Neither the two of three blocked or illegal exits aided our sortie, nor the half-dozen unhelpful people who had no clue how to reach Highway 400...In Ottawa on a separate trip, two citizens and a police officer were more than happy to offer their time.
Sounds to me like in Toronto six people were happy to offer their time, they just didn't know how to get to the 400. That's not unhelpful, that's just...carfree.
2 comments:
My understanding is that the LW and his girlfriend were pulled over to the side of the road (i.e. illegally parked, for which the original letter writer suggested heavy fines), because they were lost in the big city and wanted to look at their map.
It's not really clear who the "unhelpful" people were...were they pedestrians/carfree people on a sidewalk, or were they fellow motorists (from the next lane) who probably could have given directions, if they were so inclined? In any case, I think they have a valid point that a police officer could/should have helped them out. Police are hired to protect and serve, not just to issue citations or fine people indiscriminately.
Also, I think to fine tourists who are lost without regard to their situation, as the original writer suggested, will certainly give the city a reputation as self-absorbed and inhospitable -- and it would be deserved.
I didn't get the idea that they expected motorists to stop, but if they did, that's really their problem, isn't it? The other cars are going by far too fast and paying attention to too many other things to parse a stopped car as "In trouble, needs directions" rather than just "Stopped car, must not hit it."
Actually, if they were just sitting there waiting for someone to help instead of asking (I'm not clear on what they did) that would be a problem regardless of whether it was motorists or pedestrians. Generally, when people are looking at a map they're fine because they have a map, they just need a moment to look at it. You can't tell from walking by that the exits indicated on the map have been blocked for whatever reason.
I'm sure a police officer could have helped them, but they didn't mention encountering one in Toronto. Parking enforcement is very active in my neighbourhood, and they always talk to cars with people in them rather than just ticketing them blindly.
And a technicality, but, in Ontario at least, you aren't illegally parked if you're in the car. "Stopping" is when you're in the car, "parking" only happens when you leave the car. Curbside stopping is prohibited in some places too, but since he didn't mention where he was I don't know if they did that.
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