You're not from around here

So my sister sat down for lunch yesterday in Toronto with two visitors from the States. (One is from Atlanta, the other I don't know.) She asked how their visit was going. They said it was fine, except for "the Canadian squeeze thing."

My sister was pretty sure there wasn't an outbreak of hugging in the office, so she asked what they were talking about. It turned out that when a traffic lane ends, we say "Squeeze left," or whatever, when they expect to be told to merge. (We save "merge" for when two traffic streams come together, like on an expressway ramp.)

Once they figured out how and when to squeeze, they then had to deal with how Canadians merge.

"We're used to driving full speed to the very end of the ramp and then giving people the finger until they let us in. But y'all start looking over your shoulder as soon as you can, and waving at each other, and smiling, and letting people in ahead of you – it's weird. Y'all are too friendly."

The other American agreed that Canadian drivers are unsettlingly nice, most of the time, but... "If you screw up that flashing green light (and what IS that, anyway?), they will HONK your ass DOWN!"

I suppose it goes both ways.. if someone from Canada were to lap I-285 around Atlanta, they would be just as befuddled.

I've also found it true that Canucks are generally much nicer than 'Mercans. Almost annoyingly so.

Not that that's a bad thing...

Margaret Atwood once described the Can-Am border as the world\s largest one-way mirror. Things may look the same, but . ..

I've never found Americans anything but friendly. Even the one time when travelling from ON to FLA, and we reached Virginia. Thinking I should wash all the salt and grime off the car, I tried to purchase a car wash (it was 10 degrees Celscius, or 50 degrees Fahrenheit) and the attendant told me it was "much too cold" to wash a car. I was wearing shorts and a tee at the time

NYG95GA wrote: I suppose it goes both ways.. if someone from Canada were to lap I-285 around Atlanta, they would be just as befuddled. I've also found it true that Canucks are generally much nicer than 'Mercans. Almost annoyingly so. Not that that's a bad thing...

Very sorry about that.

Wierdest thing about driving in Toronto ("on Canada," it's like a whole other planet) is that after the light turns red, TWO MORE CARS CAN TURN LEFT.

My parents are going to be in Toronto tomorrow to drop my daughter at the airport. They are leaving the boat in Peterborough and driving to Toronto. They are having a blast in Canada. Mom is already talking about another trip up there.

I'm glad they're having a blast, but, believe me, leaving the boat in Peterborough if they are heading for the Toronto airport is the best idea they have ever had, period, including deciding to get married. And tell them to keep their eyes open for abrupt and unnecessary speed limit reductions on the airport property, because the airport cops have basically nothing to do except traffic control, and they have been known to go slightly crazy with speed enforcement.

And Dr. Hess: too much traffic + not enough streets & traffic lanes = you do what you have to do. I'm not defending it, and it's gotten a LOT worse in the last few years, but yes, Toronto drivers do take advantage of the red-both-ways delay to get around their left turns. Red-light cameras are being installed in more and more intersections, however, and I'm all in favour, so long as the authorities don't play dumbass games with shorter yellows in order to increase revenues.

You said it wrong...

Where I'm from it's, "Yall aint from 'round here, is 'ya?"

I get that a lot...

Toyman, I live in Peterborough. Where are they leaving the boat?

Blinking green light?

Advanced green - it's like a turn arrow. I didn't even notice they weren't in the US until my wife asked what it meant on our trip to Ottawa a few weeks back.

I found the merging behaviour of Canadian drivers is exemplary out west, and it gets worse and worse as you head east towards Toronto. Ugly driving in TO compared to the rest of the country. I've always said that if you're cut off in Montreal, it was done on purpose and the other driver knew exactly what they were doing. If you're cut off in Toronto, it's because the other driver has no clue you're there.

Dr. Hess wrote: Wierdest thing about driving in Toronto ("on Canada," it's like a whole other planet) is that after the light turns red, TWO MORE CARS CAN TURN LEFT.

You ever drive in Chicago? My dad was telling me with my learners permit "Stop at the line, but after a few weeks of driving you'll realize that really 3-4 more cars can get through after its turned red".

Atlanta has a serious problem with people trying to get on the highway at 50mph while the traffic is moving at 70 (or more).

I thought it was something genetic to the local makeup, untill my vacation in California a couple of weeks ago. Tried to get on the 101 South out of Paso Robles, and had to catch the back of the rental SUV swinging around while on the brakes because the moron in front of me slowed to about 30 or so. Yeah, the twitch wasn't much more than about 25 degrees or so, but I was still surprised that catching one even that small was so "automatic" for me.

Lucky for me, there was a shoulder wide enough to pass the idiot on the right side of the ramp (once I got the damn thing straight again), and we spent the rest of that day doing Happy Tourist Family stuff, instead of trying to tell Avis why the thing was coming back on a flat-bed.

OTOH, my family (Mom, Aunt, Daughter, Sister, Bro-in-law, and niece..having something that would carry that many butts in the car at the same time is why we rented the SUV in the first place) is finally, after all these years, tempted to consider that all my "racing crap" might have actually been a good influence upon my life..

Keith wrote: Advanced green - it's like a turn arrow. I didn't even notice they weren't in the US until my wife asked what it meant on our trip to Ottawa a few weeks back. I found the merging behaviour of Canadian drivers is exemplary out west, and it gets worse and worse as you head east towards Toronto. Ugly driving in TO compared to the rest of the country. I've always said that if you're cut off in Montreal, it was done on purpose and the other driver knew exactly what they were doing. If you're cut off in Toronto, it's because the other driver has no clue you're there.

So true... you can guarantee that someone will freaking stop on an on-ramp and wait til a break in traffic to merge.

I can say undeniably not all Canadians are so nice. The ex Mrs. Mini was from Sudbury and no one would ever confuse her with a "nice" Canadian.

ZOO wrote: Margaret Atwood once described the Can-Am border as the world\s largest one-way mirror. Things may look the same, but . .. I've never found Americans anything but friendly. Even the one time when travelling from ON to FLA, and we reached Virginia. Thinking I should wash all the salt and grime off the car, I tried to purchase a car wash (it was 10 degrees Celscius, or 50 degrees Fahrenheit) and the attendant told me it was "much too cold" to wash a car. I was wearing shorts and a tee at the time

Oh about 20-30 years ago , the Canadians would take over Myrtle Beach in the winter when it would otherwise be dead. These crazy folks would go swimming in the ocean in the middle of the winter. We were amazed. Now MB goes year round.

Lesley wrote: So true... you can guarantee that someone will freaking stop on an on-ramp and wait til a break in traffic to merge.

Or even worse than that, people already on the highway that slow down to let people in.

The red light left turn thing is new to me, but lately I've noticed that people sit in the intersection waiting for the red light, then they turn. Meanwhile, they could have turned half a dozen times while the light was green.

Just as annoying is people waiting at an intersection for the light to turn green so thay can turn right. Everyday I have to honk at somebody to get them to move.

I was in North Carolina about 10 years ago and seen this flashing blue light come flying up behind me. My first thought was " Man! That snowplow is moving!"

In Canada the flashing blue light used to be strictly for snow removal vehicles.

A hundred years ago a couple of friends and I took a motorcycle trip up to Nova Scotia. The further north we got the nicer the people became (once we got through New York of course).

HappyJack wrote: I was in North Carolina about 10 years ago and seen this flashing blue light come flying up behind me. My first thought was " Man! That snowplow is moving!" In Canada the flashing blue light used to be strictly for snow removal vehicles.

Not anymore -- the new OPP light bars are blue and red. No mistaking them for a snowplough though.

spitfirebill wrote: Oh about 20-30 years ago , the Canadians would take over Myrtle Beach in the winter when it would otherwise be dead. These crazy folks would go swimming in the ocean in the middle of the winter. We were amazed. Now MB goes year round.

Uh, yeah. I was one of those At least for March break. Or, as it was called in university, "suicide week".

I was in Houston about 12 years ago at a conference. I get up it is 59 degrees F and sunny, so I get up and head out for breakfast in a golf shirt and pants.

I meet a lady coming the other way in her parka! I guess 59 in Houston is cold, but for a Canadian in January, 59 is suntan weather.

Here in SoFla we get a lot of Canadian snowbirds. Mostly they settle into two little towns, Hallandale and Pembroke Park. If it gets down to 40 something, you can quickly tell who they are- tee shirts and shorts, while the natives are freezing. They do have a bit of a reputation as bad drivers and worse tippers. Probably scared silly on our streets.

I was in Houston about 12 years ago at a conference. I get up it is 59 degrees F and sunny

Heh, but was it 95 degrees by noon? Actually, i forgot.. in Houston, Temperature in measured in degrees of Humidity

They do have a bit of a reputation as bad drivers and worse tippers.

cwh said it all. Maybe doing 50mph in the berkeleying hammer lane in your goddamned minivan is how they roll in Canada. Maybe they're generally the "nicest" people in the world. But take a trip down the Florida turnpike in Oct/Nov, and then tell me what great, considerate drivers canadians are. Horrible...HORRIBLE tippers too. I worked at a golf course during the day and restaurant at night, so you'd get the double canadian winter tip whammy. Wanna see a bunch of waiters scatter like roaches? Say "Eh" in a South Florida restaurant.

All that said, Atlanta sets the bar for mind-boggling, no turn signal using, no blind spot checking, entering a 70 MPH highway by blindly listing lazily to the left and expecting everyone else to swerve to avoid you drivers. And if you think downtown is bad, try white-knuckling it down I20E for 60 miles or so. I gaurantee you that you'll see:

1. A line of a dozen or more consecutive cars, with each driver texting.

2. A berkeleying Donk performing abso berkeleying lutely terrifying maneuvers going 20-30 mph over the speed limit.

3. Someone get rear-ended.

4. A korean hitting hundreds of reflectors in a row and not realizing/caring that he/she is not actually "in" a lane.

5. At least one ladder in the middle of the highway.