Oh Canada, my new residence and fatherland

In 2005 I moved to Canada. I had lived my total life in Belgium as much as that time. I used to be enthusiastic about many issues in my new residence nation, not within the least that I might get my Canadian driver’s licence with out an excessive amount of problem. Because of a bilateral settlement between Canada and Belgium I solely needed to move a watch take a look at, et voilà, I used to be now in possession of this coveted doc. Little did I do know that passing the attention take a look at wasn’t actually getting ready me for the driving forward. I had solely pushed just a few instances in Canada and the US earlier than, so it wasn’t all new…however nonetheless.

Visitors lights are behind the intersection dummy, not earlier than!

For starters, the whole lot seems to be completely different. Whereas the variations are delicate, these of you who’ve pushed in another country earlier than will know what I imply – and I’m not even speaking about driving on the left like within the UK or Australia. The complete road view is new with site visitors indicators having completely different colors, site visitors lights being positioned not earlier than however simply behind intersections and road furnishings in several sizes and shapes. Whereas this completely different context doesn’t essentially make it riskier for an unfamiliar driver, it definitely requires extra consideration from the motive force to remain protected on the highway…particularly in case you don’t wish to find yourself coming to a full cease at a crimson mild in the midst of an intersection. Sure, in Belgium (and the remainder of Europe just about) site visitors lights are positioned earlier than the intersection, not behind.

Proper activate crimson

One other large distinction is correct activates crimson usually are not allowed in Europe. I discovered rapidly it’s the alternative in – most of – North America when sitting at a crimson mild with my proper sign on; these behind me kindly nudged me to go together with numerous honking.

By the way in which, do you know {that a} left activate crimson can be authorized on one-way streets in a number of jurisdictions? Try these hyperlinks if you wish to study extra:

However what in regards to the merging?

What took me longer to get used to is the merging. I noticed that merging was performed otherwise, typically with Canadian drivers coming to a full cease at a yield signal in the beginning of a merging lane or alternatively, driving to the tip of the merge lane and stopping whereas ready for a break in site visitors. Granted, I haven’t performed any scientific analysis on this, but it surely appeared to me this was commonplace, or not less than not a uncommon incidence. Should you don’t know, it’s straightforward to rear-end somebody who stops unexpectedly at a yield signal once they have a merge lane to enter the site visitors circulate. Fortunately, I by no means have by no means struck a driver who stopped and I’ve adjusted simply high-quality to this odd apply. As a rule, I intention to hurry up when getting into a merge lane so I can safely transfer into the stream of site visitors, however I do know higher than to imagine the motive force forward of me is doing the identical. That is very completely different in Europe, the place the zipper merge is commonplace – I simply name it “zippering” – whereby every driver within the slowest lane lets one driver from the merge lane transfer into site visitors – it’s like somebody above is closing an enormous zipper consisting of vehicles.

If we are able to simply make the zipper merge method a typical apply, it may possibly vastly improve the circulate of site visitors. Earlier this 12 months, CBC ran a narrative on the New Brunswick Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure releasing a public consciousness video to assist drivers embrace the idea upfront of development season. “We wish folks to start out utilizing this method as a result of it’s sooner, it strikes site visitors sooner, and … we wish to assist scale back frustration,” Minister Jill Inexperienced stated. “We wish everyone to be calm and benefit from the driving expertise, and to maintain development staff and contractors protected.”

Roundabouts

This weblog wouldn’t be full with out speaking about roundabouts as properly. They’ve been round in Europe for much longer than in Canada, so I used to be pleasantly shocked to study there was one in Ottawa as properly…till I discovered the merging onto that roundabout, properly, let’s say wasn’t as clean as what I used to be used to in Belgium. Extra lately, roundabouts have change into extra frequent throughout North America because of their confirmed security advantages, and drivers are slowly studying how one can negotiate them.

My colleagues throughout Canada inform me they’re rising in popularity in Canadian cities which is nice to listen to from a highway security perspective. The important thing to their success in bettering security at intersections, nevertheless, lies in drivers understanding how one can safely use them.

And the freeway driving?

The opposite factor that actually stood out to me was the completely different behaviour on highways. I lately did an interview with the Globe and Mail in regards to the legality and security of passing on the correct on a multi-lane freeway. The gist of it’s that it’s authorized in most of Canada, however not essentially suggested or protected. That is what I needed to say: “I used to be born and raised in Belgium – and, there, slower site visitors drives on the correct, you move on the left and when you’ve handed, you return to the correct […] In North America on a three-lane freeway, you’ll see vehicles who’re slower in center lanes and vehicles are passing on the left and proper – for me that was bizarre to regulate to.” The actual fact is that passing on the correct results in extra manoeuvres and potential conflicts. So, if slower site visitors persistently drives in the correct lane, passing on the correct is now not wanted. This idea is bolstered by preserve proper and let others move laws in lots of provinces.

So, are Canada’s roads safer than Belgium’s?

You might be in all probability questioning by now whether or not Canada is a safer nation for driving than Belgium or vice versa. I might record a sequence of stats to indicate you, however that’s not the purpose of my story. My level is that transferring to Canada taught me how necessary it’s to maintain your palms on the wheel, your eyes on the highway and your thoughts on the driving activity on a regular basis.

Whereas there are variations it’s a must to modify to when driving abroad, these variations rapidly change into predictable. What’s not predictable, nevertheless, is how site visitors conditions can quickly change, out of the blue. The one technique to put together for that is by taking your accountability as a driver critically.

Try our academic assets to seek out out extra about taking driving critically at www.tirf.ca.

#MySafeRoadHome weblog creator: Ward Vanlaar, TIRF COO, is a statistician and criminologist whose fundamental fields of curiosity are site visitors enforcement points, dangerous driving behaviours, younger and senior drivers, statistics and methodology, knowledge administration, security efficiency indicators, and implementation of highway security packages. Originating from Ghent, Belgium and now residing in Ottawa, Ontario, he grew to become a Canadian citizen in 2012 and has visited many components of Canada.

Supply paperwork and assets:

Why you’re quickly going to be seeing, and doing, quite a lot of zipper merges, March 2022, CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/information/canada/new-brunswick/zipper-merge-campaign-jill-green-1.6394876

Authorities of Alberta, Visitors Circles and Roundabouts https://www.alberta.ca/traffic-circles-and-roundabouts.aspx

Is it authorized and protected to move in the correct lane? August 2022, The Globe and Mail, Jason Tchir https://www.theglobeandmail.com/drive/mobility/article-is-it-legal-and-safe-to-pass-in-the-right-lane/

Authorities of British Columbia, Maintain Proper, Let Others Move https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content material/transportation/driving-and-cycling/road-safety-rules-and-consequences/keep-right

Action2Zero web site, Visitors Damage Analysis Basis https://action2zero.tirf.ca