As another Fake Londoner who lives in Toronto, I totally agree with Kerleem on this! It's frustrating to drive here. The only thing that was missing was what the 401 looks like for 6 hours a day with rush hour.
I've driven to Toronto a few times like on vacation and lemme tell ya, it doesn't matter if it's rush hour or the weekend, all 16 lanes of the 401 are gonna be choked with trucks and SUVs as far as the eye can see. If you google "busiest highway in the world", first thing that pops up is the 401. It's all too familiar now that when we enter Toronto, my dad picks up his phone, calls his friends we're meeting for dinner that night, and telling them "gimme like another hour and a half"
There are a number of choke points where traffic gets that bad along the GTA stretch of the 401. Out near the airport to around the Eglinton exit, Allen road and Yorkdale mall to Yonge St, right at the DVP/404, and right at Kennedy. I only drive as far east as that, so I'm sure there are more. But my drive experience from Scarborough to Niagara Falls, I find thats where the 401 will always be bumper to bumper, in or out of rush hour, with or without construction or accidents. And God forbid if you get hit with all the above.
It's WAY too easy to obtain a driver's license in Ontario. We let every moron and incapable fool through the system (more drivers = more insurance, more cars, more repairs, more gas = more tax revenue). Lower speed limits = more tickets = more revenue for the province.
Problem is that in the USA you learn driving from your parents who also learned it from their parents....in The Netherlands we learn driving by teachers. Professionals. Also much more difficult to get your driver license. Also is our road design much better. Understanding how to let traffic drive slower in certain ways when it's needed.
Calling them professionals is exaggerating it a bit. To become a driving instructor you have to follow a couple more lessons and get a certificate. I actually wouldn't mind having a law passed where the driving school is held partially accountable for accidents caused within the first 3 years of someone getting their license. A big reason why drivers are also more disciplined is because driving isn't as much a necessity. So if you drive in a dangerous way it's quite likely you'll have your license revoked. So a lot of the undisciplined drivers just are not allowed on the road. However in the US and Canada you can't really do that as driving is a requirement. That's another reason to have more alternatives to driving. It allows governments to take assholes off the road without essentially making them prisoners in their own homes. If you have viable alternatives for driving then driving can indeed be a privilege. A privilege you have to earn and one that can be taken away from you if you don't deserve it.
In Toronto, you are required to be trained by a school/instructor with credentials from the ministry of transportation. The problem is that with so many immigrants who don't speak much english, they turn to those schools that specialize in their native tongue. And that leaves out a ton of important lessons. My wife did this, and she always calls me asking me about what to do in certain situations. And I ask her "didn't they teach you this in driving school?" And she should know by now that my question is rhetorical.
7:10 I LOATHE traffic light intersections like this with a passion. This could have been a roundabout but far too many Americans and Canadians dislike them because they dont understand how they work
@@automation7295 - except that it's not legal in any jurisdiction in North America to make a left turn into the right lane...🙄 BTW, I live about 20 miles away from that intersection and have had a drivers license for more than 40 years...
@@markchapel6694 Ah yes... Everything seems to be illegal in North America, except for the stupid right on red is completely legal in most places in NA.
@@automation7295 - - if people make their respective turns safely, right turns on a red light are completely safe for drivers as well as pedestrians and reduce pollution.
I'm from Ireland and lived in Canada for a bit. I've never understood the left turn traffic light thing. Also why do you guys not have roundabouts in the USA/Canada?! They would save so much time and make things safer. Instead there are traffic lights at almost every junction...ridiculous if you ask me!
The worst thing is having highways/express roads with onramps and offramps attached to the rest of road system with a bunch of traffic lights instead of a roundabout. Even if you don't want to merge onto them you still are hold up by multiple lights pouring that traffic into your local area. It leads to dangerous situations at night, where you might focus on the wrong green light while missing the red one right in front of you. Or while on highways you sometimes have red lights pointed at you, but not meant for you but for the people on the offramp. Abroad it also makes merging onto the correct onramp a nightmare. With a roundabout you just yield once, then turn right at the correct signpost for your destination. At multiple intersections you have to figure out the correct direction on each one, merge into the correct lane beforehand, so you can actually turn where you want to go while you have to yield oncoming traffic and pedestrians. Some places you have to turn left then right to not end up on the wrong side of the highway and figure all this out beforehand. And yes, these places exist in Continental Europe too. It's not all perfect here...
Take it for what it's worth, I guess not every NA driver could understand proper use of roundabouts, lane selection on approach, priority and signal, because there really aren't as many as you have in Europe. What happens if you put these spinning circles there when there's no such common sense? would be chaotic
People in Canada are stuck in their ways. When a mayor here in the King township region, installed a roundabout to relieve traffic congestion at a country intersection that only had stop signs (for one road only, the other road not having any stop signs), the people hated it so much that they voted out that mayor in the following election. Now they plan on replacing the roundable with a set of traffic lights, for a cost of $300,000.
I'm waiting to see if Jason from the TH-cam channel *Not Just Bikes* has anything to say about driving in Toronto or anywhere else in Ontario Province😜
Using blinking red brake lights as turn signals is terrible and banned everywhere else in the world. Especially with blinking brake lights now being used to signal emergency braking.
@@Kerleem Also when there's sunlight coming from the back, reflection on the rear lights could look pretty confusing, have to go through some thinking process to figure out wether it is signalling, braking or just the reflection
I never understood why the regular taillights are red, green would make much more sense. Imagine a busy highway at night, if people would start braking the difference would be intense. If it is raining or a bit foggy you don't even need to see the lights directly you could see the spray/fog changing color from cars you can't even see.
@@MayContainJoe I don't mean the brake light, just the regular tail light ... that should not signal 'danger', it isn't a danger. Just a car driving in front of you.
I live in a neighborhood that is mostly populated with people with different cultures. And it inlcudes driving culture. 95% of the people fail to stop in a stop sign, respect preferences when there are multiple cars in a all-way stop sign, yield to pedestrians, turn right on red sign, parking in prohibited areas, etc. I feel that people don't want adapt their lifes to Canadian rules, and they live by their rules ignoring that they are in a different country. I'm not canadian but I try to respect and adapt to this new reality and it is very frustrating that people disrespect the law and they are 100% they are on their right, because they just assumed here it's like in their country and never searched, or suspected that a different country may have a different way of life. Poor Canada. If you want to know what is Canada, don't go to Toronto or GTA.
I implore you to do a video on Vancouver and the GVA. It is deplorable. Our drivers drive slower than our already slow speed limits, our lights are all off balance and against the flow of traffic, our highways and suburbs are always clogged with traffic, and driving from Langley to Abbotsford during rush hour takes about an hour. Sometimes it takes me 25 minutes to get from my house out onto Highway 1, and im up the hill from a connecting highway! We need more lanes, less lights and better drivers. But instead the provincial government and municipalities like Vancouver hate drivers, and we have bike lanes everywhere and bus lanes and HOV lanes. The HOV lanes are filled with single passenger cars because most of the time all the lanes are clogged and the HOV lane is moving. I personally dont break the rules as I got caught once and ticketed. But I see the reasons people do it. Another bizarre move is a lot of streets in cities will have trees in the middle of the road surrounded by medians and it serves as a divider between opposing lanes. But every season we have lanes being blocked off so the city can take care of the plants and trees. This causes more traffic, and more spending just to put some foliage which arguably could be on the side of the road instead, or better yet- not there at all. I have come to the conclusion that there is a war on the driver. We are put in terrible driving conditions and never truly experience real "driving" until you pass hope, and even then there are tons of cops along the highway wanting to ticket you. Its all a sick game.
Vancouver & BC has notoriously low speed limits. Most of the trans Canada highway is 80 - 100 km/h and some of the big roads (Such as Gaglardi Way up to SFU) are a 60 zone when its a wide highway in a desolate area. It's annoying as hell
Nothing in Europe will ever work in Canadian/USA cities for one reason - no one cares, lol. Born in raised in Toronto myself, and it's simply lack of care. My lane, my speed, my time, my way. Left turns are as normal to us as a roundabout is to Europe. With the amount of intersections in the city, there's no way that could ever be implemented. In the far-out suburbs, yes, in the city, no.
We have that in B.C. Only problem is by time the information gets relayed to the DoT and the signs changed the conditions have changed. Basically its what you should have been doing 2 hours or more back. I've driven through one section that had the speed posted as 110 and not one was going over 60. Been on another section that was posted at 70 and the road was bare and dry by that time. Idea is great just need better communication.
A big problem is that people ignore signs in Toronto A LOT. We're a "drive by habit" type creature where once we see the speed limit is 50kmph, we drive it at that or slightly above. Now some of our streets do have alternating speed limits based on zoning, like 30-40 limit in schools and residential zones, 60+ by highway ramps, but 50 throughout the rest of the same street (Brimley is like this from end to end at Kingston to 14th). But most people will travel the entire line doing at least 50. Changing things on them suddenly, while in the middle of their drive is going to confuse the heck out of them. Applying that to highways IMO could be disastrous.
I think Dutch and German drivers are very disciplined; I am not so sure about the rest of Western Europe. Especially in France and Denmark, people are glued to the middle lane. Very annoying.
Toronto's worst drive definitely is the 401. It's the world's busiest highway and there's the 407 and tolls of it are very high and requires transponders.
Toronto sucks. People speed, drive aggressively, and tailgate. Driving Downtown is worse because you hit every red light The 401 is jammed for like 7 hours out of the day. Also photo radar is also annoying
8:55 As someone living in Norway I can relate to that, the motorways and express roads here could easily handle a 10-20 kmh speed increase. Norwegians also have terrible lane discipline, not as bad as America but definitely a candidate for worst in western Europe.
Low speeds and lane discipline go hand in hand. Germany is the best example, they have almost perfect lane discipline, they have to at the fast stretches of the autobahn but also keep the lane discipline at the speed restricted parts of the autobahn,
Video suggestions? Belgium is regarded as having terrible roads here, but USA road and sidewalk state and quality often appears much worse. Curious to your perspective on that.
Interesting video. Question, are lanes considered a little more optional over there? Not to criticise your driving, it may be the camera angle in your case, but when you're going round that sliproad (on ramp) it looks like you're straddling the white line, is the right of that line not considered a shoulder? Also, the truck at 3:20 looks way over the solid line. The lack of a left turn arrow on the intersection you featured is strange. In the UK, we have lots of junctions that don't have a right turn arrow and some junctions have oncoming traffic move at the same time as you, some don't.. This makes it difficult to judge if and when it's safe to go. Regarding speed limits, the UK motorway speed limit is 70mph and is arguably one of the lowest in Europe to the extent that everyone does 80. Does Canada and the US have a points based system where repeat traffic offences, such as speeding, can see your licence taken away? That may help with driving standards if they don't..
Wow. Driving through Toronto is awful. People have terrible lane discipline, giving way to traffic at an intersection in a left turn lane under a traffic light that doesn't show a green arrow and the speed limit is 100 km/h inside and outside of a city. Outside of a city (which is in Ontario and Quebec) you can only drive at 100 km/h (60 MPH) and can't do 110 km/h (70 MPH), 120 km/h (75 MPH) and 130 km/h (80 MPH). As safe as cars are, you can do 110 km/h, 120 km/h and 130 km/h outside of cities on Ontario freeways and Quebec autoroutes. You have to be very, very skilled and have very good driving discipline behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. I am shocked at the highway system in Ontario and Quebec. Well, it isn't all bad. Ontario and all of Canada putting in roundabouts is a good idea. It is nice seeing Canada doing something like this, unlike the United States were people hate roundabouts and the metric system. If Ontario, the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and other parts of Canada take in the European speed limit laws of western Europe, and strict driving laws, I think driving will be better. 80 km/h or lower in the city or town and 110 km/h, 120 km/h and 130 km/h outside the city. Going 140 km/h, 150 km/h and 160 km/h should be illegal and you will be given a warning or a traffic ticket by the police for it. Or better yet, get caught by speed camera and have a ticket sent to you in the mail. That will work.
I was surprised by the poor traffic design, roads and driver's quality in Canada when I first landed here out of Europe. That's really horrible in many ways. I expected much more to be honest, from developed Country what Canada is pretended to be.
It's not a developed country. It was once a developed country, but by history only. If you consider and look at the achievements or situations Canada has done or been in in the past 50-60 years, it's very miniscule or poor. More like an undoing. So no, Canada is not a first-world developed country in reality.
You're absolutely right. Making a left turn in Toronto is one of the most stressful and difficult maneuvers I've ever encountered. The rules completely contradict what actually happens, and it all comes down to driver skill and luck. All left turns should have a special traffic light with enough time for, at least, five cars to turn, or, if not, be prohibited.
6:48 Belgium and Germany, take notes. Because this really, REALLY sucks. Even if it's just a single crossing lane. 10:04 Yes, let's make roundabout as big as we can make them to ensure high speeds. Come on Canada, you're better than this. That's not what roundabouts are meant for. Overall, as a Dutch guy, all of this looks like a horrible experience.
Just remember the roads are bigger there in general so it’s proportional. They couldn’t make them too small, as that would likely have a really negative effect
@@Kerleem You're missing the point, sadly. They aren't big because thr roads are wider. They're big because to American traffic engineers braking is akin to being a sin. Roundabouts are meant to force you to slow down. Many roundabouts in the US are biig enough to speed through them at 70-100km/h. Designs like that miss the pioint completely.
Victoria Australia would have to have some of the dumbest speed limits in the world. 100 km/h on roads that could easily be 130km/h, and 80 km/h on roads that used to be 100 or 110. If you think driving in Ontario sucks, Victoria is a bunch of speedo watching. Don't even think about speeding as there are unmarked hidden traps everywhere that ping you for doing as little as 2km/h over the limit ($227 1 demerit point). I am not joking. The tolerance is 2km/h and speed cameras are EVERYWHERE.
@@Kerleem yeah it's ridiculous isn't it. Unfortunately the state governments in Australia are addicted to the revenue they get from speeding under the guise that they are "saving your life".
North American road design sucks. Stop signs everywhere, traffic lights on a timed cycle only. And because there is no good alternative, everyone needs a car to go from a to b. If you like driving or not your stuck in the car. Dutch in Quebec.
According to car accident statistics, Canadian drivers are much better than Americans even though it might not seem like it. But obviously I agree with your video
Just refusing to use the right lane.. those people should be taken off the road. And they need to take a mandatory course that thoroughly explains them the why and how.
In British Columbia there are left turn arrows highest limit is 120 but driving in Vancouver is a whole different world mostly because of how mountainous the province is.
I'm born and raised Torontonian...but, yeah. Our infrastructure, our driving culture, its all crap. But I say this without a lot of experience in other jurisdictions. Outside of the GTA, I've only ever driven down to Boston both through Niagara Falls crossing, and out east in Quebec. But I have been to Miami and Ft Lauderdale Florida, Indianapolis Indiana, New Orleans Louisiana, Las Vegas Nevada, Manhattan and Long Island New York, San Francisco California, to experience the driving culture as a passenger. Back in my kid days, large and medium sedans ruled the road with small sedans starting to be introduced. SUVs didn't really come in till the mid 90s, but picked up quick after 2000. I've only started driving in 2006ish...bit of a late bloomer since I lived and worked downtown so car ownership and being licensed to drive was a low priority. And the SUV makes up almost my entire driving experience since. But I found this helpful when I did occasionally drive a smaller car like a Honda Civic CS or a larger vehicle like a Ford Transit 250. An SUV falls nicely in between both sized vehicles. In all that time of driving, people have become less courteous. People use to wave back at the very least when you let them in, same with bicyclists. Pedestrians use to look and see if its safe to cross, and wave thanks to those who stopped. The worst driving you'll find are from Beck taxi drivers who comes to a screeching halt for a red, coming within a foot of hitting a pedestrian thats in the middle of the zebra lines crossing on a green (yes, this happened to me a lot). Nowadays; people will cut you off, run red lights and stop signs, ride your 6 like you've got their favourite chocolate bar stuck up your butt, road rage when you give a light toot to wake them up from their cellphone coma, pedestrian dash across the road mid intersection at 5seconds worth of distance, cyclists cross 4 active lanes without so much as a glance (unless you honked at them for doing so 3ft from your bumper, and its just to glare at you), and my list goes on. Sure, there are more people living here now. Hence, theres a higher chance of running into more morons. But a lot of these attitudes I find are by people who are not naturalized Canadians. I take this from very close experience, as my wife whose been here for 12 years as this mentality. A traffic accident report that should take about 20mins to fill, takes over an hour with my help. I have to ask her 6 difference questions just to answer "At the time of collision, which direction was your vehicle facing?" since she kept giving me "I was on the road" "straight" "what does it matter?" "why is this relevant?"... But what makes things really bad is our infrastructure, coupled with some of our laws, add in expectations. For example; Adelaide and Richmond street back when I use to work downtown, were one way 3 drivable lanes across with an additional 1 for parking. And traffic during rush hour was bumper to bumper right through the core. Its now down to 2 drivable lanes, 1 barriered bike lane, and 1 shared parking and turning lane during weird hours, dates, or circumstances unless it states otherwise. Throw in the constant state of construction of roads and buildings, and its a total mess. I was downtown for a gig just 2 weeks ago. Without driving on the highway, it took me a little over 30mins to get to the jobsite just around rush hour. I finished around midnight, and it took me nearly an hour to get home with the highway. This was due to turn restrictions, construction causing traffic, streetcars causing backups, and a change in traffic light coordination.
7:18 you turned left into the right lane which is not legal lol. Toronto traffic sucks because there is more cars on the road. 20 years ago there was less traffic than there is now. Transit system isn't that great unless you live downtown. Makes people by cars instead.
When you’re already going 20 km/h over the limit to keep a safe distance from the car in front, but then someone speeds past, cuts you off, and brake-checks you… Classic Ontario driving!
Try to drive in Paris or any others big city (Lyon, Marseille) in France and don't miss a run on highway A6, you'll understand that the issue is the same on every big city.
I live in the GTA and I drive on the 403 in Mississauga nearly everyday. There is no "lane discipline" what so ever. I try to use the left lane only for passing and always go back into the middle lane. Problem is people in the middle lane drive horrendously slow. So you often find yourself having to constantly switch over to the left lane. To the point that it feels as if you're just bobbing & weaving through traffic. The HOV lanes don't help. When drivers want to merge back into the general lanes, they slow down the left lane. Drivers are often confused as to whether the HOV lanes constitute as a passing lane (cause it's the most "left" lane) or if it should be treated as a general lane. So you often see a lot of tailgating in HOV lanes. I never driven in Europe, but judging by Kerleem's videos, all the drivers seem to be working in unison to maintain the "flow". Where as here in the GTA, it's every driver for themselves.
In britian, on ‘smart motorways’ on the M6 especially, they have average speed check even if its 110, if the signs are advising 60; you will get a speed ticket.
Some sections of expressways in Ontario are 110 km/h. When I was a kid the speed limit on the 401 was 70 mph or 113 km/h. In BC some expressways have a speed limit of 120km/h. The unwritten rule in Canada is you can drive 10 km/h over the speed limit without getting a ticket. On the 401 you can usually drive 120-130 without worrying about getting a ticket. I have driven 140 km/h for long segments and never received a ticket but that is mostly because, especially compared to the USA, roads are lightly patrolled and there are no automatic speed cameras, like in Europe or Japan. When I was in Germany last summer, I drove a loop around Germany on the Autobahn and, when there was a no limit sign, I routinely drove over 200 km/h in my rental car. I am a highly skilled driver and it was no problem. I agree that drivers in North America in general are BAD and I honestly think American drivers are better than Canadian drivers, most likely due to stricter law enforcement.
One big part I never understood is the number of speed limits. Like why have a 45m/h speed limit? Why not make it either 40 or 50? Unfortunately it's happening the Netherlands as well now. You should keep the number of speed limits to a minimum. I think 15, 30, 50, 80, 100 and 120 is the right number.
Additionally: parking spots are massive, nearly every road is 4 lanes wide or more, but a lot of stuff that helps other road users is done kinda half-assed like the "traffic calming" you pointed out at 10:38. Edit: oh I forgot about the stop signs... Four-way stop signs everywhere. But 1/100 times you'll encounter a two-way stop to give you a mini heart attack.
Yeah, I have been doing full stops since my mom got a ticket when I was a kid. It's strange how they are almost used as "traffic-calming". Also too many drivers are in the habit of not stopping that it leads to safety issues for pedestrians and cyclists.
The worst drivers are in France and Italy. Toronto traffic is NOTHING compared to Paris and Rome or even London , Beijeung , Hong Kong , Tokyo or Delhi India. Are you kidding me about T.O. ? Get .....REAL.
Why is there so much traffic on a Saturday? I have rarely sat in a traffic jam in the Netherlands in the weekend. And when I did it was because of road construction, vehicle accidents or any other reason. I've never seen a traffic jam in the Netherland during the weekend soly because it was busy.
People all over North America travel for vacations on weekends since we don't have a High Speed Rail network like Europe covering the whole continent and packing up the whole family in the car is cheaper than flying. As a Canadian truck driver I see all the different plates from Provinces and US states on our highway system all over the Province of Ontario hauling boats, RV trailers etc.....
Could have something to do with Amsterdam having 823,000 people, and Toronto's GTA is 6,300,000. The size of a city has a lot to do with it. Traffic in Paris or London is very different to Amsterdam.
I know your pain same with me when I'm driving I think drivers need to have discipline and get elderly people off the roads and not be allowed to drive because they are one of the reasons thare are wrecks
I definitely think you should make a video on how driving in Montreal is even worse than in Toronto, when you have a chance to visit Montreal. The roads are much more poorly maintained, the highways and ramps are far poorly designed, and the traffic is so bad it makes rush hour on the DVP feel like a breeze. Also there are even fewer alternatives to driving in Montreal as bike lanes are virtually non-existent outside of downtown and that suburban transit is so expensive and terrible. Some stroads in Montreal have traffic lights every 500 meters (like Sherbrooke Street), making the driving slower than walking! While Toronto driving is bad compared to Europe, having experienced Montreal driving makes Toronto feel easy in comparison, not to mention even worse drivers in Montreal. In fact, the suburbs of Montreal are so car dependent that the whole greater Montreal area (3 million people) has more cars registered there than the whole of Randstad (8 million) in the Netherlands! Also, great channel! I got introduced to you through the newest video from Not Just Bikes!
June 2018 featured a video posted to TH-cam by CTV News, a major Canadian private-sector TV network (title: "Toronto commuting: Worst in North America, 6th-worse in world ") , about how Toronto had supposedly had been in the top 10 by worst commutes among world cities. Whether that classification was accurate back then or still is, there's little doubt that commuting in major cities in the Americas (at least those known to have populations of at least a million) isn't very good. Manhattan has some of the worst congestion I've seen anywhere I've visited, making me thankful not to be an owner or regular driver of a motor vehicle. Unless I need to supply a vehicle for work purposes, there likely will be little point for awhile to come for me to buy or long-term lease one. Using Uber, Lyft and public transit gets me to most places to which I normally want to go.
@@wainber1 Definitely agree with a lot of your experiences with congestion, though I have to say CTV was being quite dishonest here as it didn't even analyse every major city (they didn't make an effort to analyse the congestion in Montreal for instance), and so their findings should not be taken seriously. There are many cities in North America that have worse congestion than Toronto.
@Kerleem: in the city I live in, In New brunswick when the motor way become a round about, the max speed limit become 50Km/hours and because it his a motor way they still go 90Km/h in their, and some of them they don't even yield at a Yield sign. and because of this they change the max speed to 60Km/hour. Non motor-way round about his 30Km/hour and every one follow this, only a few don't yield. In a motor way that does not end in a round about, if the opposite traffic is a seperate lane seperated by grass or anything else that cause a seperation, the Max speed limited is 110Km/hours, and I notice that somepeople illegaly pass 2 car, and in some case if they want to pass one card they have no choice to pass two car because their is no space between the 2 cars, because they are tail gateing each other. A one lane motor way where the other lane is the opposite dirrection of traffic the speed limited is 100km/h, their as been an accident on that one yesturday, good think I was not driving their at that time, and I don't live near that place neither so I have no need to used that road. And in the city now most road got the full protective left turn, they are a few that it does not last long enough, and some that does not have it at all, and some that only have it on one side of the main traffic because it goes red, then solid green then solid green with full protective left turn, then it goes yellow for both of does before red again while the normal for it his red, then either you have red with full protective left arrow, right after red, or from red it goes to green with full protective left turn, then just green then yellow then red. What do I mean by full protective left turn, the green arrow his flashing that mean the pedestrian your going to cross just before ending your left turn are also stop, the non-flashing green left arrow mean protective left turn except for padestrian, meaning padestrian would have the cross walk light on, and/or no cross walk light at all while you have the protective left turn.
@@HJM9x Indeed, but I don't think there are too many of those around in America. I mean, with the exception of France, those aren't even common in Europe.
I live in this area and honestly its torture driving a sports car lol, no roundabouts, people think they own the road, left lane hogs, unnecessarily huge highways instead of actual systemic improvements. I think this stems a lot from a lack of education for drivers, passing on the left needs to be enforced more and needs to be tested upon getting a liscense. Ive seen people hog the left with emergency vehicles behind them trying to pass like its actually sad. Im only truly happy driving when its at night and I can go 140 for a bit on the empty 401 or on twisty back roads outside of the city. Also not having a left turn specific signal on traffic light intersections is just a horrible stop gap to increase flow rate. I love roundabouts and a lot of my friends do too, its mostly older people and people who dont care at all about driving and road ethics that hate roundabouts which is a lot of people. I still try to pass on the left when I can especially on a highway but its not always possible. People see the left lane as just the fast lane, this actually clogs it up even more than the other lanes. Right lane is all heavy trucks and the middle lane is bottlenecked by a turtle some 30 cars ahead. So you end up in a lose lose situation wherein the traffic is so frustrating sometimes Id rather take local roads to go 50 km anywhere. I hate the 401 absolutely a shit show....
Hello, nice video. Do you advise a family of 5 (3 kids) visiting Canada and planning on doing plenty visits to hire a car during a 2 week trip? what is the alternative if we do not hire a car? So we plan to visit places like Niagara falls and the likes. Cheers.
@@Kerleem Thanks a lot for the response. We actually intend to stay in Toronto and do not plan to visit any other cities during our two weeks stay. Do you think we shoud get a car? The kids are young (2 - 8 years) and so getting around with public transport might be a challenge?
I'm going to do a future video on this but in North America, turn signals are allowed to be red, and they can even be the same light as the brake light. I hate it
4th largest city in North America. Busiest highway in North America. (401) Largest underground shopping complex on earth. (THE PATH) World's first domed stadium with a retractable roof. 4th best for the standard of living anywhere. The tallest freestanding tower. The 416, Toe-ron-toe
at 7:07 the hair on my back just jezus jumped up , this is scarier then bats from hell wtf is this bullshit traffic that people allow this way of traffic ? O_O
I was born in Toronto lived there for 35 years and Toronto does suck because they can't even maintain their roads like most Canadian roads they use asphalt rather than concrete if they would use concrete it would cost more but it would be cheaper in the long run roads wouldn't have to be rebuilt over and over again every two years it'd be like more like a hundred years
@@rich7447 the bottom line is here in Canada that they don't maintain the roads probably that's the bottom line my point and actually if you add volcano ash salt cannot penetrate that is the whole point of the volcano ash
@@outdooraddventure I completely get it. The frost cycle does a number on the roads and there always seems to be a reason that they have to dig a hole in a freshly paved area. The road conditions were terrible when I lived in Ontario. I hadn't heard about volcano ash, but I do think it is pretty short supply in the GTA. Whenever I end up having to go to the in-laws place in the Beaches I get a reminder of how bad the roads really are. I'm usually driving a Ram 2500 (now sold) and I still feel the holes in the road surface.
Lack of driver discipline probably has to do with the fact that new drivers in Ontario don't need to take any lessons in order to get a license. Most ppl will take an MTO driver course, which teaches the basics and is mostly for insurance purposes, but most of the learning is done with parents. Also, I think cars are pretty big in Canada compared to Europe because first, they are cheaper, and second is because we have more immigrants. I think this is often overlooked by city planners but owning a car is very important for immigrants (who make up 50% of the GTA's population). This preference for cars and bigger homes is one reason why the majority of those living in our suburbs are immigrants.
When all vehicles can drive themselves and all of the people can all just sit back and let computers do all the driving instead that would be better. Maybe in 150 years nobody will need to drive cars anymore computers will be able to do it all.
The "Passing" thing, is that there is little to no ENFORCEMENT of 'drive right, pass left'. Where there IS enforcement, this 'scattered' driving doesn't happen. Also, I noticed that YOU made a left turn into the right lane, which is ILLEGAL....and dangerous.
Good point. I think the reality is that people already drive faster anyway so the 100 limit is a joke. And outside of Toronto, 100 limit is just painful
Yeah he said so much bad things about toronto lol. I'm from the Philippines and living in toronto. Go try driving in the philippines you might be crying after 2 days 😅
First-world people find things to complain about first world. Driving here is awesome and less stressful, much safer than in a lot of parts of the world...
I have to laugh! I spent the summer driving around Europe. Constant traffic jams on the autobahns, insane parking restrictions and a maze of one way streets in major cities. It is a joy to drive in Canada compared to almost anywhere else in the world, and I have driven on six continents. Try driving in metro Tokyo, like I used to do, where it could take an hour to advance 3 km.
I disagree. Your perspective is skewed because of how you are used to using a car in Canada (out of necessity instead of pleasure) so you’re more comfortable with “easy” driving
@@Kerleem Er, actually you have it backwards. I use a car for pleasure in Canada (and everywhere) because I don't work anymore (just manage my investments). It's all pleasure baby! Canada is one of the best countries in the world to drive. I have driven in over 25 countries around the world and been a passenger in 50 more on all continents so I know better than most. Expert.
I live in British Columbia (Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley). We use the the Trans Canada Highway (also known as Highway 1) most of the time to commute across the area and majority of it is 2 lanes one way and 100km/h speed limit. When there's little traffic, 90% of the time people are keeping right surprisingly, lane discipline is definitely better than most places in North America. But when it comes to higher volumes of traffic or 3 lanes or more, people go all over the place or pass in the right most lane and only use the middle lane. Speeding in BC is highly enforced by the RCMP (sometimes cameras in cities) camping on the shoulders in more dense areas and BC provincial law forces any cop to impound a vehicle doing 40km/h or more over the speed limit which is unfair in my opinion in most circumstances but it is what it is. I haven't been to Ontario yet but based on what I am seeing all the roads are basically enlarged versions of what I see out here. It's surreal that traffic engineers are just adding more and more lanes in an attempt to solve "congestion" when it literally just encourages more people to drive.
> complains about low speed limits in Canada > lives in the Netherlands, where the speed limit is 100 kph Yeah I know the speed limit is 130 during the night, but it’s still funny you decide to complain about it in Canada since most of the time the speed limit is also pretty low in NL.
Correct, and I hate it and I did a video on it. As you mention, it’s a daytime speed limit. The fact of the matter is the speed limit is higher on the highways in general at night.
There is no difference in where you live....LOL....99% of folks lack skills to operate their TV remotes never mind driving. What an asinine thing to say.
You complain about Toronto drivers while you are filming yourself driving in Toronto. Your camera is on your right and you keep turning your head to look at the camera. Hypocrisy. Cannot believe you were not in an accident on the TERRIBLE 401!!!!!!
@@Kerleem most of your subscribers are old boomers then lie and they never traveled outside of Canada or U.S. believe me Kerleem. 90% of Canadians never traveled outside of Canada and 85% of Americans never traveled outside of U.S. While 80% of Europeans traveled outside of Europe to different countries. If I was you I would unsubscribe all the boomers for their lies and make sure that only younger subscribers would subscribe to an channel
As another Fake Londoner who lives in Toronto, I totally agree with Kerleem on this! It's frustrating to drive here. The only thing that was missing was what the 401 looks like for 6 hours a day with rush hour.
I've driven to Toronto a few times like on vacation and lemme tell ya, it doesn't matter if it's rush hour or the weekend, all 16 lanes of the 401 are gonna be choked with trucks and SUVs as far as the eye can see. If you google "busiest highway in the world", first thing that pops up is the 401. It's all too familiar now that when we enter Toronto, my dad picks up his phone, calls his friends we're meeting for dinner that night, and telling them "gimme like another hour and a half"
There are a number of choke points where traffic gets that bad along the GTA stretch of the 401. Out near the airport to around the Eglinton exit, Allen road and Yorkdale mall to Yonge St, right at the DVP/404, and right at Kennedy. I only drive as far east as that, so I'm sure there are more. But my drive experience from Scarborough to Niagara Falls, I find thats where the 401 will always be bumper to bumper, in or out of rush hour, with or without construction or accidents. And God forbid if you get hit with all the above.
It's WAY too easy to obtain a driver's license in Ontario.
We let every moron and incapable fool through the system (more drivers = more insurance, more cars, more repairs, more gas = more tax revenue).
Lower speed limits = more tickets = more revenue for the province.
Problem is that in the USA you learn driving from your parents who also learned it from their parents....in The Netherlands we learn driving by teachers. Professionals. Also much more difficult to get your driver license. Also is our road design much better. Understanding how to let traffic drive slower in certain ways when it's needed.
Calling them professionals is exaggerating it a bit. To become a driving instructor you have to follow a couple more lessons and get a certificate.
I actually wouldn't mind having a law passed where the driving school is held partially accountable for accidents caused within the first 3 years of someone getting their license.
A big reason why drivers are also more disciplined is because driving isn't as much a necessity. So if you drive in a dangerous way it's quite likely you'll have your license revoked. So a lot of the undisciplined drivers just are not allowed on the road. However in the US and Canada you can't really do that as driving is a requirement.
That's another reason to have more alternatives to driving. It allows governments to take assholes off the road without essentially making them prisoners in their own homes.
If you have viable alternatives for driving then driving can indeed be a privilege. A privilege you have to earn and one that can be taken away from you if you don't deserve it.
In Toronto, you are required to be trained by a school/instructor with credentials from the ministry of transportation. The problem is that with so many immigrants who don't speak much english, they turn to those schools that specialize in their native tongue. And that leaves out a ton of important lessons. My wife did this, and she always calls me asking me about what to do in certain situations. And I ask her "didn't they teach you this in driving school?" And she should know by now that my question is rhetorical.
7:10
I LOATHE traffic light intersections like this with a passion. This could have been a roundabout but far too many Americans and Canadians dislike them because they dont understand how they work
...and to prove how dangerous left turns are....he makes a left turn into the right lane!🤣
@@markchapel6694 Does it really matter? What if it's legal to make a left turn into the right lane in Canada?
@@automation7295 - except that it's not legal in any jurisdiction in North America to make a left turn into the right lane...🙄
BTW, I live about 20 miles away from that intersection and have had a drivers license for more than 40 years...
@@markchapel6694 Ah yes... Everything seems to be illegal in North America, except for the stupid right on red is completely legal in most places in NA.
@@automation7295 - - if people make their respective turns safely, right turns on a red light are completely safe for drivers as well as pedestrians and reduce pollution.
I'm from Ireland and lived in Canada for a bit. I've never understood the left turn traffic light thing. Also why do you guys not have roundabouts in the USA/Canada?! They would save so much time and make things safer. Instead there are traffic lights at almost every junction...ridiculous if you ask me!
The worst thing is having highways/express roads with onramps and offramps attached to the rest of road system with a bunch of traffic lights instead of a roundabout. Even if you don't want to merge onto them you still are hold up by multiple lights pouring that traffic into your local area. It leads to dangerous situations at night, where you might focus on the wrong green light while missing the red one right in front of you. Or while on highways you sometimes have red lights pointed at you, but not meant for you but for the people on the offramp.
Abroad it also makes merging onto the correct onramp a nightmare. With a roundabout you just yield once, then turn right at the correct signpost for your destination. At multiple intersections you have to figure out the correct direction on each one, merge into the correct lane beforehand, so you can actually turn where you want to go while you have to yield oncoming traffic and pedestrians. Some places you have to turn left then right to not end up on the wrong side of the highway and figure all this out beforehand.
And yes, these places exist in Continental Europe too. It's not all perfect here...
Take it for what it's worth, I guess not every NA driver could understand proper use of roundabouts, lane selection on approach, priority and signal, because there really aren't as many as you have in Europe. What happens if you put these spinning circles there when there's no such common sense? would be chaotic
That’s why in Canada they put a lot of signage at new roundabouts
People in Canada are stuck in their ways. When a mayor here in the King township region, installed a roundabout to relieve traffic congestion at a country intersection that only had stop signs (for one road only, the other road not having any stop signs), the people hated it so much that they voted out that mayor in the following election. Now they plan on replacing the roundable with a set of traffic lights, for a cost of $300,000.
@@menguardingtheirownwallets6791 wow that’s insane
I'm waiting to see if Jason from the TH-cam channel *Not Just Bikes* has anything to say about driving in Toronto or anywhere else in Ontario Province😜
Haha I think he will agree
I do know he has a lot to say about "fake" London. And all these Stroads you see in this video are especially terrible...
You might see something in an upcoming NJB video ;)
@@Kerleem just released today , with a mention of your channel.
@@jeanmariegaillard545 The title of the video is "Why the Netherlands is the Best Country for Drivers
."
Using blinking red brake lights as turn signals is terrible and banned everywhere else in the world. Especially with blinking brake lights now being used to signal emergency braking.
Oh I agree 100%. I’m going to do a video on this. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves
@@Kerleem Also when there's sunlight coming from the back, reflection on the rear lights could look pretty confusing, have to go through some thinking process to figure out wether it is signalling, braking or just the reflection
I never understood why the regular taillights are red, green would make much more sense. Imagine a busy highway at night, if people would start braking the difference would be intense. If it is raining or a bit foggy you don't even need to see the lights directly you could see the spray/fog changing color from cars you can't even see.
@@buddy1155 Cars inherited red lights from trains where red lights signaled "danger" from the start, trains got the idea from nature.
@@MayContainJoe I don't mean the brake light, just the regular tail light ... that should not signal 'danger', it isn't a danger. Just a car driving in front of you.
I live in a neighborhood that is mostly populated with people with different cultures. And it inlcudes driving culture. 95% of the people fail to stop in a stop sign, respect preferences when there are multiple cars in a all-way stop sign, yield to pedestrians, turn right on red sign, parking in prohibited areas, etc. I feel that people don't want adapt their lifes to Canadian rules, and they live by their rules ignoring that they are in a different country. I'm not canadian but I try to respect and adapt to this new reality and it is very frustrating that people disrespect the law and they are 100% they are on their right, because they just assumed here it's like in their country and never searched, or suspected that a different country may have a different way of life. Poor Canada. If you want to know what is Canada, don't go to Toronto or GTA.
I implore you to do a video on Vancouver and the GVA. It is deplorable. Our drivers drive slower than our already slow speed limits, our lights are all off balance and against the flow of traffic, our highways and suburbs are always clogged with traffic, and driving from Langley to Abbotsford during rush hour takes about an hour.
Sometimes it takes me 25 minutes to get from my house out onto Highway 1, and im up the hill from a connecting highway!
We need more lanes, less lights and better drivers.
But instead the provincial government and municipalities like Vancouver hate drivers, and we have bike lanes everywhere and bus lanes and HOV lanes.
The HOV lanes are filled with single passenger cars because most of the time all the lanes are clogged and the HOV lane is moving.
I personally dont break the rules as I got caught once and ticketed.
But I see the reasons people do it.
Another bizarre move is a lot of streets in cities will have trees in the middle of the road surrounded by medians and it serves as a divider between opposing lanes.
But every season we have lanes being blocked off so the city can take care of the plants and trees. This causes more traffic, and more spending just to put some foliage which arguably could be on the side of the road instead, or better yet- not there at all.
I have come to the conclusion that there is a war on the driver. We are put in terrible driving conditions and never truly experience real "driving" until you pass hope, and even then there are tons of cops along the highway wanting to ticket you.
Its all a sick game.
Vancouver & BC has notoriously low speed limits. Most of the trans Canada highway is 80 - 100 km/h and some of the big roads (Such as Gaglardi Way up to SFU) are a 60 zone when its a wide highway in a desolate area. It's annoying as hell
That’s why nobody follows speed limits here
Nothing in Europe will ever work in Canadian/USA cities for one reason - no one cares, lol. Born in raised in Toronto myself, and it's simply lack of care. My lane, my speed, my time, my way. Left turns are as normal to us as a roundabout is to Europe. With the amount of intersections in the city, there's no way that could ever be implemented. In the far-out suburbs, yes, in the city, no.
Yeah, you're not wrong. It's a larger systemic problem.
Thanks for watching nonetheless!
They should do a system similar to Amsterdam on highways where the speed limit changes depending on the conditions
Everywhere needs this. I saw a similar system in Las Vegas th-cam.com/video/IHWYD4xilpQ/w-d-xo.html
We have that in B.C. Only problem is by time the information gets relayed to the DoT and the signs changed the conditions have changed. Basically its what you should have been doing 2 hours or more back. I've driven through one section that had the speed posted as 110 and not one was going over 60. Been on another section that was posted at 70 and the road was bare and dry by that time.
Idea is great just need better communication.
A big problem is that people ignore signs in Toronto A LOT. We're a "drive by habit" type creature where once we see the speed limit is 50kmph, we drive it at that or slightly above. Now some of our streets do have alternating speed limits based on zoning, like 30-40 limit in schools and residential zones, 60+ by highway ramps, but 50 throughout the rest of the same street (Brimley is like this from end to end at Kingston to 14th). But most people will travel the entire line doing at least 50. Changing things on them suddenly, while in the middle of their drive is going to confuse the heck out of them. Applying that to highways IMO could be disastrous.
I think Dutch and German drivers are very disciplined; I am not so sure about the rest of Western Europe. Especially in France and Denmark, people are glued to the middle lane. Very annoying.
Yeah. Still better than North America
Toronto's worst drive definitely is the 401. It's the world's busiest highway and there's the 407 and tolls of it are very high and requires transponders.
If those tolls weren't high then the traffic on that highway would be even worse.
Toronto sucks. People speed, drive aggressively, and tailgate.
Driving Downtown is worse because you hit every red light
The 401 is jammed for like 7 hours out of the day.
Also photo radar is also annoying
The lack of left turn signals is appalling.
Some intersections have it but yeah they don’t it’s awful
8:55 As someone living in Norway I can relate to that, the motorways and express roads here could easily handle a 10-20 kmh speed increase. Norwegians also have terrible lane discipline, not as bad as America but definitely a candidate for worst in western Europe.
Interesting! I’m going to have to visit and see for myself
Low speeds and lane discipline go hand in hand.
Germany is the best example, they have almost perfect lane discipline, they have to at the fast stretches of the autobahn but also keep the lane discipline at the speed restricted parts of the autobahn,
That's nearly the description of parisian drivers lol
Torontonian here from Not Just Bikes new video. Great vid!
Thanks!
Video suggestions? Belgium is regarded as having terrible roads here, but USA road and sidewalk state and quality often appears much worse. Curious to your perspective on that.
Belgium still has bad roads 😂
Interesting video. Question, are lanes considered a little more optional over there? Not to criticise your driving, it may be the camera angle in your case, but when you're going round that sliproad (on ramp) it looks like you're straddling the white line, is the right of that line not considered a shoulder? Also, the truck at 3:20 looks way over the solid line.
The lack of a left turn arrow on the intersection you featured is strange. In the UK, we have lots of junctions that don't have a right turn arrow and some junctions have oncoming traffic move at the same time as you, some don't.. This makes it difficult to judge if and when it's safe to go.
Regarding speed limits, the UK motorway speed limit is 70mph and is arguably one of the lowest in Europe to the extent that everyone does 80. Does Canada and the US have a points based system where repeat traffic offences, such as speeding, can see your licence taken away? That may help with driving standards if they don't..
Wow. Driving through Toronto is awful. People have terrible lane discipline, giving way to traffic at an intersection in a left turn lane under a traffic light that doesn't show a green arrow and the speed limit is 100 km/h inside and outside of a city. Outside of a city (which is in Ontario and Quebec) you can only drive at 100 km/h (60 MPH) and can't do 110 km/h (70 MPH), 120 km/h (75 MPH) and 130 km/h (80 MPH). As safe as cars are, you can do 110 km/h, 120 km/h and 130 km/h outside of cities on Ontario freeways and Quebec autoroutes. You have to be very, very skilled and have very good driving discipline behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. I am shocked at the highway system in Ontario and Quebec. Well, it isn't all bad. Ontario and all of Canada putting in roundabouts is a good idea. It is nice seeing Canada doing something like this, unlike the United States were people hate roundabouts and the metric system. If Ontario, the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and other parts of Canada take in the European speed limit laws of western Europe, and strict driving laws, I think driving will be better. 80 km/h or lower in the city or town and 110 km/h, 120 km/h and 130 km/h outside the city. Going 140 km/h, 150 km/h and 160 km/h should be illegal and you will be given a warning or a traffic ticket by the police for it. Or better yet, get caught by speed camera and have a ticket sent to you in the mail. That will work.
9:56 I saw a roundabout with dedicated bike lanes where the cars have to yield, aka a Dutch roundabout. Excellent: there is a movement to improvement.
I was surprised by the poor traffic design, roads and driver's quality in Canada when I first landed here out of Europe. That's really horrible in many ways. I expected much more to be honest, from developed Country what Canada is pretended to be.
That's North America for you....
It's not a developed country. It was once a developed country, but by history only. If you consider and look at the achievements or situations Canada has done or been in in the past 50-60 years, it's very miniscule or poor. More like an undoing. So no, Canada is not a first-world developed country in reality.
You're absolutely right. Making a left turn in Toronto is one of the most stressful and difficult maneuvers I've ever encountered. The rules completely contradict what actually happens, and it all comes down to driver skill and luck. All left turns should have a special traffic light with enough time for, at least, five cars to turn, or, if not, be prohibited.
definitely!
6:48 Belgium and Germany, take notes. Because this really, REALLY sucks. Even if it's just a single crossing lane.
10:04 Yes, let's make roundabout as big as we can make them to ensure high speeds. Come on Canada, you're better than this. That's not what roundabouts are meant for.
Overall, as a Dutch guy, all of this looks like a horrible experience.
Just remember the roads are bigger there in general so it’s proportional. They couldn’t make them too small, as that would likely have a really negative effect
@@Kerleem You're missing the point, sadly. They aren't big because thr roads are wider. They're big because to American traffic engineers braking is akin to being a sin.
Roundabouts are meant to force you to slow down. Many roundabouts in the US are biig enough to speed through them at 70-100km/h. Designs like that miss the pioint completely.
North America needs to invest in public transit.
They do kind of OK in Toronto but it’s not enough
And also High Speed Rail or atleast dedicated tracks for passenger trains separate from Freight trains.
@@JamesBond009 Yes, definitely.
@@Kerleem at least it’s way better than most cities in the USA of similar size. In many parts of the USA, public transit is literally nonexistent
@@hellfreezer3037 because no one wants to pay for it.
Victoria Australia would have to have some of the dumbest speed limits in the world. 100 km/h on roads that could easily be 130km/h, and 80 km/h on roads that used to be 100 or 110. If you think driving in Ontario sucks, Victoria is a bunch of speedo watching. Don't even think about speeding as there are unmarked hidden traps everywhere that ping you for doing as little as 2km/h over the limit ($227 1 demerit point). I am not joking. The tolerance is 2km/h and speed cameras are EVERYWHERE.
What? That’s crazy! 2 km/h tolerance is a bit absurd. 5-10 km/h should be the norm
@@Kerleem yeah it's ridiculous isn't it. Unfortunately the state governments in Australia are addicted to the revenue they get from speeding under the guise that they are "saving your life".
North American road design sucks. Stop signs everywhere, traffic lights on a timed cycle only. And because there is no good alternative, everyone needs a car to go from a to b. If you like driving or not your stuck in the car.
Dutch in Quebec.
According to car accident statistics, Canadian drivers are much better than Americans even though it might not seem like it. But obviously I agree with your video
Just refusing to use the right lane.. those people should be taken off the road. And they need to take a mandatory course that thoroughly explains them the why and how.
I know right? It’s just the driving culture there and it’s so frustrating 😩
@@Kerleem seems like the Netherlands is getting slightly worse too..
But, it's good to see I'm not the only one being frustrated about it.
In British Columbia there are left turn arrows highest limit is 120 but driving in Vancouver is a whole different world mostly because of how mountainous the province is.
as a Torontonian, I say where..?.😆
I'm born and raised Torontonian...but, yeah. Our infrastructure, our driving culture, its all crap. But I say this without a lot of experience in other jurisdictions. Outside of the GTA, I've only ever driven down to Boston both through Niagara Falls crossing, and out east in Quebec. But I have been to Miami and Ft Lauderdale Florida, Indianapolis Indiana, New Orleans Louisiana, Las Vegas Nevada, Manhattan and Long Island New York, San Francisco California, to experience the driving culture as a passenger.
Back in my kid days, large and medium sedans ruled the road with small sedans starting to be introduced. SUVs didn't really come in till the mid 90s, but picked up quick after 2000. I've only started driving in 2006ish...bit of a late bloomer since I lived and worked downtown so car ownership and being licensed to drive was a low priority. And the SUV makes up almost my entire driving experience since. But I found this helpful when I did occasionally drive a smaller car like a Honda Civic CS or a larger vehicle like a Ford Transit 250. An SUV falls nicely in between both sized vehicles.
In all that time of driving, people have become less courteous. People use to wave back at the very least when you let them in, same with bicyclists. Pedestrians use to look and see if its safe to cross, and wave thanks to those who stopped. The worst driving you'll find are from Beck taxi drivers who comes to a screeching halt for a red, coming within a foot of hitting a pedestrian thats in the middle of the zebra lines crossing on a green (yes, this happened to me a lot). Nowadays; people will cut you off, run red lights and stop signs, ride your 6 like you've got their favourite chocolate bar stuck up your butt, road rage when you give a light toot to wake them up from their cellphone coma, pedestrian dash across the road mid intersection at 5seconds worth of distance, cyclists cross 4 active lanes without so much as a glance (unless you honked at them for doing so 3ft from your bumper, and its just to glare at you), and my list goes on. Sure, there are more people living here now. Hence, theres a higher chance of running into more morons. But a lot of these attitudes I find are by people who are not naturalized Canadians. I take this from very close experience, as my wife whose been here for 12 years as this mentality. A traffic accident report that should take about 20mins to fill, takes over an hour with my help. I have to ask her 6 difference questions just to answer "At the time of collision, which direction was your vehicle facing?" since she kept giving me "I was on the road" "straight" "what does it matter?" "why is this relevant?"...
But what makes things really bad is our infrastructure, coupled with some of our laws, add in expectations. For example; Adelaide and Richmond street back when I use to work downtown, were one way 3 drivable lanes across with an additional 1 for parking. And traffic during rush hour was bumper to bumper right through the core. Its now down to 2 drivable lanes, 1 barriered bike lane, and 1 shared parking and turning lane during weird hours, dates, or circumstances unless it states otherwise. Throw in the constant state of construction of roads and buildings, and its a total mess. I was downtown for a gig just 2 weeks ago. Without driving on the highway, it took me a little over 30mins to get to the jobsite just around rush hour. I finished around midnight, and it took me nearly an hour to get home with the highway. This was due to turn restrictions, construction causing traffic, streetcars causing backups, and a change in traffic light coordination.
7:18 you turned left into the right lane which is not legal lol. Toronto traffic sucks because there is more cars on the road. 20 years ago there was less traffic than there is now. Transit system isn't that great unless you live downtown. Makes people by cars instead.
I don't plan on ever driving to Toronto unless it's only for taking my relative to where she needs to go.
When you’re already going 20 km/h over the limit to keep a safe distance from the car in front, but then someone speeds past, cuts you off, and brake-checks you… Classic Ontario driving!
Haha yep!
Try to drive in Paris or any others big city (Lyon, Marseille) in France and don't miss a run on highway A6, you'll understand that the issue is the same on every big city.
Oh I know!
That is so true! And these are still small cities compared to Toronto.
I live in the GTA and I drive on the 403 in Mississauga nearly everyday. There is no "lane discipline" what so ever. I try to use the left lane only for passing and always go back into the middle lane. Problem is people in the middle lane drive horrendously slow. So you often find yourself having to constantly switch over to the left lane. To the point that it feels as if you're just bobbing & weaving through traffic.
The HOV lanes don't help. When drivers want to merge back into the general lanes, they slow down the left lane. Drivers are often confused as to whether the HOV lanes constitute as a passing lane (cause it's the most "left" lane) or if it should be treated as a general lane. So you often see a lot of tailgating in HOV lanes.
I never driven in Europe, but judging by Kerleem's videos, all the drivers seem to be working in unison to maintain the "flow". Where as here in the GTA, it's every driver for themselves.
In britian, on ‘smart motorways’ on the M6 especially, they have average speed check even if its 110, if the signs are advising 60; you will get a speed ticket.
Omg those highways are straight out of a nightmare wtf
haha yeah
I think it’s fine.
@@urbanistgod you like bumper to bumper traffic in the middle of a Saturday? 😂
@@Kerleem I prefer North American urbanism, single family homes and space
Some sections of expressways in Ontario are 110 km/h. When I was a kid the speed limit on the 401 was 70 mph or 113 km/h. In BC some expressways have a speed limit of 120km/h. The unwritten rule in Canada is you can drive 10 km/h over the speed limit without getting a ticket. On the 401 you can usually drive 120-130 without worrying about getting a ticket. I have driven 140 km/h for long segments and never received a ticket but that is mostly because, especially compared to the USA, roads are lightly patrolled and there are no automatic speed cameras, like in Europe or Japan. When I was in Germany last summer, I drove a loop around Germany on the Autobahn and, when there was a no limit sign, I routinely drove over 200 km/h in my rental car. I am a highly skilled driver and it was no problem. I agree that drivers in North America in general are BAD and I honestly think American drivers are better than Canadian drivers, most likely due to stricter law enforcement.
Interesting perspective! Thanks for the comment!
One big part I never understood is the number of speed limits. Like why have a 45m/h speed limit?
Why not make it either 40 or 50?
Unfortunately it's happening the Netherlands as well now. You should keep the number of speed limits to a minimum. I think 15, 30, 50, 80, 100 and 120 is the right number.
Additionally: parking spots are massive, nearly every road is 4 lanes wide or more, but a lot of stuff that helps other road users is done kinda half-assed like the "traffic calming" you pointed out at 10:38.
Edit: oh I forgot about the stop signs... Four-way stop signs everywhere. But 1/100 times you'll encounter a two-way stop to give you a mini heart attack.
Yeah, I have been doing full stops since my mom got a ticket when I was a kid. It's strange how they are almost used as "traffic-calming".
Also too many drivers are in the habit of not stopping that it leads to safety issues for pedestrians and cyclists.
The worst drivers are in France and Italy. Toronto traffic is NOTHING compared to Paris and Rome or even London , Beijeung , Hong Kong , Tokyo or Delhi India. Are you kidding me about T.O. ? Get .....REAL.
🤣🤣
Sure but the 401 has 16 lanes and no one knows how to use them. At least there’s some order to the chaos on the highways around Paris.
@@Kerleemnot 16 lanes. 401 has 22 lanes.. check google
@@classicdufferin8739 yeah so that makes it even worse lol
@@Kerleemeuropean highways are so small compare to north america. The size of canada alone will swallow the entire europe lmao
When you’re complaining about the paucity of flashing arrows for those turning left, you appear to be turning into the right-hand lane.
yes
Just fitting in with the locals, unfortunately.
Why is there so much traffic on a Saturday? I have rarely sat in a traffic jam in the Netherlands in the weekend. And when I did it was because of road construction, vehicle accidents or any other reason. I've never seen a traffic jam in the Netherland during the weekend soly because it was busy.
It’s crazy in Toronto now. There’s no “less traffic” days anymore.
People all over North America travel for vacations on weekends since we don't have a High Speed Rail network like Europe covering the whole continent and packing up the whole family in the car is cheaper than flying. As a Canadian truck driver I see all the different plates from Provinces and US states on our highway system all over the Province of Ontario hauling boats, RV trailers etc.....
Could have something to do with Amsterdam having 823,000 people, and Toronto's GTA is 6,300,000. The size of a city has a lot to do with it. Traffic in Paris or London is very different to Amsterdam.
That must be so tiring on a long trip, people not moving over to the right.
It's incredibly frustrating 😅
And it's so easy!
I just don't get it...
I know your pain same with me when I'm driving I think drivers need to have discipline and get elderly people off the roads and not be allowed to drive because they are one of the reasons thare are wrecks
I definitely think you should make a video on how driving in Montreal is even worse than in Toronto, when you have a chance to visit Montreal. The roads are much more poorly maintained, the highways and ramps are far poorly designed, and the traffic is so bad it makes rush hour on the DVP feel like a breeze. Also there are even fewer alternatives to driving in Montreal as bike lanes are virtually non-existent outside of downtown and that suburban transit is so expensive and terrible. Some stroads in Montreal have traffic lights every 500 meters (like Sherbrooke Street), making the driving slower than walking! While Toronto driving is bad compared to Europe, having experienced Montreal driving makes Toronto feel easy in comparison, not to mention even worse drivers in Montreal.
In fact, the suburbs of Montreal are so car dependent that the whole greater Montreal area (3 million people) has more cars registered there than the whole of Randstad (8 million) in the Netherlands!
Also, great channel! I got introduced to you through the newest video from Not Just Bikes!
June 2018 featured a video posted to TH-cam by CTV News, a major Canadian private-sector TV network (title: "Toronto commuting: Worst in North America, 6th-worse in world
") , about how Toronto had supposedly had been in the top 10 by worst commutes among world cities. Whether that classification was accurate back then or still is, there's little doubt that commuting in major cities in the Americas (at least those known to have populations of at least a million) isn't very good. Manhattan has some of the worst congestion I've seen anywhere I've visited, making me thankful not to be an owner or regular driver of a motor vehicle. Unless I need to supply a vehicle for work purposes, there likely will be little point for awhile to come for me to buy or long-term lease one. Using Uber, Lyft and public transit gets me to most places to which I normally want to go.
@@wainber1 Definitely agree with a lot of your experiences with congestion, though I have to say CTV was being quite dishonest here as it didn't even analyse every major city (they didn't make an effort to analyse the congestion in Montreal for instance), and so their findings should not be taken seriously. There are many cities in North America that have worse congestion than Toronto.
That’s false. I live in Montreal and Montreal has a lot of bike lanes, especially compared to most North American cities.
@@urbanistgod In the downtown areas, yes. In the suburbs like West Island and Laval/North Shore, very few bike lanes and transit.
@@naturallyherb West Island isn’t even part of Montreal. Why would you make cycle lanes everywhere in suburbs?
In Canada it's more about reading & driving than seeing & driving. SOOO MANY SIGNS 😩
No way! Driving in Toronto is so aggressive, I can't imagine someone reading and doing that. Either way, not a great idea!
9:55 why is that roundabout 2 lanes? you will never see that in the Netherlands, except at turbo roundabouts
Yeah it was a two lane road so they continued that for the roundabout as well
@@Kerleem that two lane road can also be an one lane road. i don't see any traffic
@@CasperGamess that’s Canada/America for you!
Because North Americans have no clue how to implement sustainable safety and efficient traffic flow.
@Kerleem: in the city I live in, In New brunswick when the motor way become a round about, the max speed limit become 50Km/hours and because it his a motor way they still go 90Km/h in their, and some of them they don't even yield at a Yield sign. and because of this they change the max speed to 60Km/hour. Non motor-way round about his 30Km/hour and every one follow this, only a few don't yield. In a motor way that does not end in a round about, if the opposite traffic is a seperate lane seperated by grass or anything else that cause a seperation, the Max speed limited is 110Km/hours, and I notice that somepeople illegaly pass 2 car, and in some case if they want to pass one card they have no choice to pass two car because their is no space between the 2 cars, because they are tail gateing each other. A one lane motor way where the other lane is the opposite dirrection of traffic the speed limited is 100km/h, their as been an accident on that one yesturday, good think I was not driving their at that time, and I don't live near that place neither so I have no need to used that road. And in the city now most road got the full protective left turn, they are a few that it does not last long enough, and some that does not have it at all, and some that only have it on one side of the main traffic because it goes red, then solid green then solid green with full protective left turn, then it goes yellow for both of does before red again while the normal for it his red, then either you have red with full protective left arrow, right after red, or from red it goes to green with full protective left turn, then just green then yellow then red. What do I mean by full protective left turn, the green arrow his flashing that mean the pedestrian your going to cross just before ending your left turn are also stop, the non-flashing green left arrow mean protective left turn except for padestrian, meaning padestrian would have the cross walk light on, and/or no cross walk light at all while you have the protective left turn.
Abu Dhabi has best Road System. Easy to drive as roads are organised and have good lane rules..
in a lot of main streets speed limit is down to 40 km/h
Nice
where most toronto drivers still drive 60 km/h. lol
I still can't wrap my head around why North Americans hate roundabouts so much.
Me either!
Roundabouts only work well with 2 or 4 lanes, with more lanes roundabouts suck
@@HJM9x yeah, I wish every 4 way stop could be replaced with a roundabout
@@HJM9x Indeed, but I don't think there are too many of those around in America. I mean, with the exception of France, those aren't even common in Europe.
I live in this area and honestly its torture driving a sports car lol, no roundabouts, people think they own the road, left lane hogs, unnecessarily huge highways instead of actual systemic improvements. I think this stems a lot from a lack of education for drivers, passing on the left needs to be enforced more and needs to be tested upon getting a liscense. Ive seen people hog the left with emergency vehicles behind them trying to pass like its actually sad. Im only truly happy driving when its at night and I can go 140 for a bit on the empty 401 or on twisty back roads outside of the city. Also not having a left turn specific signal on traffic light intersections is just a horrible stop gap to increase flow rate. I love roundabouts and a lot of my friends do too, its mostly older people and people who dont care at all about driving and road ethics that hate roundabouts which is a lot of people. I still try to pass on the left when I can especially on a highway but its not always possible. People see the left lane as just the fast lane, this actually clogs it up even more than the other lanes. Right lane is all heavy trucks and the middle lane is bottlenecked by a turtle some 30 cars ahead. So you end up in a lose lose situation wherein the traffic is so frustrating sometimes Id rather take local roads to go 50 km anywhere. I hate the 401 absolutely a shit show....
It is really terrible I agree
Yeah it can be!
Hello, nice video. Do you advise a family of 5 (3 kids) visiting Canada and planning on doing plenty visits to hire a car during a 2 week trip? what is the alternative if we do not hire a car? So we plan to visit places like Niagara falls and the likes.
Cheers.
You almost definitely need a car in Canada h less you’re going to stay only within a major city like Toronto.
@@Kerleem Thanks a lot for the response. We actually intend to stay in Toronto and do not plan to visit any other cities during our two weeks stay. Do you think we shoud get a car? The kids are young (2 - 8 years) and so getting around with public transport might be a challenge?
@@advancednationality7651 public transport would probably be fine in that case
@0:17you’ll see a car using there turn signal to go right and it’s red, why do Americans cars do that
I'm going to do a future video on this but in North America, turn signals are allowed to be red, and they can even be the same light as the brake light. I hate it
4th largest city in North America.
Busiest highway in North America. (401)
Largest underground shopping complex on earth. (THE PATH)
World's first domed stadium with a retractable roof.
4th best for the standard of living anywhere.
The tallest freestanding tower.
The 416,
Toe-ron-toe
yep
The CN tower isn’t the tallest structure in the world. Dubai’s burj khalifa dwarfs it.
@@YZAK007 The tallest freestanding tower.
at 7:07 the hair on my back just jezus jumped up , this is scarier then bats from hell wtf is this bullshit traffic that people allow this way of traffic ? O_O
It’s crazy right!!
I was born in Toronto lived there for 35 years and Toronto does suck because they can't even maintain their roads like most Canadian roads they use asphalt rather than concrete if they would use concrete it would cost more but it would be cheaper in the long run roads wouldn't have to be rebuilt over and over again every two years it'd be like more like a hundred years
Have you seen what salt does to concrete? There used to be more roads made of concrete in Canada and a lot of them were just paved over.
@@rich7447 the bottom line is here in Canada that they don't maintain the roads probably that's the bottom line my point and actually if you add volcano ash salt cannot penetrate that is the whole point of the volcano ash
@@outdooraddventure I completely get it. The frost cycle does a number on the roads and there always seems to be a reason that they have to dig a hole in a freshly paved area. The road conditions were terrible when I lived in Ontario. I hadn't heard about volcano ash, but I do think it is pretty short supply in the GTA.
Whenever I end up having to go to the in-laws place in the Beaches I get a reminder of how bad the roads really are. I'm usually driving a Ram 2500 (now sold) and I still feel the holes in the road surface.
I understand what you're saying all I'm saying is they can do a better job the infrastructure is in decline in the past 20 years
Lack of driver discipline probably has to do with the fact that new drivers in Ontario don't need to take any lessons in order to get a license. Most ppl will take an MTO driver course, which teaches the basics and is mostly for insurance purposes, but most of the learning is done with parents.
Also, I think cars are pretty big in Canada compared to Europe because first, they are cheaper, and second is because we have more immigrants. I think this is often overlooked by city planners but owning a car is very important for immigrants (who make up 50% of the GTA's population). This preference for cars and bigger homes is one reason why the majority of those living in our suburbs are immigrants.
If you don’t take drivers school you’ll get punished in terms of insurance
Should try driving in Boston Massachusetts. They bump you all over the place.
PAHK THE CAH IN BAWSTUN
As a european I think driving in Toronto looks okay.
lol you need to experience it! I think you’d have a different opinion then
When all vehicles can drive themselves and all of the people can all just sit back and let computers do all the driving instead that would be better. Maybe in 150 years nobody will need to drive cars anymore computers will be able to do it all.
@@shadowtiger2363 I hope I am not alive anymore to see that 😆
Next up, Why driving in INDIA is PAINFUL...
I was born & still live in America but the driving here Sucks to believe me !!!
The "Passing" thing, is that there is little to no ENFORCEMENT of 'drive right, pass left'. Where there IS enforcement, this 'scattered' driving doesn't happen. Also, I noticed that YOU made a left turn into the right lane, which is ILLEGAL....and dangerous.
whoops
Wait, you want higher speed limits for unskilled terrible drivers?
Good point. I think the reality is that people already drive faster anyway so the 100 limit is a joke. And outside of Toronto, 100 limit is just painful
wait till you drive here in the philippines.
😆
Yeah he said so much bad things about toronto lol. I'm from the Philippines and living in toronto. Go try driving in the philippines you might be crying after 2 days 😅
@@classicdufferin8739 or worse. get a heart attack. god forbid
@@classicdufferin8739 HAHAHAHAHA Multiple bad drivers in this video are actually Filipino! Also, Canada's car-dependent like Philippines.
@@Mart_7512 hahaa wrong they are indiana not filipino lmao.
First-world people find things to complain about first world. Driving here is awesome and less stressful, much safer than in a lot of parts of the world...
LOL
Can you do videos on UK driving
Want to buy me a plane ticket? 😆
It’s like that here in the US, too.
10:42 there are bicycle signals but they are dumb they don`t help cyclists in any meaningful way
It’s better than nothing. And they’re making progress.
hyundai santa fe is big ??? ok .
Have you seen European "supermini" class cars? They're tiny in comparison. So yes, the Santa Fe is quite large actually.
California have wider highways .... and am guessing TX too
Yes Texas as well but Toronto is up there!
What would you say about the traffic situation in India! :D
india is chaos
I have to laugh! I spent the summer driving around Europe. Constant traffic jams on the autobahns, insane parking restrictions and a maze of one way streets in major cities. It is a joy to drive in Canada compared to almost anywhere else in the world, and I have driven on six continents. Try driving in metro Tokyo, like I used to do, where it could take an hour to advance 3 km.
I disagree. Your perspective is skewed because of how you are used to using a car in Canada (out of necessity instead of pleasure) so you’re more comfortable with “easy” driving
@@Kerleem Er, actually you have it backwards. I use a car for pleasure in Canada (and everywhere) because I don't work anymore (just manage my investments). It's all pleasure baby! Canada is one of the best countries in the world to drive. I have driven in over 25 countries around the world and been a passenger in 50 more on all continents so I know better than most. Expert.
@@BrianBaileyedtech enjoy your 100km/h speed limits!
@@Kerleem No one drives the speed limit. 130-140 is fine on the 401.
@@Kerleem However, I am travelling around the world, for the past 5 years.
I live in British Columbia (Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley). We use the the Trans Canada Highway (also known as Highway 1) most of the time to commute across the area and majority of it is 2 lanes one way and 100km/h speed limit. When there's little traffic, 90% of the time people are keeping right surprisingly, lane discipline is definitely better than most places in North America. But when it comes to higher volumes of traffic or 3 lanes or more, people go all over the place or pass in the right most lane and only use the middle lane. Speeding in BC is highly enforced by the RCMP (sometimes cameras in cities) camping on the shoulders in more dense areas and BC provincial law forces any cop to impound a vehicle doing 40km/h or more over the speed limit which is unfair in my opinion in most circumstances but it is what it is. I haven't been to Ontario yet but based on what I am seeing all the roads are basically enlarged versions of what I see out here. It's surreal that traffic engineers are just adding more and more lanes in an attempt to solve "congestion" when it literally just encourages more people to drive.
110 in the max between Hamilton and St Catharines
Still too slow
@@Kerleem no it’s not
@@Kerleem if u set the max speed to 120. Ppl will then go 135-145
@@Ayonksdrums good. That’s the case on a lot of European roads
@@Ayonksdrums you think 120 is too fast?
> complains about low speed limits in Canada
> lives in the Netherlands, where the speed limit is 100 kph
Yeah I know the speed limit is 130 during the night, but it’s still funny you decide to complain about it in Canada since most of the time the speed limit is also pretty low in NL.
Correct, and I hate it and I did a video on it. As you mention, it’s a daytime speed limit. The fact of the matter is the speed limit is higher on the highways in general at night.
Trucks and SUV’s.
Wow this guy should just WALK!!!
Good luck doing that in the GTA as well, it's terrible to be a pedestrian there too!
@@Kerleem Sounds like you have a hate on for the people of Toronto! I think we need to take everything you say with a grain of salt.
@@discoveryman59 have you heard of NotJustBikes on TH-cam? You’re in for a treat
@@Kerleem Probably the most biased channel on youtube.
I find this video "so - so"
Why is that so
There is no difference in where you live....LOL....99% of folks lack skills to operate their TV remotes never mind driving. What an asinine thing to say.
What?
@@Kerleem Exactly
Buddy go play your shitty games. You probably a kid and do not have a car. Grow the he'll up from those games
Fast drivers are the worst
In Toronto yea
The law requires you to go 100km ph. on most Ontario highways. Obey our laws. If you don't agree with our laws stay off our roads.
Canadians don’t even go 100 so don’t give me that BS
@@Kerleemlol you really think that folks in toronto follow the 100 speed limit? Hahaha i drive 401 everyday and everyone at 120 kph -140kph. Lol
@@classicdufferin8739 I know..hence my previous comment. Direct your comment to the OP…
You complain about Toronto drivers while you are filming yourself driving in Toronto. Your camera is on your right and you keep turning your head to look at the camera.
Hypocrisy. Cannot believe you were not in an accident on the TERRIBLE 401!!!!!!
🤣🤣🤣
I drove BETTER than the other drivers who weren’t filming themselves 😎
@@Kerleem most of your subscribers are old boomers then lie and they never traveled outside of Canada or U.S. believe me Kerleem. 90% of Canadians never traveled outside of Canada and 85% of Americans never traveled outside of U.S. While 80% of Europeans traveled outside of Europe to different countries. If I was you I would unsubscribe all the boomers for their lies and make sure that only younger subscribers would subscribe to an channel
He's wearing sunglasses, you won't see where he's actually looking in this video.
This guy complaining worse than a toronto 🙄 girl man shutup and be grateful u saw the mistake on the lake
Lololol
I’m from the mistake on the lake