Road Rage Rant

I would really like to know why it is that every single year, without fail, all Calgarians collectively forget how to drive (winter appropriately) the second snow starts coming down.

Just because you have winter tires does not mean that you can speed!  There is still ICE on the road, and unfortunately you can still slide on it even with winter tires.  Gee, rocket science this is.  You ever see people try to go ice skating with runners on?  Would you attempt to race your friend across the ice rink wearing runners* if you bet money on it?  I think not.  But here's the thing, when you are driving on a highway with other cars, cement blockades, and ditches, you have the potential to DIE.  Or at the very least get into a pretty bad car crash which in the end means a deductible and insurance rates sky rocketing.  So seriously, in the long run, is it that big of a deal to give yourself an extra 30mins let's say and drive carefully, cautiously, and slowly (or slower)?

*and by runners I don't mean any kind of fancy runners with any kind of grip, I mean normal runners.

It seems we get the two extremes.  The maniacs who think they should be able to go the speed limit no matter what.  And the people who are really nervous and go 20 km/hr.  Now I ask you, why not find a happy medium... like 60km if the roads are really icy?  Yes, I realize that on Deerfoot the speed limit is 100.  But maybe try thinking about the word limit.  A speed limit is the maximum speed for a specific road/area, if the conditions are good.  You can deal with going slow and steady.  It's better than getting into an accident, and if there weren't so many damn accidents, traffic would probably move at a steadier pace.  You are not going anywhere fast in winter on the road, get used to it.  It happens every year for about 6 months.

My other favourite thing about Calgarian drivers is how god damn selfish they are.  People are trying to merge, and instead of realizing that the roads are ICY and that the less people have to try to stop and get going again, the better, they can't possibly slow down for 5 seconds and let someone in.  No, wouldn't want to add another 30 seconds to your trip, best to just drive right on by and not worry about that car crashing into a cement barricade or another car because you were too damn selfish to slow down a tiny little bit to let them in.

Then you have the people who, despite being given a huge gap (possibly the length of 3 whole cars) in order to merge, feel that they are more special than everyone else and need to get as far down the line as possible.  You know who I'm talking about, the ones who drive right to the very end of the merge lane and expect people (who have probably been inching their way through the traffic for a long time) to let them in.  YARG!

Stupid, selfish, crazy people!  They should all be sterilized.

*huge sigh*  Ok back to studying now...