Why Canada Sucks....

[beans 7]

Well come move to Maine and we'll see how awesome the pro-America chants are. I have no health insurance, I work in a doctors office with 3 employees (including myself). My husband has medicare, I'm not eligible nor can I afford to pay $900/month for health insurance for me only. I'd gladly pay my gst/pst/income tax or whatever to know I can get treated and not worry about the bill. I don't drink so I don't care about the price of budlight. A head of lettuce here is a dollar more than Canada, infact everything here costs more probably w/ the exception of booze and cigarettes. To rent a POS apartment is $800+/month plus your utilities. In Canada, my 1000 sq ft apartment had 2 bedrooms, included all utilities and central air, had a swimming pool was nice quiet and I paid $750/month. My main fear here is getting sick..what am I going to do? I have no idea. I like the States but sometimes I wish my husband immigrated to Canada instead.

[redmen99 1]

A few more reasons my husband is now extremely happy to be in the US:

His old storage unit cost him about $100 per month + 15% tax

His new storage unit is costing him about $60 per month + 6% tax

Car insurance:

In Canada for his 2004 Mazda cost him $156 a month for basic coverage

In PA, same coverage on my policy (with my discounts) his coverage will cost us $229 for 6 months or about $40 a month.

Yep, he's a happy camper!

[Udella&Wiz 325]

I actually find highways here to be rather easy to navigate. Because instead of missing your exit, taking the next one and then trying to find a way to turn around.... every exit goes to a frontage road which will have a U-turn that runs underneath the main highway.

Not only that, but the U-turns (Texas turnarounds as they're called here) are extremely fast. You get to skip two sets of lights because it bypasses them.

In actuality, the main highway will be above everything.

City streets have U-turns absolutely everywhere too. None of this driving around the block stuff.

That's rather nifty - in Virginia they do the good old fashioned You-eee (u turn)

[CDAgirlMI 51]

In Michigan they have what people here call "Michigan Left Turn". Certain intersections you can't make a left turn, so you have to turn right on the street you want, then go around a curve to get on the street in the other direction.

Picure:

[Pauley 2]

In Michigan they have what people here call "Michigan Left Turn". Certain intersections you can't make a left turn, so you have to turn right on the street you want, then go around a curve to get on the street in the other direction.

Picure:

Sounds like the New Jersey jughandle interesections: Instead of turning left, you keep straight, then take a loop off the right of the road to get around to the right direction. I haven't been to Jersey myself to experience one, but I hear they can get a little crazy...

[HeatDeath 430]

Salt Lake City is pretty normal: only weirdnesses here are single point urban exchanges:

And continuous flow intersections, which are quite interesting:

oVI3Ledw7mc

There are also collector-distributor roads on the interstate in a couple of places:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collector/distributor_road

But those are bog-standard by comparison.

[i know Tom Cruise was making fun of interstate highway traffic engineering in Mission Impossible III, but everything he said about it mockingly sounded really cool to me ]

[Pauley 2]

There are also collector-distributor roads on the interstate in a couple of places:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collector/distributor_road

Oh, I know collector systems... I've driven Kings Highway 401 in Toronto.

[HeatDeath 430]

This is apparently the worst intersection in the US, and if you look at the satellite view, you'll see why:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source...mp;t=k&z=19

[SapphireDreams 71]

I live off a 12 lane ROAD... not a highway, a ROAD. I cross it every morning when I walk to the train station.

I even jaywalk on it now too, like a true NYer.

[Pauley 2]

and if you look at the satellite view, you'll see why:

Maybe I'm thick, but I don't see it...

[HeatDeath 430]

Ooohhh, real-life Frogger!

Or better yet, Activision's "Freeway" for the Atari 2600!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_(video_game)

Edited March 10, 2010 by HeatDeath

[SonoranSongbird 3]

You people are making me soooooooooo glad I live in a small city that does not have intersections like that!

Or: Why big scary intersections suck.

[Pauley 2]

State Farm Insurance said in 2001 that this one was the most dangerous one it saw in the US... yikes.

[Marilyn. 340]

here in LA I used to be scared of merging onto the freeway.. but now I have gotten used to it...

[HeatDeath 430]

Maybe I'm thick, but I don't see it...

Big ugly uncontrolled area in the middle, the main road is curved, there's a building right at one of the corners killing the sightlines from one of the entrances, and you just get the general feeling that cars could roll through that patch of ground from just about anywhere.

With the increasing urban sprawl of Chicago, apparently it's fairly high traffic too, apparently.