It's My Life

Trying out driving (Day 35 in Vancouver)

I went out driving today with my friends… we joined a car sharing program here and went out for a ‘test drive’ today to get familiarized with the roads here. Unfortunately I’m not so good at it (but well I don’t even drive regularly back in Singapore). It can be a little chaotic at first because there are many junctions without traffic signals, and drivers here like to park their cars along the curbs on busy roads, clogging up the lanes.

One fortunate thing is that drivers here are generally patient – if you signal your intention to change lanes, the driver behind will usually slow down for you… unlike in Singapore where more often than not nobody’s willing to give way.

I guess I can be quite OK at it if I try a couple more times… but I don’t want to trouble my friends by getting them out just so they can look out for traffic for me (actually I think I am capable of it myself but just not confident enough because of the unfamiliar roads here)… so I’ll probably not drive a lot while here. Anyway, I realized that driving is maybe just 30 to 40% more efficient than transit at most… when the traffic is clear. When traffic is heavy, there is not much difference to justify the hassle (for me) of driving and parking.

The only problem I have now is when I go to Seattle – it’ll be a little cumbersome to get around without driving, but there’s a lot more peace of mind and I think I’ll enjoy it more when I can just sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery.

I made dinner with the same friends tonight, but unfortunately I didn’t have enough groceries so they had to bring their stuff… quite embarrassing, especially when I told them I’ll treat them to dinner. We drove to the supermarket earlier but I didn’t manage to get most of what I was looking for (the meat was in too large packs, veggies were not fresh, etc). Well, guess I’ll just get them over another day when I’ve just stocked up and treat them to a proper meal

 

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