Just when you thought the world couldn’t get any dumber Part I

Having been in BC for nearly three years has had something of a certain set of cultural differences from the east. More wide open hockey. Less friends (not that I really had many in the east to begin with). Rain instead of snow. Great views. Summer sunsets at 10:15 PM. Steve Darling.

Hell, even idiots who don’t pull over for emergency vehicles. I’ve slowly come to terms with the fact that driving skill is something in very short supply in British Columbia. Mind you, it could be worse. We could live in Alberta. And just how wide do the Rockies have to be to keep those assholes out? Let alone the gits from Ontariariario? But I’m ranting. Sort of. But this is a rant.

Yes, people in increasing numbers do not respectively pull over and stop to let emergency vehicles (id est Ambulances and Fire Trucks) through in order for them to perform their essential, life saving acts. And before I go on, I would like to quote, verbatim, from the ICBC vehicular manual:

You must yield right-of-way to emergency vehicles such as police cars and ambulances. Whenever you see flashing lights and/or hear sirens, be sure to pull over to the side of the road and stop.

Now, if you’re like me, you think, duh, of course you do. People that don’t are assholes. And they are. But today took the cake. Sheer minutes from getting home from hell work, sure enough a fire truck was coming up from behind. Myself and several others pull over and stop, as is traditionally required. And then there was the Lower Mainland’s village idiot behind me. And if the most retarded person I’ve seen all year stumbles across this blahg, yes, it was you asshole, who honked your horn behind my black Chev Cavalier at about 4:15 PM in Surrey on 72nd just past 134th, for pulling over and stopping for a fire truck with sirens and signals on.

But he didn’t end with this. He then pulled up beside my car, as the fire truck was passing, to inform me that what I did was a moving violation, as you are supposed to pull over if you can, but just keep moving. What I did apparently was in clear violation of what’s in the ICBC manual, and in violation of the codes set by the Ministry of Transportation. I was too mad to get his plate number to share this idiot’s identity with the world here on the interweb, and all I could really retaliate with was ‘learn to read before you’re misinterperetation gets someone killed’.

Reading the above excerpt, it’s exactly what seems to be the problem. Nobody knows the rules of the road because they are incapable of reading it from the texts that outline them. Screw the surchage on ICBC rates for poor drivers. Just make drivers take a literacy test before renewing their licences again. And those who fail, take away their driving priviledges. It will make the roads much safer.

Maybe. It’s worth a shot though.

That is all.