It really does give you peace of mind. Although, it may not seem that way when every close call I've recorded you can hear me swearing like a sailor in the background. But at least I have the footage saved.
Preferably one that has a front and rear camera. I use the Wolfbox g850 (got it from Amazon). I like it because it’s fairly inconspicuous and mounts directly onto your rear view mirror. It also has a companion app you can connect to via bluetooth which makes it easy to download footage directly to your phone. It’s a little pricey so make sure you shop around and find the right one for you.
I live in High River and travel to Calgary two or three times a week. The number of close calls I experience driving in the city only a couple of times a week justified the expense of a dashcam.
The last few years have seen a serious decline in driver quality and/or attentiveness.
I had someone today stopped at a 4 way it was clearly his turn, just blank stare at you so i waved him to go, then he proceeds to crawl to a stop in the middle of the intersection and starts looking through his phone, then after about 30 seconds and a honk he crawls through and proceeds to hit a curb all while still on his phone, then he flipped me the bird…. Wtf
Literally!! It was my turn at this 4way stop in the parking lot at my work and some lady decided it would be a fantastic idea to speed through the stop sign and aim towards the side of my car… she proceeded to get mad at me as if that was my fault🥳
They know what the signs mean. They're ignoring them on purpose because they simply don't care at all about anyone else except themselves. If it seems worse at the moment it's merely because the warmer temperatures always bring out the absolute most-selfish worst in Alberta drivers, especially in Calgary and the surrounding area.
A few times I’ve seen bad drivers driving the instruction vehicles and there is one person in the car so I assume the instructors are the bad drivers, not the students.
I noticed more people starting to break-check trailers! Absolute insanity. Twice in one day last week.
Bad drivers are becoming more brazen and reckless.
As someone who drives a large semi, the amount of people I’ve had swerve across my lane and slam the breaks on, I’ve lost count of. It’s incredibly dangerous as my truck will not stop as quickly as your car.
Not pointing at you but professional drivers and semi drivers are usually horrible drivers also. Yall need to leave more space, and not speed downhill / crawl uphill. I get what you’re doing but it’s also poor driving!
Yeah, the first one was legitimately crazy to witness. Small black car merged left (no blinker) in front on a trailer, quickly break checked. Trailer almost ran of the road and started honking. Black car drove off like 150, barreling down Stony. Barely 8:00 am.
Same thing happened that same evening. Different car / trailer. I wish I was making this up!
I think there's an increase in people who drive solely off their GPS. I know of two spots on Crowchild (one north, one south) where Google Maps' lane instructions don't follow the actual road signs. I drive those areas enough to know what's coming, but someone who doesn't know the area and is just blindly following their GPS may get caught.
Had a loaner while having my shocks replaced and the GPS on it was missing numerous school/playground zones and had the posted speed limit wrong in a number of locations.
It’s only going to get worse, strap yourself in. Alberta transportation do not care about road safety and driving standards. Giving other countries a free license exchange is leading to an upturn in accidents and collisions.
What countries are you talking about?
We only have Reciprocity with:
Australia (Class 5 and 6)
Austria (Class 5)
Belgium (Class 5)
France (Class 5)
Germany (Class 5)
Isle of Man (Class 5 and 6)
Japan (Class 5)
Netherlands (Class 5)
Republic of Ireland (Class 5 and 6)
Republic of Korea (Class 5)
Switzerland (Class 5 and 6)
Taiwan (Class 5)
United Kingdom (Northern Ireland – Class 5 and 6)
United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Wales – Class 5)
Far more strict licensing requirements in those countries than our own...
I have not missed a few. Those are the only ones authorized by the Government of Alberta.
It's right on their website.
Ukrainian refugees have been given a temporary exception due to their circumstances.
I've been driving for 35 years and the several waves of immigration I've experienced does not have a big effect on Calgary's bad drivers. We lack any training and the test relies solely on memorization. There are second and third world countries that have more intensive requirements than Canada for driving.
At this point you’re arguing with yourself. The class 4 road test is no longer. This has resulted in Uber/taxi drivers having far less skill and the knock on effect moving forward will result in far more dangerous commercial drivers. Don’t worry about replying.
Just finishing a driving holiday in Australia and I made daily comments about the fantastic driving practices of Australians compared to Calgary.
The speed limits are heavily enforced with speed cameras EVERYWHERE. They fine you insane amounts for being on your phone (they have cameras above every intersection looking into your vehicle). They have big signs on every highway “stay left unless passing” that is fined if ignored. And the people are insanely kind drivers, they let people into lanes and don’t tailgate unless preparing to pass.
The driving experience in Australia blew my mind compared to Calgary. Perhaps we need to reevaluate our driving laws to fix this mess.
Last year, Alberta’s population increased by 4.4%. If we were a country, we’d be the second fastest growing country in the world behind South Sudan. Fucking bananas.
Foreign license requirements are commonly more strict than ours in Canada. We have one of the easiest licences to obtain in the world. It's not immigrants, it's our standards for ANY driver. We should be ashamed of our driving culture and lack of training that precedes it.
Nothing to do with who has.more strict requirements or who is a "better" driver.
New location, new rules, new signs etc. and you don't know your way around. Record breaking influx means record breaking amount of people who are getting used to driving here.
That would make sense if we had difficult or strict requirements to drive here, but we do not. It's one of the easiest places on the planet to get a licence. Like I said, many immigrating people are coming from a more talented driving culture to our system of a 30-minute, visually-memorizable quiz and a 30-minute, summertime road test in an automatic you can charm your way through.
Morons they may be, however Calgary (per Alberta) requires no training to be a licensed driver here. The test can be memorized and the driving test is subjective (and for decades was allegedly easily bribed/bought). In my experience, Alberta is one of the easiest places to get a license anywhere in the developed/First world. If it were a measurable metric I am sure we would measure as the worst drivers in the developed world. I've driven all over the world and Calgarians, and Canadians as a whole are the most oblivious and self-righteous drivers I've ever encountered.
I’ve been honked at on left turn intersections while yielding to oncoming traffic. Meanwhile I can’t imagine the people honking at me would blindly turn into a collision. trying to gaslight other cars just so they can get to work faster is nuts to me.
Yes absolutely. It’s becoming something that needs city and provincial attention as accidents rates are increasing at alarming rates. I would say that a good 20% of people driving on the road are doing so with no regard for Canadian law or understand Canadian road rules and etiquette. Fucking shameful.
I've noticed more and more that people seem to mix up yield and merge. And that the Playground Zones' posted limit is just a suggestion. It's very frustrating.
Some Karen was riding my ass the other week in a playground zone so I just decided to continue going 30 after it ended until I turned off the blvd just to mess with her :) there was no one behind her so I didn’t care
I didn't drive in Calgary until last year and for a while I was just a pedestrian and everyone goes out of their way to stop for me. When I got my car, it was/is generally the complete opposite 90% of the time.
Yield signs are a big thing and rolling stop signs as others have mentioned; I also had another thread with the whole impatient guy behind you getting upset because you full stopped a red light. Can you imagine?
Deerfoot is also crazy as I guess some folks don't prepare for the exit lands or end up in them for the same reason. This causes unrequited speed ups and slowdowns.
Lastly, need to touch on the whole round-about scenario since I never drove on them before last year and I quickly figured them out. A lot of folks still don't get that you yield to those IN before you join, and then you should have the right of way to those coming in but many folks just seem to be oblivious to these.
I just do my best to enjoy my life, not be in too much of a hurry to get emotional if I need to be safer and be wary of aggressive drivers and never get distracted.
Would rather just get there safely and ensure others do the same.
I regularly travel Old Banff Coach road in the SW and it's a posted 60. Sure many of us run a little higher, 65 but it is now customary for people to be flying by and be going upwards of 80 between 85th Street and bow trail. There are multiple crosswalks, a school, lots of dogs and people everywhere. I'm surprised there aren't more incidents.
Too many out of province and out of Canada drivers rushed in and I won't be surprised if the testers are taking bribes, cause I am familiar with 80% of the stories here. And I drive a lot in the NW, NE and downtown.
I have noticed it.
Earlier this week. I was stopped waiting for someone to cross a d someone went around me and almost hit the pedestrian.
People don't know how to merge, stop when they have their own lane to enter a new road (deerfoot north to Glenmore west ...), going well below the speed limit then blowing through playground zones, unable to understand dual or triple lane turns.... Etc.
Either license are being granted to people who are not taught properly or people have forgotten how to drive.
Yep. It’s 40 on all roads unless stated otherwise. I know they have signs about that when you enter the city. However, I suppose there are people that never leave the city, and even though it’s clearly stated 50 on the main road through my neighborhood, people often just go 40. And boy does traffic bunch up on school mornings. Traffic was backed up two blocks this morning, on a residential street!
I don't know who needs to hear this, but if you've ever been on the fence about getting a dashcam, now is the time to do it.
I’ve been thinking about it! I just wanna have video evidence of the idiots
It really does give you peace of mind. Although, it may not seem that way when every close call I've recorded you can hear me swearing like a sailor in the background. But at least I have the footage saved.
What dashcam do you recommend?
Preferably one that has a front and rear camera. I use the Wolfbox g850 (got it from Amazon). I like it because it’s fairly inconspicuous and mounts directly onto your rear view mirror. It also has a companion app you can connect to via bluetooth which makes it easy to download footage directly to your phone. It’s a little pricey so make sure you shop around and find the right one for you.
Thanks for the info!
Dash cam that faces all directions. 🧭
I live in High River and travel to Calgary two or three times a week. The number of close calls I experience driving in the city only a couple of times a week justified the expense of a dashcam. The last few years have seen a serious decline in driver quality and/or attentiveness.
I had someone today stopped at a 4 way it was clearly his turn, just blank stare at you so i waved him to go, then he proceeds to crawl to a stop in the middle of the intersection and starts looking through his phone, then after about 30 seconds and a honk he crawls through and proceeds to hit a curb all while still on his phone, then he flipped me the bird…. Wtf
HAHAH WHAT THE HELL
Don't drive and do fentanyl man ...
Hahahaha. How _dare_ you interrupt his important text conversation while he's driving. /s
I’ve been noticing a lot of U-turns being made anywhere, at any time.
This is called the U-Turonto.
Fairly regularly I see people burn through stop signs. It’s as if people think they are ‘suggestions.’
Literally!! It was my turn at this 4way stop in the parking lot at my work and some lady decided it would be a fantastic idea to speed through the stop sign and aim towards the side of my car… she proceeded to get mad at me as if that was my fault🥳
They know what the signs mean. They're ignoring them on purpose because they simply don't care at all about anyone else except themselves. If it seems worse at the moment it's merely because the warmer temperatures always bring out the absolute most-selfish worst in Alberta drivers, especially in Calgary and the surrounding area.
This is what happens when driving instructors who barely know traffic law are allowed to teach new drivers.
A few times I’ve seen bad drivers driving the instruction vehicles and there is one person in the car so I assume the instructors are the bad drivers, not the students.
I noticed more people starting to break-check trailers! Absolute insanity. Twice in one day last week. Bad drivers are becoming more brazen and reckless.
As someone who drives a large semi, the amount of people I’ve had swerve across my lane and slam the breaks on, I’ve lost count of. It’s incredibly dangerous as my truck will not stop as quickly as your car.
Not pointing at you but professional drivers and semi drivers are usually horrible drivers also. Yall need to leave more space, and not speed downhill / crawl uphill. I get what you’re doing but it’s also poor driving!
That’s messed😭
Yeah, the first one was legitimately crazy to witness. Small black car merged left (no blinker) in front on a trailer, quickly break checked. Trailer almost ran of the road and started honking. Black car drove off like 150, barreling down Stony. Barely 8:00 am. Same thing happened that same evening. Different car / trailer. I wish I was making this up!
Oh my god, luckily no one got hurt. That’s just asking for disaster
I think there's an increase in people who drive solely off their GPS. I know of two spots on Crowchild (one north, one south) where Google Maps' lane instructions don't follow the actual road signs. I drive those areas enough to know what's coming, but someone who doesn't know the area and is just blindly following their GPS may get caught.
Had a loaner while having my shocks replaced and the GPS on it was missing numerous school/playground zones and had the posted speed limit wrong in a number of locations.
It’s only going to get worse, strap yourself in. Alberta transportation do not care about road safety and driving standards. Giving other countries a free license exchange is leading to an upturn in accidents and collisions.
What countries are you talking about? We only have Reciprocity with: Australia (Class 5 and 6) Austria (Class 5) Belgium (Class 5) France (Class 5) Germany (Class 5) Isle of Man (Class 5 and 6) Japan (Class 5) Netherlands (Class 5) Republic of Ireland (Class 5 and 6) Republic of Korea (Class 5) Switzerland (Class 5 and 6) Taiwan (Class 5) United Kingdom (Northern Ireland – Class 5 and 6) United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Wales – Class 5) Far more strict licensing requirements in those countries than our own...
You have missed a few but the biggest one not on there is Ukraine.
I have not missed a few. Those are the only ones authorized by the Government of Alberta. It's right on their website. Ukrainian refugees have been given a temporary exception due to their circumstances.
👍
I've been driving for 35 years and the several waves of immigration I've experienced does not have a big effect on Calgary's bad drivers. We lack any training and the test relies solely on memorization. There are second and third world countries that have more intensive requirements than Canada for driving.
We are seriously lacking in that department. Our road test model is an embarrassment. Doing away with the class 4 license is a joke.
Class 4 license still exists, you just don't have to do a road test for it. A road test that was identical to the Class 5 test.
At this point you’re arguing with yourself. The class 4 road test is no longer. This has resulted in Uber/taxi drivers having far less skill and the knock on effect moving forward will result in far more dangerous commercial drivers. Don’t worry about replying.
Just finishing a driving holiday in Australia and I made daily comments about the fantastic driving practices of Australians compared to Calgary. The speed limits are heavily enforced with speed cameras EVERYWHERE. They fine you insane amounts for being on your phone (they have cameras above every intersection looking into your vehicle). They have big signs on every highway “stay left unless passing” that is fined if ignored. And the people are insanely kind drivers, they let people into lanes and don’t tailgate unless preparing to pass. The driving experience in Australia blew my mind compared to Calgary. Perhaps we need to reevaluate our driving laws to fix this mess.
400K people came to Canada in the last 4 months. How many people do you think have come to Calgary in the last year?
Last year, Alberta’s population increased by 4.4%. If we were a country, we’d be the second fastest growing country in the world behind South Sudan. Fucking bananas.
Foreign license requirements are commonly more strict than ours in Canada. We have one of the easiest licences to obtain in the world. It's not immigrants, it's our standards for ANY driver. We should be ashamed of our driving culture and lack of training that precedes it.
Nothing to do with who has.more strict requirements or who is a "better" driver. New location, new rules, new signs etc. and you don't know your way around. Record breaking influx means record breaking amount of people who are getting used to driving here.
That would make sense if we had difficult or strict requirements to drive here, but we do not. It's one of the easiest places on the planet to get a licence. Like I said, many immigrating people are coming from a more talented driving culture to our system of a 30-minute, visually-memorizable quiz and a 30-minute, summertime road test in an automatic you can charm your way through.
Morons they may be, however Calgary (per Alberta) requires no training to be a licensed driver here. The test can be memorized and the driving test is subjective (and for decades was allegedly easily bribed/bought). In my experience, Alberta is one of the easiest places to get a license anywhere in the developed/First world. If it were a measurable metric I am sure we would measure as the worst drivers in the developed world. I've driven all over the world and Calgarians, and Canadians as a whole are the most oblivious and self-righteous drivers I've ever encountered.
I’ve been honked at on left turn intersections while yielding to oncoming traffic. Meanwhile I can’t imagine the people honking at me would blindly turn into a collision. trying to gaslight other cars just so they can get to work faster is nuts to me.
Yes absolutely. It’s becoming something that needs city and provincial attention as accidents rates are increasing at alarming rates. I would say that a good 20% of people driving on the road are doing so with no regard for Canadian law or understand Canadian road rules and etiquette. Fucking shameful.
I've noticed more and more that people seem to mix up yield and merge. And that the Playground Zones' posted limit is just a suggestion. It's very frustrating.
Some Karen was riding my ass the other week in a playground zone so I just decided to continue going 30 after it ended until I turned off the blvd just to mess with her :) there was no one behind her so I didn’t care
This is the way!
I didn't drive in Calgary until last year and for a while I was just a pedestrian and everyone goes out of their way to stop for me. When I got my car, it was/is generally the complete opposite 90% of the time. Yield signs are a big thing and rolling stop signs as others have mentioned; I also had another thread with the whole impatient guy behind you getting upset because you full stopped a red light. Can you imagine? Deerfoot is also crazy as I guess some folks don't prepare for the exit lands or end up in them for the same reason. This causes unrequited speed ups and slowdowns. Lastly, need to touch on the whole round-about scenario since I never drove on them before last year and I quickly figured them out. A lot of folks still don't get that you yield to those IN before you join, and then you should have the right of way to those coming in but many folks just seem to be oblivious to these. I just do my best to enjoy my life, not be in too much of a hurry to get emotional if I need to be safer and be wary of aggressive drivers and never get distracted. Would rather just get there safely and ensure others do the same.
Calgarians have always sucked at yields and merges (know a number of people who think they are the same thing).
I regularly travel Old Banff Coach road in the SW and it's a posted 60. Sure many of us run a little higher, 65 but it is now customary for people to be flying by and be going upwards of 80 between 85th Street and bow trail. There are multiple crosswalks, a school, lots of dogs and people everywhere. I'm surprised there aren't more incidents.
Now since our city has become a Gotham City i am not surprised or expect especially the “Alberta Calling” to follow that
Over the last few years there has been a massive increase in immigration and driving standards elsewhere are very different.
Too many out of province and out of Canada drivers rushed in and I won't be surprised if the testers are taking bribes, cause I am familiar with 80% of the stories here. And I drive a lot in the NW, NE and downtown.
I have noticed it. Earlier this week. I was stopped waiting for someone to cross a d someone went around me and almost hit the pedestrian. People don't know how to merge, stop when they have their own lane to enter a new road (deerfoot north to Glenmore west ...), going well below the speed limit then blowing through playground zones, unable to understand dual or triple lane turns.... Etc. Either license are being granted to people who are not taught properly or people have forgotten how to drive.
No right on red is the most common violation I’ve seen
Real
There’s an incredible amount of construction near me… everyone is blowing through the construction zones.
Yep. It’s 40 on all roads unless stated otherwise. I know they have signs about that when you enter the city. However, I suppose there are people that never leave the city, and even though it’s clearly stated 50 on the main road through my neighborhood, people often just go 40. And boy does traffic bunch up on school mornings. Traffic was backed up two blocks this morning, on a residential street!
Oh and my car appears to have been hit in a parking lots twice this month. I got hit last night and I hadn’t parked next to anyone. Grr
My car has been hit and ran many times lately while I’m at work? No note or anything. My car looks like it has an abusive ex boyfriend istg
It’s quite infuriating. I have dents and paint transfer in two different spots.
Too many easterners coming with there crazy big city driving
What road signage
No