If X-Men ’97 taught us anything, it’s that we should all acknowledge and respect the fact that we all share planet Earth together, and should therefore acknowledge the rights of every human being to live upon it safely. And folks, we have way more in common than you might think; for instance, everyone will happily tell you that they come from the place with the worst drivers.
Indeed, at a glance, that’s the true uniting factor for humanity; if asked, everyone will claim to hail from the place that harbors the worst road culprits out there. “At a glance” is the key phrase there, of course, because not everybody is from Toronto.
The automotive lawlessness of Canada’s largest city was on full display not too long ago, and it was all captured in full by TikTok‘s @johnnystrides. As Johnny was strolling along, minding his Torontonian business, he spotted a car puttering slowly down the sidewalk towards him, eventually passing him and several other pedestrians as it unceremoniously found its way back onto the street.
There’s something to be said about the mundane peculiarity of this particular event; no one really thinks twice about how they respond to a busy car wreck, but something as casually unusual as driving slowly across the sidewalk is how you really find success in mentally stunlocking your fellow city-goers.
In any case, not ditching your car in Toronto is a pretty strange choice if you’re going to be on the sidewalk anyway, considering how sick Torontonians probably are of the driver’s seat. According to a recent study by Nationwide Vehicle Contracts, Toronto drivers spend approximately 199 hours per year just driving in rush hour traffic, and the city was ranked as the 13th hardest place to drive in the world. The winner of that competition is Brussels, Belgium, followed by Mexico City and Manila in second and third place.
If sidewalk driving is indicative of Toronto’s 13th place, then, it’s enticing to think about what goes on in Belgium, Mexico, and the Philippines. Presumably, Manila sees drivers drive across rooftops rather than the streets, and Mexico City probably takes it a step further by driving backward across rooftops. As for Brussels, not to be outdone by its Mexican and Filipino contemporaries, it is probably illegal to drive anywhere but backward across rooftops.
These are all just guesses, of course, but whatever the case, it’s no wonder that Belgians like cycling so much.