Tell Me Why Your City Has Worse Traffic Than Toronto

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And maybe I'll feel better.

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 14 September 2002 19:25 (twenty-three years ago)

It doesn't - I have a scootx0r!

― Mark C (Mark C), Saturday, 14 September 2002 19:28 (twenty-three years ago)

because the last few days the major freeways here have been more like canals.

― keith, Saturday, 14 September 2002 19:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Because Mayor Ken is DELIBERATELY ENCOURAGING GRIDLOCK SO WE WONT FEEL BAD ABOUT CONGESTIONS CHARGES [(c) Evening Standard]

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Saturday, 14 September 2002 19:46 (twenty-three years ago)

It's London, it's worse.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 14 September 2002 20:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I haven't had a car for over a year now (and I miss it maybe once a month) so I don't really care how terrible the London traffic is any more.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 14 September 2002 21:07 (twenty-three years ago)

no intelligent attempt to rationalise the public transport system since i moved to london in the early 80s

(i'll get me coat)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 14 September 2002 21:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know about the traffic, but I bet my city has worse drivers.

― rosemary (rosemary), Saturday, 14 September 2002 22:24 (twenty-three years ago)

b-but Mark, Ken wants to link the tube system to Hackney!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 14 September 2002 22:30 (twenty-three years ago)

it's state-funded jetpacks or revolution now!!

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 14 September 2002 22:50 (twenty-three years ago)

They wanna put a tramline down the uxbridge road. This is stupid. All the cars will start using the side streets. Coz the road is too narrow to accomodate both cars and trams, and I don't see people giving up the car. So they will probably end up building new roads.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 15 September 2002 06:46 (twenty-three years ago)

b'but it is only because we don't all have personal jet packs that we know it's not really the 21st Century (plus no silver foil jumpsuits). I think you will see the flaw in your argument now.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 15 September 2002 11:04 (twenty-three years ago)

London's traffic problems would be solved if motherfuckers would stop driving IN. Put a wall around it, anyone who's here already can stay if they want and everybody else stay out unless they're into abseiling. Admit it, don't you think that if 99% of the people who spend less than two weeks here didn't come at all then the city would be more bearable? Tourists, commuters, like that. Especially the latter. I live in Zone 1 btw so I should make the fucking rules here.

― dave q, Sunday, 15 September 2002 11:06 (twenty-three years ago)

to answer the question: becuz London has more ppl. more cars, more pollution, but Toronto does have its proiblems with garbage (there was a garabage men strike when I was there but even when it was over I thought it was a problem).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 15 September 2002 11:13 (twenty-three years ago)

to get from piccadilly circus to tottenham court road on a nightbus earlier this year. over an hour! at 3.30am!

― gareth (gareth), Sunday, 15 September 2002 12:25 (twenty-three years ago)

You are a deeply lazy man, Gareth - that's about a ten minute walk!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 15 September 2002 12:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Toronto has mentalist traffic, so don't expect me to make you feel better. That was the only city I've been to where I was actually in fear of our car getting smushed by a big semi.

― Nicole (Nicole), Sunday, 15 September 2002 13:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Really, Martin?

― Graham (graham), Sunday, 15 September 2002 14:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know what you're questioning, Graham - the distance is maybe half a mile. It will only take as much as ten minutes if you are on crowded pavements. More if he's going to the top end of Tottenham Court Road, but still no more than about fifteen minutes. If it's the 'lazy' bit you're questioning, I fully admit that I am a very lazy person; but not that lazy, quite. The last night bus I got, by the way, got me from Trafalgar Square to East Ham in less than an hour, which I was very pleased with.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 15 September 2002 14:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I never think of Toronto having particularly bad or mental traffic. Try Athens or particularly Piraeus, if you want to experience seat-of-your-pants terror. And for round the clock congestion hell, in stupefying dismal setting, where better than the M6/M5 interchange in Birmingham?

― Tag, Sunday, 15 September 2002 15:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, doesn't 401 in Toronto have a nice system where the FAST drivers use the left half of the direction, and the exiters use the right half?

I can name several examples in the States with worse traffic than I experienced in Toront: LA, NYC, Jersey, Philly, Boston, Seattle. Seattle is dead worst traffic ever if there's a Mariners game.

― donut bitch (donut), Sunday, 15 September 2002 16:43 (twenty-three years ago)

After being in Seattle last year, I don't even understand how anyone could live there, the traffic is so bad. So yeah, the traffic did seem worse there.

I might be biased against TO because of my near-death experience with the truck.

― Nicole (Nicole), Sunday, 15 September 2002 17:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Toronto, Seattle and London ain't shit when it comes to traffic. You wanna see traffic? Come to just about anywhere in North Jersey, that's traffic.

I think that Bangkok and Mexico City probably have all of the foregoing beat re traffic, though.

― Tad (llamasfur), Sunday, 15 September 2002 17:41 (twenty-three years ago)

or go to new delhi and see just how MENTALLY INSANE traffic can get. it's pure anarchy, and nobody even CARES about the traffic lights. all the cars i was in didn't have seat belts. but it was kinda exciting in a weird sort of way.

i still don't have the guts to drive in downtown t.o. though.

― sand.y, Sunday, 15 September 2002 17:56 (twenty-three years ago)

1. i was in a drunken state

2. i wasn't getting off at tottenham court road, i had to carry on until arsenal, where i lived.

― gareth (gareth), Sunday, 15 September 2002 18:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Fair enough, Gareth: I retract my calumny unreservedly.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 15 September 2002 18:17 (twenty-three years ago)

i used to take nightbuses all the way to edgware (and i don't mean edgware road, i mean fucking edgware, ie. middle of nowhwere, top of the northern line) we lost track of how long it actually took, and then just started taking taxis because it was worth paying extra to save us from going insane.

― sand.y, Sunday, 15 September 2002 18:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't remember Toronto traffic being bad, at all.

I remember the person who was driving us being so freaking DRUNK they nearly hit a pedestrian at a red light. But the traffic wasn't that bad.

I like driving on the 401. That's the one that goes from Kingston to Buffalo, isn't it? There's like, NO speed limit on that road. They say 100, meaning kilometers, but everyone takes it to mean MPH.

― kate, Sunday, 15 September 2002 18:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Boston's highway system is totally illogical and there's just pointless construction going on everywhere. It's as if the place was carpetbombed in 1985. Cambridge is even worse; every street seems to be a one way street going in the same direction. Northern New Jersey had the most cars going nowhere I've ever seen in my life. In Berkeley, the city streets have these barrel-sized flowerpots at random intersections to keep people from driving on them. Berkeley also has the only roundabouts in the world where those entering the roundabout have the right of way over people already in them. I don't understand it at all.

― Kris (aqueduct), Sunday, 15 September 2002 18:43 (twenty-three years ago)

"Actually, doesn't 401 in Toronto have a nice system where the FAST drivers use the left half of the direction, and the exiters use the right half?"

Yes it does, IN THEORY. In practice, the 'express' lanes are very very often far more bogged down than the collectors. All Toronto commuters figure this out eventually.

― Kim (Kim), Monday, 16 September 2002 03:48 (twenty-three years ago)

I was in Rome recently and I have to say that it has worse traffic than any of the places mentioned above. Rome has particularly noisy traffic - after one sleepless night there I went straight out to buy some earplugs. It also has drivers with no regard for the rules of the road - I learned early on that it didn't matter whether you crossed a road when the man was red or green, the car drivers (and scooter riders) would still try to mow you down. After Rome, I needed the perfect antidote...somewhere with no roads at all. And I found one (Venice).

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 11:35 (twenty-three years ago)

haha by MarkH's definition, Mumbai definitely has the worst traffic evah!

― katie (katie), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 11:49 (twenty-three years ago)

where is this Mumbai of which you speak?

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 11:58 (twenty-three years ago)

mumbai = new(ish) name for bombay. man you can't cross the road without getting a motorised rickshaw aimed at you and the noise is HORRIFIC because EVERYONE uses their horns at ANY opportunity. the solution to crossing roads in Rome = get behind a nun who's crossing! i suppose in mumbai you cd get behind a cow.

― katie (katie), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:04 (twenty-three years ago)

As far as I can tell, Katie, most of India is like that. We flew in to Calcutta airport and took a taxi into the city, and we'd been running for a good ten minutes before I worked out which side of the road you were supposed to be on. Direction at roundabouts is clockwise if there is a policeman, otherwise take the shortest route. Similarly, red lights only mean stop in conjunction with a policeman. Negotiating cows, people, bikes, rickshaws, autorickshaws, motorbikes, cars, taxis, busses and trucks, all at once, all weaving and aiming for any space one inch wide than their vehicle, or if there isn't one aiming at something smaller and blowing your horn. It's even more fun when it gets dark, since lights are pretty optional even on motor vehicles. I couldn't believe that I only saw one accident happen in two weeks, but we were mostly in quieter areas.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 16:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I like driving on the 401. That's the one that goes from Kingston to Buffalo, isn't it? There's like, NO speed limit on that road. They say 100, meaning kilometers, but everyone takes it to mean MPH.

hehe, yehaw! The 401 is indeed the highway that goes from Detroit up into Gaspe eventually under the nome of 20 est at recomended minimun of 100, if your under 140 you normally wont get pulled over, 150 and your a dead man though. You get the QEW from Hamilton to Buffalo though and the Skyway can or used to be a bit silly at times in high wind.
I don' know, I just thought the 40 across Montreal's north side is mental with its nonexistant merge lanes and giant concrete walls on the side.
Don't worry Sundar, you'll get used to people not cutting you off all the time and squeezing into any available space for no reasn at all. Montreal and the 136 (or is it 138 through Cabano) aside, Quebec is the greatest place to lay rubber.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 17:10 (twenty-three years ago)

i suppose in mumbai you cd get behind a cow.

I've heard that in India if a cobra appears -- even in the middle of the road -- people will set up a shrine to the thing and drivers are expected to drive around it.

But the DC area is the worst -- someone just mentions rain and immediately everyone forgets how to drive.

― j.lu (j.lu), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 18:18 (twenty-three years ago)

There are quiet areas in Calcutta?

― Kris (aqueduct), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 19:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks everyone. I feel much better now. I was mostly just bitter at the rush-hour gridlock trying to get home on Steeles. (See, in Montreal people do what it takes to get from point A to point B.) Now that I have a bike I'm able to make the trip in decent time.

Yes, Mumbai is worse.

― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 18 September 2002 15:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, Kris, I meant that we were mostly in quieter areas of India - but also, yes, there are more and less busy areas of Calcutta, though it would probably be pushing it to use the word "quiet", even so. If you get outside the centre and the tourist bits, it's not all so busy. Even the area around the botanical gardens, with the world's most bizarre tree*, isn't very busy.

*I confess that I have not examined them all.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 17:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Riding a bike down Steeles does sound rough. Though its a beautiful little 2 lane road out east around Sewells area.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 17:49 (twenty-three years ago)

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