Service Offers “Speakers Corner” For Road Rage

They don’t signal.

They park so close you can’t open your door without hitting them.

They time the lights so you’re always facing a red.

They go too slow, way under the posted speed limit even when driving conditions are perfect.

They go too fast, way over the limit even when the weather is terrible.

And they don’t know how to drive as well as you do.

Sound like a typical litany of complaints about driving in the GTA?

Surprise! Those reactions and more are actually from Australia, which has hit on a new idea to calm road rage.

The National Roads and Motorists Association (NRMA) in New South Wales, the country’s biggest state, has put up Speaker’s Corner-like booths throughout a wide area, allowing disgruntled or angry drivers, pedestrians and transit users to air a litany of beefs about their local roads and services and the idiots who use them.

The NRMA is a quasi-CAA-like organization and has modeled “RoadTube.com,” as it’s known, on the YouTube model, allowing users to post specific rants about their close encounters of the street kind for anyone who’s willing to listen.

“RoadTube is your avenue to let politicians and others know about what bugs you on our roads and what you want done to fix it,” the site suggests.

Citizens can post a comment from home or use one of several video camera-equipped Internet enabled booths set up in various locations to get things off their chests. The idea is to attract government attention, ease the stress and actually get someone – anyone – to listen.

And just like those in the Great White North, the gripes of Great Down Under drivers show we may be thousands of kilometres apart, but we share similar frustrations. Gas prices, parking fees, road tolls and photo radar are all common targets.

But there are also beefs against people who don’t signal (an increasingly common and baffling problem in this part of the world, too), as well as inconsiderate motorists who don’t take the time or effort to think about anyone else.

“Why do people open their doors and smack into cars causing dents??!!!!” asks one upset poster signed in only as “Driver”. “So F***ING inconsiderate!!! Dumb s***s like you make me park far away in car parks.”

The site is supposed to be free of cursing and rude gestures, but as you can see, not everybody is obeying those rules of the road either.

And check this out for familiarity:

“Traffic stops on one of our busiest roads and there is no one there,” notes a motorist named “Howie,” ranting about ill timed lights. “Also why when no one is turning right do we still have delays going straight ahead? In today’s world with electronics now surely we can do better than this.”

Here’s one about a bridge on a major highway. “Two lanes either way! Honestly what idiot created this motorway? The M5 … has plenty of room on either side of the road for another lane or even two. How about we take advantage of that space?”

And here’s another that will hit home.

“Parking at trains stations and bus stops is horrendous, there are not enough spaces for cars to park and people all too often are inconsiderate and take up two car spaces with one car…

“Congestion is a massive problem. I recently made a trip … that took 2 hours in bumper traffic, something needs to be done about the ridiculous congestion problem that is experienced almost everywhere.”

Ontario doesn’t have anything similar to the concept, although the annual Worst Roads contest always draws a big response.

So we’ll take up the challenge. What’s the one thing that’s ‘driving’ you crazy on the streets of the GTA, the motorist habit or road condition that makes your blood boil?

Email your brief written rant to  news@citynews.ca or upload a 1 min. video to It’s Your Story and we’ll give you licence to tell off your fellow driver in a way that doesn’t involve car horns and crowbar attacks. 

Just don’t compose it behind the wheel. You wouldn’t want to make anyone behind you mad.