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the rant

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If you no longer want something inside your car, chances are very good the rest of us do not want it thrown on our roadways.

I am baffled why at every exit, as you sit at the light waiting to make the left, you can see piles of garbage on the roadside. Why? You're almost home. Are you purging evidence? Will you get in trouble pulling into the driveway with that Subway wrapper, that Timmie's cup, that McDonald's bag? If you're old enough to drive, you're old enough to do two things: carry your litter all the way home, and admit you hit a drive-thru.

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I am not a smoker, though I take a live-and-let-live attitude towards the habit. I'm too old to be told what to do, therefore I presume I'm too old to tell anyone else what to do. What I will tell you is quit throwing your butts out the window. It's gross. And forget all your nonsense defences about it not being dangerous: if you've ever driven in a convertible or on a motorcycle, that flicked butt is absolutely dangerous.

You want to stink up your car, that's not my issue. I'll never buy it from you, but I'm sure that won't keep you up nights. But your butts are your butts, not something you should feel free to hurl from your car to keep your ashtray free for coffee money.

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Trucking companies, you really need to assess just how useful the covers are on your loads of gravel. Traveling behind some of these rigs is like water-skiing behind a kid with a slingshot. It is your job to secure your load, not mine to do rapid calculations in my head to guess the velocity, weight and landing point of whatever is flying from your truck.

I may just be worrying about my windshield, but if you're on a motorcycle wearing shorts and a T-shirt, you're just plain stupid. If a flipped up stone can crack a thick pane of glass, think what it can do to your skin. If a lit cigarette butt gets trapped in the loose top I saw a girl wearing on the QEW as she clung to the back of a motorcycle, I can only imagine the results.

Navigating our roads is a huge experiment in cooperation. Some of you aren't playing very nice.

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