::alio!::

putting my life on the line

I think it's only a matter of time before this city gets me killed.

We had a positively RETARDED storm on Wednesday. It was fine when I was on my way to work, but later I looked out the window and thought that it was really foggy - turned out it was sideways snow. They shut down the city at 1:00 PM essentially, and I got to go home. If the wind hadn't been at my back, I never would have made it. The wind was chucking ice at about 100km/h and it was agony to even glance backwards. As it was, because of the sheer amount of snow on the ground (about 15cm and drifting), it took me 45 minutes to get home, instead of the usual 20.

My calves are still sore from fighting through that nonsense.

The ice turned to rain at one point, and the wind increased. If you live in Ottawa, you're familiar with how this turns out - jagged ice peaks instead of snow banks.

Except here, they don't plow the sidewalks. Or if they do, they do such a shitty job the sidewalks are now sheer ice and they won't salt them. So if you want to avoid falling and impaling yourself on an ice pick, or twisting your ankle as you try to negotiate the rubble, you walk on the street. Most pedestrians in St. John's walk on the road. It's just so much easier.

However, despite the fact that this is a St. John's tradition, motorists will still scream by you at 80km/h with only inches between you and certain death. And they give you dirty looks, to boot. When they do that I gesture to the 6 feet of ice boulders that make up the sidewalk.

The driving habits of motorists in this city only complicates matters.

I refer to it as "stoptional" syndrome - stop signs are merely a suggestion, not a command. NOBODY stops at stop signs. Not even the police. To quote the movie "Clueless," they, like, totally PAUSE. If that. And they usually do that while obliviously looking in the opposite direction to where they're going. Of course.

Added to that is the fact that, yes, St. John's is a city of steep hills, and at the bottoms of the hills ice forms. No one has bothered to get snow tires, so stopping on ice is not an option, and because they have no intention of stopping in the first place at the bottom of the hill, they're not going slowly enough to make it even possible to stop when they discover that a) oh wait, there's ice at the bottom of this hill, what a surprise, and b) that I have been waiting for my chance to cross the street and they are about to mow me down.

I was nearly hit twice today, once by a cab who decided to turn right without stopping (and without looking) directly into me as I, who had the right of way, crossed the street, and once by a lady who was going to fast and forgot that in winter there is ice and couldn't stop in time.

AND

People here are just as inconsiderate to pedestrians as they are in Ottawa. I'm standing there in a blizzard, perched precariously on top of an ice boulder a metre above the road as I wait for traffic to slow enough for me to cross the street at a well-marked pedestrian crossing. The wind is such that it's all I can do to keep my balance, and the ice flying into my back is starting to freeze my legs and butt. Do the people flying by (too fast for that weather) in their nice warm cars think to stop for me? Of course not.

Posted by Ally at January 16, 2009 07:52 AM