I did a fair bit of walking in the last week or so, and most of it was on the streets in my area or to and from CFIS studio.
I know I did a fair bit of walking because my legs spent most of the evenings reminding me of how much we had walked and how much of it had been uphill at 70-degree angles (my legs tend to exaggerate a bit.).
A lot of my walking was done at what most people would find strange hours, like 3 a.m., but that’s when I’m awake (sort of) and that’s also when it’s fairly cool these days.
I have seen a few ‘interesting’ pieces of driving over the past few days, and I’m not sure how much of it was because it was 3 a.m. and the drivers knew there was nobody else on the roads or because that was just the way they always drive.
I saw one car back up half a block one morning. OK, the driver moved over fairly close to the curb but still, that didn’t seem like the safest manoeuvre possible to me.
I have no idea whether the driver suddenly realized they had overshot where they wanted to be or what the reason was. I do know it wasn’t because that was the only parking spot available. At 3 a.m., there is no shortage of spots available.
I also saw a few vehicles which had been left parked at the curb in one of my favourite illegal positions, the one where they are facing the wrong way on the street. As I’ve noted before, that means they were driven illegally to get there, and will be driven illegally again to get out.
I saw a few people downtown take advantage of the lack of other vehicles to go through red lights, but most of the drivers stopped where and when they were supposed to and waited to go through a green light. I didn’t take that long, and at 3 a.m., where are you trying to go in such a hurry you can’t wait a few seconds for the light to change?
Not all my walking was done in the early hours of the morning, although most of it was. I walked down to Spruceland Shopping Centre a couple of times and boy, were my legs ever complaining after the first of those trips (especially when they realized we were also walking home).
I never cease to be amazed at the number of drivers who seem to figure a parking lot is like any other piece of roadway and they can drive the speed they normally do on city streets. Not a good idea. There are a lot more vehicles in the parking lot than there are on city streets as well as more pedestrians, which means more places said pedestrians can suddenly appear from between or behind said vehicles.
I also don’t think it’s considered legal to drive right across three rows of well-marked parking stalls to get to the spot you want. Those lines are there for a reason, although try convincing some drivers of that, as they leave their vehicles parked in two, three or even four different stalls.
What do you think about this story?