Pedestrians Crossing!

One thing Canadians are really good at is stopping for pedestrians.  It really threw me for a loop at first, as many of you know, is not necessarily the norm in the U.S. (or Europe).  Canadians will come to a screeching halt to let you cross the road.  Pretty great if you are the crosser.....

This whole excessive stopping for pedestrians thing was quite funny this summer when Eric & I were biking and trying to "be like cars," trying to follow the rules.  We would be at a stop light & a car would always stop for us to cross.  It was nice, except having that car stop did not help, as we then needed the other 3 lanes to also stop....before we could proceed to run the red light.

This is not so great if you are the driver.  It is actually starting to really annoy me as a driver.  On multiple occasions, I have had locals march right out onto the street full-boar expecting me to stop.  The other day, a girl came plowing through on the cross walk, behind a large truck in my opposing lane, so I didn't see her until she was in my lane.  I came to a quick stop on the icy road with the girl unfazed as she had her fur lined hood up & she was marching straight ahead.  The other day I had an older couple step right out in a parking lot, when I was driving slowly on the "road" part of the lot....nobody even looks!!