Will Calgary lose the rear-view mirror wave? Growth could mean more big-city drivers

Bring up Calgary's rapid growth around an office water cooler and the conversation often turns to roads — traffic, congestion and the latest silly manoeuvre by a driver who probably just moved to town from some city where nobody knows how to drive.

Toronto drivers, Vancouver drivers and many, many more.

These places have different rules, different customs — and will they still give the friendly Calgary rear-view mirror wave?

We took to the streets with driving veteran Drashko Vujanovic to find out. He pulled up to the McKenzie Towne traffic circle, paused at the entrance and grinned.

"Now you will see how many do not signal properly," he said to the CBC reporter in the passenger seat. 

"That third car, he's not signalling, we don't know which direction he's going. He's not signalling either. So that's two cars, three cars, four cars.… No signal! No signal! No signal!"

"This is unbelievable. This is what Calgary driving is now."

Of course, Vujanovic doesn't know if those signal slackers are new to Calgary or not. He just notices these things and likes to chat about them. 

"Lately, I've seen people stopping in a merging lane, which is the worst thing you can do. But most likely that's due to inexperience, and maybe a new environment for them," said Vujanovic, a private driving instructor with 27 years experience who moved to Calgary from the former Yugoslavia.

He also sees more U-turns at traffic lights — a no-no in Alberta, but fair game in some other Canadian provinces. 

Plus, there's that shift in attitude — people speeding up and closing the gap rather than letting someone in when they're trying to change lanes, and more honking and general aggression. 

Those are attitudes that are typical of big-city drivers, like in Toronto or Vancouver, said Vujanovic. It's definitely un-Calgarian.

"I think we actually spoiled that nice Calgary attitude," he said.

"People are rushing all the time. They don't have the patience for you. Sometimes we receive some bad gestures from them. I'm not going to say which ones, but everybody knows about those gestures."

A look at the data. Is congestion worse?

So Vujanovic is getting the finger. But is there anything else to suggest traffic in Calgary is worse?

One place to check is the provincial registry. According to the registry, Calgary added roughly 46,000 new vehicles in the last three years. There are now 1.06 million cars on Calgary roads. (Hopefully not all driving at the same time!)

Another place to check is the traffic counts. We pulled the data for three of the worst spots. It comes from the annual City of Calgary traffic count, where they measure the average number of vehicles driving certain roads each day. 

Deerfoot Trail is one route that is always mentioned on the CBC Radio traffic reports. On the map, the busiest section is at Deerfoot and McKnight Boulevard. That spot recorded 148,000 vehicles per day in 2023.

But it was actually busier 10 years ago. The 2013 count saw 172,000 vehicles per day.

As for the bottleneck on Crowchild Trail where it crosses the Bow River, that stretch of road had up to 101,000 vehicles per day during the 2023 count. But it's exactly the same traffic count the city had in 2013. The jam-up is no better, and no worse.

And the squeeze on Glenmore Trail where it crosses the reservoir improved as well over the past 10 years. It saw 138,000 vehicles per day in 2023, compared to 158,000 in 2013.

That might be cold comfort when you're stuck, but there you have it.

Basically, from a numbers perspective, Calgary's population has grown but so has its road network. Stoney Trail opened and took traffic off congested routes. 

The lingering impact of the pandemic might also be at work here. More people are still working from home, or at least have flexible working hours that allow them to avoid peak congestion.

Dr. Verjee — he's the guy waving

Here's a fellow who doesn't think Calgary's driving culture has plummeted. Dr. Mohamud Verjee is a practising family doctor and associate professor at the University of Calgary with an interest in traffic safety.

CBC News called him up after talking with Vujanovic to get a second perspective. Verjee moved to Calgary from the U.K. 30 years ago, then spent 17 years teaching in Qatar before he moved back to Calgary in June. 

"It's like mushrooms, houses popping up everywhere," he said over the phone, wondering at the growth he saw — roads, restaurants, the airport expansion and CTrains.

In Qatar, Verjee studied how peer pressure and cultural attitudes can improve safety. He compared diving infractions between local Qatari, Filipino and Jordanian drivers, and also documented if you could change driver habits just by rolling down a window and pointing out problems with a smile.

It turns out, you can.

Back in the 1990s, when Verjee first came to Calgary, he was struck by how courteous the traffic culture was. Drivers were patient, helpful. 

It got a bit worse as cars got more powerful and people more distracted by their phones and screens, he said. But overall, it's still pretty good. 

Think about the four-way stops, he said. Here in Calgary, when two vehicles arrive at the same time, usually one will wave the other through and the second will give a little nod. 

How have Calgarians' habits on the road changed?

2 days ago

Duration 1:53

Calgary driving instructor Drashko Vujanovic says the city's roads are very different from the '90s, when he started teaching the rules of the road. He explains factors that may have led to these changes.

Verjee is usually the one in the red Honda waving first. And you don't find that everywhere, he said. 

"I think Calgary has its own culture. [Even with Calgary's growth] very few people are aggressive. Driving badly and driving inconsiderately, it's not common."

But a snappy little awareness campaign could probably still help, he said.

"Something nice. Just a reminder because they already know. This is a great place, home to so many, and these are great habits they should follow."

Saying thank you with a flash of the hazards

Back on the road, Vujanovic said that when he first came to Calgary, he brought his own driving habits and didn't even realize it.

He would flash his hazard lights to say thank you, rather than wave his hand like most Calgary drivers do.

Vujanovic said he wasn't a great driver then. Before immigrating, he would drive all over Europe to get to his band's gigs. He drove with only one hand on the wheel and tended to rush through intersections. Shoulder checking was something he never heard of.

Calgary drivers? After the cities of Europe, they seemed gentle, polite and friendly. 

When he first became a driving instructor, Vujanovic travelled from city to city giving corporate instruction. He says there are many differences between Canadian provinces, too. 

Calgary's speed limits, for example. If there are no signs, it means 40 km/h in Calgary. In Vancouver and Toronto, no speed sign means 50 km/h.

Drivers coming from Vancouver or Toronto often have less experience, too. 

"Many people who live in downtown Toronto, they don't have a car. I actually have had some adults coming here, moving from Toronto, in their 30s or early 40s, and actually becoming new drivers here," Vujanovic said.

But no matter a person's habits or experience, at the end of the day, getting safely from one point to another is the key, he said.

"Come from Point A to Point B safely and not affect anybody … in your journey."

Growth Spurt, Calgary

Calgary is growing again and quickly. But this population boom is different. CBC Calgary is looking at the impacts all week. See what you've missed at cbc.ca/yycgrowth.