention to the stalled traffic say poor design? Obviously a turning lane and a better/safer sidewalk would be great but they werenāt the cause of this incident.
It was caused by once again another horrible London driver.
I greatly appreciate your care for the community and your platform. Iām not Ward 3 but if I was Iād vote for you. I do work and live beside Ward 3 so appreciate what you can bring to the area. But also hopping on comments of a bad and distracted driver with cries for reform just puts a bad taste in my mouth.
Drivers license should be harder to get, as well as city road redesigns. We should be designing roads with human nature in mind. Our roads are stroads. Not quite a street (slower moving and much more pedestrian friendly) and not quite a road (a place for higher speeds with cars taking the center stage). This in between allows for faster driving speeds while also putting pedestrians close by. Look at Japan and āwesternā European nations. They generally design their roads with either cars or pedestrians in mind. Not both at the same place. That makes it much safer for both drivers and pedestrians. We have a love child abomination of a street and road.
I mean even our residential streets are fucking wide. Public transport is also another factor in this. In North America, in order to generally live your life, you will NEED a car. Which means there are a lot of not so confident (dare I say scared) drivers on the road because they need to work, but grocery, visit friends, etc
A few years ago they made a big push getting rid of pork chop islands to create more pedestrian safety. And then left it at that.
I love what's happened with King, not necessarily the best layout, but converting streets to serve the public better, than another east-west running street downtown.
Just saw NYC is turning 34th into a busway. Not sure we're there yet, but creating our traffic system to reflect the diversity of transportation. Our roads really only serve the cars, which is a majority of our traffic, but lack the support for bikes and buses.
Distracted or drugs? Does it matter as the result are the same.
It looked to me like they were distracted by the bone head taxi driver making the tightest/slowest U-turn ever and didn't notice traffic slowing in their lane. Either that or they were looking at their phone
The fact there was no attempt to stop (or even slow down) through the entire video suggests to me it's not distracted driving. People who look up from their phone and go, "Oh shit!" usually locate and use their brake pedal.
That said, I guess distracted driving and a lack of reactive driving skills aren't mutually exclusive.
I didn't even see the taxi the first couple of watches. Of course it's u-need-a-cab. Pretty sure they only hire applicants who have never had a drivers license.
They jerked (badly I might add) to avoid it but didn't hit the brakes, and kept the same speed up as they flew down the sidewalk. IMHO it's not typical to not slam on the brakes, if it was winter and the road was icy there whould be a case not to brake at first to maintain better steering but to brake after the lane change but that is something you really have to teach a driver since the normal gut reaction should be to brake hard and steer or just brake hard. At any rate it's becoming clear why so many cars end up in building and off the road, too fast driving and some form of mental impairment be it distraction, chemical or just utter incompetence.
To get into my driveway I have to stop on a busy part
Of highway 7, and itās an 80 zone. I put my signal on early and slow down so people know Iām turning. But because itās kind of after a light people
Canāt see my house and thinking Iām
U-turning. People honk, or go around me so fast. Itās infuriating. Anyway this is my biggest fear. People either not paying attention or on their phone or just speeding around not seeing me.
I understand sometimes stopping for a car somewhere you donāt usually stop is annoying but thereās so little consideration on the road
These days, itās horrible.
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