Many thanks to editor Keith Morgan for the wonderful opportunity, and to the rest of the team for being so welcoming.

Now I’m off to negotiate my way through the stop sign near my home in an effort to get some errands done…wish me luck.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Not for the fact that I’ve been driving for along time, but for the fact much of that driving is done at high speed, through heavy traffic, with lights flashing and siren blasting, around those who do not know what it is to yield to an emergency vehicle, and all the while processing information about the emergency call I have been dispatched to.

All without losing my cool and causing or being involved in an accident, and with arriving at my destination being able to deal with whatever situation the 911 call center has seen fit to throw my way. 

For all the ‘crazy’ driving at work, I’m relatively serene on my days off when behind the wheel. 

I obey the ‘yield to car on right’ at four way stops, I merge well, I slow down to 30 kms/hr in school zones, and I wave a ‘thankyou’ when another driver goes out of their way to make driving a more pleasant experience.

But there is one intersection only a few blocks away from our home.  An intersection my family goes through every single day, most days more than once, and one that severely threatens the serenity of my off-duty driving.

The east/west street has the right of way.  The north/south street has stop signs where it intersects the east/west street, meaning everyone approaching the intersection while driving north or south has to stop. The southbound drivers have got this figured out, likely because the area on that side of the intersection is home to only twenty houses.

The northbound drivers, as far as I’m concerned, need a swift kick in the butt.

Without exception, almost all northbound drivers do not stop until they are well into the intersection and signalling their westbound turn.  It is so bad that now, when approaching the intersection on the east/west right-of-way, I slow to crawl and creep through to avoid a collision.  With clock work regularity, I have to make an abrupt stop to allow a peson through who has not stopped for their stop sign.

It’s infuriating.

Citizens in the area have complained to City planning (I don’t live in Vancouver, so don’t go giving them a hard time), have asked for stepped-up police enforcement, and have requested that the intersection be turned into a four-way-stop.  While we have seen a few cruisers monitoring the intersection on an intermitent basis, residents have been told a four-way-stop is not practical as our intersection is too close to another intersection.

But I digress…

Road safety is paramount.  Stop at your stop signs.  Yield to on-coming traffic.  Be courteous as it will likely make someone’s day – probably your own.