To all the people driving around honking, running lights, giving people the finger and generally getting crazy on the roads in Halifax: Chill out.
It’s nice out, the pedestrians are out of hibernation and you can shake your fist and blast your horn until you have a heart attack…I’m way to busy enjoying the sunshine to care.
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2008.
It is not just the roads that are getting crazy in Halifax. There are a lot of people out running amok. It is all wonky and getting out of control. I think we need to put some people to sleep.
glad you’re not in charge
LoL at the comments below …Just the other day, I was driving down porland street, and a car blocked the “passing lane” because he waited until the last minute to decide he actually needed the other lane to get to the bridge (I assume) It was a red light, so it wasnt really a big deal.. I needed to turn left, so I had enough room to slide past him on the left, to get to the turning lane… as I drove by his car, he was screaming and swearing, and giving some innapropraite hand gestures out his window because I moved passsed him… I was just like jesus, take a fuckin pill, I didnt even touch your car, or even inconvienience you in the least….. Another time, (LOL, also on Portland street) I slowed and stopped to let a van make a left from the tim hortons (making a left this time of day is damn near IMPOSSIBLE) So I thought i’d help him out….. Red light ahead, so I stopped… Some woman behind me, wow, I couldnt fucking believe my eyes…She was LAYING it on the horn, Throwing her hands up in the air and fucking SCREAMING for me to move…… I thought she was gonna fuckin explode her face was so red….. there was NO need. she was acting like a fuckin lunatic!! she’s fucking lucky I didnt throw my fuckin car in park, and go bang her fuckin face off the steering wheeel (I talk tough, and fuck I really wanted to, but thats just not who I am)But to make my self feel better, I stayed stopped for just a few seconds longer, to really fuckin piss her off… then I drove really slow.. … When she had the chance, she blew by me, screaming “ASSSHOLE” as she went…The point to my whole rant.. Yes I agree OP… people just need to calm the fuck down…
Can you just imagine how much nicer and calmer people will be a few years after we’ve run out of oil. I think cars and driving are the cause of over half the stress in people’s lives. Cars are sort of like message boards online, people feel invincible in them so they get as angry as they want and bitch people out all the time.
people are stupid»» my gosh, your expecting calm when the oil ‘runs out’ after a couple years??? This planet will be a hell on earth first and im sure that will last a thousand yrs first if not a few hundred. On top of that, I disagree with oil being the cause of the anger…. i believe it’s the inability of many to ‘budget their money’ leading to life stress. ‘oh i neeeeed(want) gas, but, i neeeed groceries’
if this is one thing about halifax that i like, as a dude without a car, i walk freely. You people here are too nice about this shit. They stop and politely let me illegally j-walk.ontario, i am worth points if i get hit. Dude can score hundreds of points for each illegal j-walker they hit. Double points if they are joggin accross the road. Here, i would care a fuck if someone screamed some shit at me here for any driving infractions, people are too nice and passive.funny that this is shit worth ranting about.
It’s not the lack of oil that will make people happier in the long run, but the lack of cars, driving, and traffic. I know so many people who are laid back and happy people until they get in the car. Then they’re yelling at strangers because they had to sit at a light for an extra 30 seconds.I know there will be chaos as the oil runs out, and immediately after, but eventually people will have to get used to it, and find better options.
I don’t know. The oil is not going to stop flowing all at once. It is going to get more and more expensive first. We will be forced to make better choices based on our pocket books (which will affect people at different times based on their disposable income) leading to slower (and less catastrophic) change than if the pumps just got turned off all at once. Look at the interest in hybrids and electric cars now. Look how many people are switching to bikes and public transit. (OK, maybe not a lot, but it’s happening)Also, I saw something in the news that suggested the increase in crankiness is due an overall decrease in people’s patience because technology has made us used to getting what we want, right now. We are less tolerant of waiting and it translates into road rage and bitchy people in line ups, etc. Interesting theory. Thought I’d put it out there.
very true….i misread your comment. it was the car not oil…perhaps ‘we’ all need to losen up, realize your cigs at needs, your kid at the rink, or that sale are not going anywheres…we all need to slow the funk down, know ‘your’ not more important than someone else, and follow the rules of the road….then again, rules of the road??? who follows the law anymoreps i tried to post 2 bitches, clicked proceed and nothing… funnnnnk
very true….i misread your comment. it was the car not oil…perhaps ‘we’ all need to losen up, realize your cigs at needs, your kid at the rink, or that sale are not going anywheres…we all need to slow the funk down, know ‘your’ not more important than someone else, and follow the rules of the road….then again, rules of the road??? who follows the law anymoreps i tried to post 2 bitches, clicked proceed and nothing… funnnnnk
Miles, that study that came out about the speed of things nowadays via technology was something that i read too. It cited examples like how people would get very mad at waiting 5 minutes on hold for government service, not realizing that the convience of the 5 minute wait, is 25 minutes better than it would have been at the office itself. It cited that the average time in a grocery store is like 27 minutes less now that items are scanned, but the dissatisfaction levels are WAY up in grocery stores. Could you imagine what the levels would have been should they still enter manually?I read something to that effect…….. another interesting read.
Miles, another great point. I can absolutely see the reason in people’s iritability due to dependace on technology. Very interesting theory, and something i’ve never really thought of until now.
Homie, I am one of those friendly passive people you speak of… I go OUT OF MY WAY to help other drivers out… Stopping at non crosswalks to let people cross, stopping a long line of traffic to let someone go… But dont get me wrong, I have a temper, I’ve noticed I tend to talk to my self alot when people piss me off (ie, last minute blinker, cutting me off, etc etc), and I curse when I’m driving (LOL, thinking about it now, its rather halarious the way I act).. And I say downright nasty things, But its always to my self… I am VERY passive, I avoid confrontation… I’d be too damn scared to flip someone the bird, or let them know that I am angrgy, cause you never know who you are doing it to… Could be some crazy mother fucker with short temper and gun…
Does the COAST take fridays off?? where are my bitches
damn, apparently that took me a while to type up here at work… 5 people posted in the time I was typing..
yes cat lady, it is a nice luxury here to be able to jaywalk.I mean within reason of course, but look at the reality of the situation, someone in a car is nice and warm and able to go further, faster, than that poor pedestrian that is getting pissed on with rain. It kills me EVERY time, when the person in the car looks pissed or inconvienced by that pedistrian. Sometimes the people in the car just dont arent considerate. Of course there is a limit to that. True story. At the armdale rotary, there is a little bridge i think that on chebucto (?) anyways, there was a woman in a wheel chair that wanted to cross the road. Not a car could see her because of the over pass. It appeared that each driver noticed her too late and would hope the car behind them would stop. I walked out into traffic and put my hands out and stopped traffic in both directions to allow the lady in the wheel chair to pass. People in the first few cars could see me, but behind them……. “GET THE FUCK OUTTA THE WAY !!!!” “Move it you fucking prick” ….. people were hollering because they were stopped for all of 5 seconds. The faces changed when they saw the wheelchair lady. I was stunned that 5 seconds of stoppage could bring about enough rage to get out of your car, or roll your window down….. or whatever. The lady offered me 5 bucks, and a cop offered me some niceness citation or someshit. I didnt want that, it was common sense to help that lady because people couldnt take 5 seconds to let her pass once they did notice she was there….. no one got outta there car to help her once they did pass her.
Homie I don’t know where you find the time to post on this site between helping the handicapped cross the streed and living in a homesless shelter.
We should start callin you saint Homie.
this shit was like 2 years ago dude. I really dont think that what i did was incommon. You see people doing shit like that all the time….it was the attitude of people when it was done. Nothing heroic, “but not as common as it should be”, must have been the rationale of the cop and the lady. I dont get that shit. I see people hold doors and help elderly all the time. Not a big deal.I was more stunned at the drivers. They were worried about being stopped for 5 seconds…… but what about the woman in a wheel chair that may never get home because no one would stop. I found that to be the fact that i was getting at.
Just a quick point, next time you look at an electric or hybrid car, look at it’s components; batteries, plastics, etc all come from petrochemicals. They only indirectly cut down on our oil depence, although that’s debatable as well. A good diesel engine gets comparable mileage as hybrids. Not biodiels though, that whole craze has driven up the cost of pretty much all food because of the increased amount of land devoted to corn instead of food. Just food for thought, electric cars are more of a bandaid than a solution. Also, where does asphalt come from? You got it, oil!
People are definitely more impatient because of technology. I used to have this super old, shitty computer, (I named it the Pope because it was old, slow, and basically useless). I always had a book with me when I used it because I could read an entire chapter while it loaded pages of the internet. But I got used to it, and didn’t complain because I expected it to be slow. Then I got a new computer. It was nice and fast, but then anytime it slowed down a bit I was mad, because it’s supposed to be fast!
But Pete, At least once my electric car is built or the road is paved, it does not need to use any more oil. And the plastic components could be recycled. Plastics have contributed to incredible advances in science, technology, medicine etc. I think there is a place in the world for petrolium products…just not as an energy source. It would be good to find alternatives to plastics and oil products whenever possible, but if everyone stopped using oil as fuel, we might find the price of oil drops way down to where it used to be and the environmental impact of oil products becomes managable.
Yeah Miles, I know, but a lot of the plastics used in cars can’t be recycled, and the batteries do have a useful life, afterwhich you have a big disposal issue. Plus the process of making them is pretty toxic. Same with solar panels (but that’s a different rant). I’m not saying that electric/hybrid cars aren’t an improvement, just that they aren’t the panacae to green transportation. There are alternatives as well (like using Ultra light steel instead of composite bodies). The other with electric cars would be the source of the power generation, plus all the transmission losses. Just things people should keep in mind, that’s all.In a non sequitor, Al Gore can fuck right off with all his global warming warnings when he’s living in a ten bedroom mansion that uses as much power as several family homes, and travels by private jet. Hypocritical wanker.
Non sequitor #2It’d be way easier to reply to the more recent comments if either the most recent comments were at the bottom, or if the comment submission box was at the top under the OP. Stupid poor site design. Also, put the ‘Submit’ button under the actual commentary box, which is the standard on pretty much the ENTIRE INTERNET.
Absolutely agree Pete. About the comment box and the comments you put in. Nothing is going to have zero environental impact. It’s all about sustainability and balance. Even oil use.