Sometimes I’m on my bike waiting at a red light alongside a lineup of cars to my left, and out of the corner of my eye, the car at the front of the line starts inching forward. Just little by little. Inch by inch. Why? I’m not sure. The 10 centimetres they’re traveling in their slow lurch forward certainly won’t make a dent in the overall length of their commute. I guess it’s just a symptom of impatience. But it certainly doesn’t make anyone on a bike or on foot at the intersection feel any more comfortable. It’s one of those things that probably isn’t a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but it just annoys me. It’s a major pet peeve of mine.
In an increasingly busy city, with less and less space, there is more and more potential for tension and conflict between road users.
Here at Cycle Toronto, we spend our days fighting for more dedicated space for vulnerable road users, so that we can reduce the major harms that motor vehicle drivers can cause on our roads. But today, we want to focus on the minor everyday conflicts we experience. We want to hear about your pet peeves.
In the havoc that takes place on our roads every day, not everyone is adhering to the same standards. So we want to find out, according to you, what are some of the rules that you play by that others seemingly often ignore?
We want to know, from a cyclist’s perspective, what are your biggest pet peeves on the streets of Toronto? What do drivers do to get on your nerves? What do pedestrians do to get under your skin? And how about other cyclists? Feel free to delve into the weeds: the more minor the inconvenience, the better. Afterall a ‘pet peeve’ is “a minor annoyance that an individual finds particularly irritating to a greater degree than the norm”. Almost everybody can agree that a driver blocking the box is a nuisance. But today we’re looking for those things that you’re almost ashamed to admit you even think about when you’re out there on your bike.
After we collect your responses, we’ll report back on the findings. You read about my pet peeve at the beginning of this post. Now it’s your turn to vent.
