This morning (Sept. 28) I merged into the Circumferential Highway from Bayer’s Lake, traveling towards Halifax. As I reached 100 km/h in the right lane, a car was next to me in the left lane, also traveling at 100 km/h, and behind him an RCMP car. After driving side by side for about a minute, the driver next to me decided to cut onto me! I had to apply the brakes and cut to the right to avoid him hitting me. A clear case of dangerous driving, yes? What does the RCMP do after witnessing such dangerous driving? Nothing!!! He just drove on. If I were going a bit over the speed limit, he’d have given me a ticket; but, dangerous driving, who cares?? This is no different than police ticketing people for driving slightly over the speed limit approaching the Horseshoe Park on Quinpool Rd., but closing an eye to all those people cutting into the other lane as they make the turn 20 meters past the Park. Dangerous and stupid driving is clearly acceptable by the police!! Why is it that the quality of policing is deteriorating so markedly in time?
—Had enough of police incompetence!
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2009.
Maybe he didn’t see it?
Did you beep?
A mistake, yes.
Dangerous driving, get over yourself.
Maybe the Mountie should have pulled you all over for speeding, doing 100 in an 80 zone. Dangerous driving? A judge would laugh it out of the court. Learn some definitions.
Well said, Bro!
People who bitch about cops should become cops and right the wrongs.
How do you merge onto the Circ from Bayers Lake?
That’s what I was wondering. Isn’t the Circ in Dartmouth (what used to be the MicMac Rotary)?
I think the OP is referring to the bicentennial.
Maybe they were in a donut fog.
Really grasping at straws for a police bitch this week.
I just want to say that I think the 50 km/hr limit you mentioned along that stretch along Quinpool Road by Horseshoe Park is bullshit! Just a speed trap and the cops love to use it to give out unnecessary tickets. No, I haven’t been one of these victims yet, but I know several people who have. The speed limit could easily be 60 km/hr or even 70 km/hr along that stretch, probably from just after the Armdale Rotary to just before Connaught Avenue.
I know a lot of people are probably going to disagree with me on this one, but it could easily be done with minimal consequences I think. No, I’m not a traffic engineer or safety expert. If you are, care to comment?
Think about this as well: the same 50 km/hr speed limit applies to much smaller, narrower, and/or busier side streets with far more children playing. Technically, I could zip up Spring Garden Road at 50 km/hr on a sunny Saturday afternoon, and as long as I obeyed all the other rules of the road and didn’t hit anyone, it would be perfectly fine. But if you dare to go 55 km/hr down what is essentially a major four lane artery leading into and out of downtown Halifax, look out!
Don’t get me started on speed limits…
As for the bitch, I would guess the person beside you either swerved to get out of the way of something (windy days like today tend to create debris) or they had their blinker on and you failed to notice and adjust one way or the other.
Maybe the cop was driving to court or some other important police errand, which doesn’t require the use of lights and sirens…?
Well Q, the real problem with that stretch that keeps it at 50 is the cross walk about halfway down. Also, once you start going up the hill anything above 50 would be unsafe too because of all the intersections and crosswalks. I do agree though that when the traffic is light, 50 through there feels super slow.
As for the OP…if you were side by side like you said and travelling like that for a while it’s entirely possible you were in the other car’s blindspot. Still no excuse for it, but you need to be careful about hanging out in someone’s blind spot. When I am in a situation like the OP describes I will usually drop back a bit or speed up to get in front of them so I know they can see me.
Fair comment Miles and I’m all for crosswalks as a frequent pedestrian myself, but correct me if I’m wrong, aren’t there other crosswalks on streets where the speed limit is above 50 km/hr? A few in Dartmouth I think and I am positive I have seen it in other cities. If the flashing lights aren’t good enough, maybe they could make it a proper traffic light like the ones that are further up on Quinpool.
Ohh well, not too big of a deal anyway. I guess going an extra 10 km/hr would really only save about 30 seconds in the long run anyway, but it just feels sooooo slllooooowww.
all speed limits are bullshit… people drive at the speed they’re comfortable but of course, if you complain about someone going too slow people won’t hesitate to refer you to the speed limit as if speeding is a rarity. it is the norm GO FASTER GDMMIT !!!!!!!SARGGAGGG!
“all speed limits are bullshit…” That smells like bullshit to me. Speed limits are set for a reason, and I have no sympathy for any asshat driver who gets caught driving too fast.
It is quite possible that the RCMP officer in question was out of his jurisdiction and thus unable to rescue you from the horrible deed. It may have been a cop from, say, Enfield, who was in Halifax to attend court or to interview a suspect. In that case they are not supposed to pull someone over for a simple traffic infraction as they are out of their jurisdiction. If it is bad (like a drunk driver) they will pull him over and wait for HRM police to come and take over,
Just for clarity sake, all police officers have jurisdiction anywhere in Canada.
But point taken, RCMP don’t patrol that part of HRM. If there was an offense committed, which is hard to say because I don’t believe anyone when it comes to stories, then perhaps that cop had something more important to tend to.
qpmzwonxeibcruv: I lived at the bottom of Quinpool for 2 years in the last building actually ON Quinpool (next to the old theatre location) and I can tell you that increasing the speed limit there to 70kph is just plain dangerous. Increasing the speed limit by 20kph from Connaught to the Rotary would get you there 15seconds faster (maybe) on a good day. Once you factor in the parks on the left and right at the bottom of the hill, the number of driveways, the crosswalk and the fact that you can park on the right side, an increase in the speed limit would be dangerous. I don’t know how many times I saw idiots go blasting into the rotary at full speed and either smash into someone else or lose control in the turn. You put the speed limit 20kph faster and you’ll have a lot more accidents, especially ones involving pedestrians.
OK fine, if not 70 kph, maybe 60 kph? Mainly because I think it’s unfair, especially coming down the hill, that drivers can get a big ticket just for going 60 or even 55 kph along that stretch, especially considering that that’s the same speed limit along many of HRM’s smaller side streets. Then again, I can imagine the huge uproar from residents if HRM even considered slightly raising the speed limit.
On the other hand, I do think the speed limit should be lowered to maybe 40 kph or even 30 kph along some of the smaller side streets.
I hate when people in the right / left lane go exactly the same speed side by side. Most cops wouldn’t do shit to you on the Bihi unless you were going over 115 anyway. Cops are human – some are nice, some are pricks, some are lazy.
If no accident occurred I could see this particular cop thinking something like “because these two aren’t going over 100 and are clearly distracted by me they must already live in fear of me so I’ll go look for someone to punish who disregards the law on purpose”.
On Sunday at 2:30 pm, I was driving along Barrington. I saw 2 pedestrians trying to cross the road at a crosswalk (near Barrington and Smith) so I stopped my car. The approaching car sped up and flew through the crosswalk while the pedestrians were in it. The other driver even saw them walking! Now the shocker, the vehicle (an HRM police car) directly behind the car that did not stop didn’t do a damn thing about it! It’s no wonder Halifax Police have no respect in this city! They don’t even enforce the laws. The only reason the cops were in that area is because there’s a Tim Horton’s 100 feet from the crosswalk.
Man, the OP said it all. Learn to fucking merge. Chances are the guy driving in the left lane knew you were going to run out of merge lane, so he took action so you would try to cut him off. You don’t fucking drive beside someone until you run out of lane FFS, pick your spot and get into the traffic flow.