Vehicles

Dream date

/ edebock / 1 Comment

A couple of years ago, when our decades old marriage had hit a particularly low spot, Richard and I decided to be more intentional about incorporating regular dates into our often busy schedule. We’ve been a little lax about that lately which has given me reason to start thinking about what my dream date might look like.

I visualize candlelight, seafood and white wine on a patio overlooking the ocean. After a leisurely meal with gentle waves lapping in the background, we’d walk a moonlit beach with warm sand between our toes.

Alas, I am a coastal girl living on the western Canadian prairie, so unless I’m on vacation, that date is but a dream. I’m delighted, however, to collaborate with Turo, a unique car-sharing company, to suggest a way to ramp up that or any other date and take it to a whole new level. I’m imagining Richard and I arriving for our dinner in a red carpet worthy luxury vehicle, perhaps a Mercedes Benz or a BMW, instead of our trusty SUV. With Turo, that part of the date doesn’t have to be a fantasy!

Perhaps your dream date would be entirely different from mine; maybe something more adventurous and outdoorsy. Turo can help you with that too. With vehicles available in more than 4500 cities across the US, Canada and the UK, you could rent a truck, an SUV or, in some locations, even a Hummer.

I was delighted to learn that Turo operates right here in Alberta. I’ve got my eye on this sporty little Jaguar. Wouldn’t that make date night special?

Jaguar

Disclaimer:  This is not a paid endorsement. Information and image provided by Turo, but the words are my own.

Crossing the road Chinese style

/ edebock / 2 Comments

One of the first things we learned when we came to this country was how to “cross the road Chinese style”. Coined by Chinese internet users, the term describes pedestrians who throng together to cross the street where there’s no crosswalk or at marked intersections when the pedestrian lights are against them. There’s safety in numbers was our theory as we attached ourselves to groups of locals to make our way across the busy streets.

Getting to the other side of the street often involves crossing one lane at a time, waiting on the line between lanes until the one in front of you clears. Like the locals, we often cross in the middle of a block rather than at a corner. It’s actually safer and easier than crossing at an intersection where the lights may or may not work and if they do, don’t allow nearly enough time for even an able bodied person to get across before turning red. By far the worst thing about trying to cross at an intersection, though, is the fact that you have to constantly watch for turning vehicles; not just the ones turning right but also those that are turning left! That’s right, the left turn light and the pedestrian light are often on at the same time! We joke that this must be a population control tactic. Send the pedestrians out into the street and then run over them!

Drivers share the road with conveyances of every description including modern buses, bicycles, motorcycles and three wheeled carts that are often so heavily loaded that you can barely see the driver. Some of these are pedal powered and others, fuel driven. These vehicles don’t seem to have any difficulty making room for one another but drivers NEVER give pedestrians the right of way!

Crossing the road Chinese style has been making headlines recently as cities like Beijing and Chengdu have started imposing on the spot jaywalking fines. It hasn’t happened in Dalian yet but we hear rumours that it soon will. Unfortunately, imposing fines doesn’t address the root of the problem.

Until recent years, China was a country of bicycles but automobile sales have soared at a rate of more than 20% per year since 2001 and in 2009, China overtook the United States as the world’s biggest automobile market. Infrastructure simply hasn’t kept up with the ever growing number of vehicles on the road. Here in Dalian, there are pedestrian underpasses in the downtown core
and we’re very fortunate to have a pedestrian overpass joining the north and south campuses of our university which straddles a very busy thoroughfare but many cities lack these pedestrian-friendly conveniences.

Without changes to both driving laws and infrastructure, I don’t see crossing the road Chinese style coming to an end anytime soon.