Weather forecasts are predicting our first winter storm of the season tonight for most of Southern Ontario continuing into tomorrow morning. It looks like the Thursday morning commute will be a long drive, especially for people who need to travel using the major highways in the GTA. Driving with icy roads is difficult enough, but is made even more difficult by those drivers who forget how to drive intelligently as soon as snow hits the ground, its like they have never seen snow before.
Last Friday, a few centimeter of snow fell right before the Friday commute, which is typically busy anyways and that caused a driving nightmare. It took me 100 minutes to drive 25 KM on the highway. That is an average of about 15 KM an hour. An extremely painful commute.
I hope everyone keeps it safe on the roads tomorrow and during this winter. If you are stuck in traffic during this winter, be patient and drive intelligently. While waiting in traffic, calculate your average speed, its likely your still driving faster than me.
8 comments:
That snowfall last Friday, it took me 2 and a half hours to get from Waterloo to Toronto.
Too many damn drivers also, but I'm one of them so I shouldn't be complaining.
If I didn't have to drive my mom to work everyday, I would honestly take the bus. For me it would be cheaper and less stress, not to mention better for the environment. Really, how many of us have honestly seriously considered public transportation?
I have, I'm fortunate because it's an option for me (I'm on the lakeshore line).
I would use public transportation if it was a viable alternative. I once looked into it and would it take me at least 2 hours to get to work. That would be 4 hours of my day commuting.
I blame the lack of planning by our cities. Every year the population in the GTA increases, meaning more cars on the roads, yet there have been no significant upgrades to our transportation infrastructure. Traffic costs the economy 6 Billion per year. Living in the west-end, public transportation is not quick or reliable enough to use to get around. Hopefully one day, they will extend the subway line to Square one.
Forget that! Scarborough subway all-the-way. It's pathetic that cities in the GTA have to lobby like mad to get anything done.
--B
Talk about painful commutes. I woke up early today to make a 9:30 class, having got only a few hours of sleep. Rushed through cold and wind, had to wait for the GO bus for over half an hour in freezing weather (there was a huge line up for the first one that came so there was no chance of me getting on that one). The bus took longer than usual and traffic near York was extra bad.
Result: I reached school somewhere around 10:30. I could have slept in and missed the morning class on purpose and got the 11:30 section, which I had to anyway. Also, because I hadn't got enough sleep, I felt lazy and tired all day and had to force myself to stay at school and finish my work for today.
I have another 9:30 tomorrow.
Ali, I miss the days in Waterloo where we could walk to school in less than 15 minutes.
As much as we complained about Waterloo, and how Toronto is much more exciting, the lack of traffic is one thing Waterloo is better for than Toronto.
Less traffic in Waterloo than in Toronto, but not "lack of". Have you ever tried getting onto the highway from University Ave. on a Friday around 4:00 or 5:00? Or driven on King St. around that same time? Killer.
It's true. We took so many things for granted in Waterloo that we don't have here in Toronto.
I was telling a friend from class today how I was able to create such a strong circle of friends and how every time you needed company you only had to go to the SLC and you were sure to find someone you knew.
Compare that to York, where people disperse after class - either going home or spending a few precious study hours in the library before they head home. Nothing is open late, and the latest I can stay at school is midnight (the last bus leaves at 12:15).
Omair, it's true about Friday rush hour traffic on University Ave or King Street in Waterloo, but the difference is we hardly ever had to go through that traffic there, whereas here this is a twice a day everyday affair.
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