Where Are the Worst/Rudest Drivers?

[+ quoththeraven]

Here's a topic we can all relate to. Where are the rudest drivers located? What about the worst drivers? In my experience, I'd give Boston residents the laurel as worst drivers. The way the roads are laid out doesn't help.

 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/travel/2016/05/18/bostonians-ranked-fifth-rudest-drivers/z7CuzIzR7e5L6NJEzWvc3H/story.html?event=event25&s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Atwitter

 

This isn't meant to be about traffic per se, but feel free to bitch about that and anything else related to driving.

[+ Truereview]

• Atlanta drivers get first place for driving too fast
  
• Texas drivers are the most polite at 4-way stops - exclude those on Ford trucks with shotgun overtly displayed
  
• LA drivers are the most distracted - texting or looking in the mirror
  
• Nyc drivers are the most aggressive
  
• DC drivers are just reckless
  
• Fort Dodge*, Kansas is the safest city to drive in
  

*population=1 (76 year who no longer drives except on Sunday)

[AdamSmith]

I found NYC drivers to be shit-tons more aggressively rude and serious about it than Boston drivers, to whom the whole thing is a vast inside joke. Owing in part, as @quoththeraven notes, to the absurd cowpath-following (literally! historically) downtown street non-grid.

[Bearofdistinction]

Here's a topic we can all relate to. Where are the rudest drivers located? What about the worst drivers? In my experience, I'd give Boston residents the laurel as worst drivers. The way the roads are laid out doesn't help.

 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/travel/2016/05/18/bostonians-ranked-fifth-rudest-drivers/z7CuzIzR7e5L6NJEzWvc3H/story.html?event=event25&s_campaign=bostonglobe:socialflow:twitter

 

This isn't meant to be about traffic per se, but feel free to bitch about that and anything else related to driving.

 

South philly - where drivers literally park in the middle of B road Street the major n-s artery from south to north philly.

 

Drivers also park in the middle of one ay streets to talk to cuzines and cuzenettas while there are 5 open spaces right ahead of them .

 

they drive the wrong way on one way streets and deliberately try and run over bicycles, old ladies and puppies.

 

Howw youz fawkin doin - asshole/

 

http://cdn.phillymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/south-broad-parking-claudia-gavin-940x540.jpg

[trav05]

Miami. Most do 90 in the right lanes and 50 in the left lanes. Everybody else try's to do figure 8's around every one else.

Car insurance rates are the highest in the country. 35% uninsured driver rate in Florida, so the rest pay double to cover them. I-95 in So Florida has the narrowest lanes of any interstate. They put in hov toll lanes by making regular lanes narrow rather than widening road. Been about 8 wrong way head on collisions on interstates in the last several months.

Many deaths. Frightening to drive here.m

[Mo Mason]

My best friend in high school here in rural Michigan was voted "worst driver" in our Senior mock elections (I won "most shy," imagine that). She totaled 2 or 3 of her parents' cars and was known to drive on sidewalks... she just really didn't grasp the concept.

 

She has since moved to Boston, so I definitely fear for the safety of drivers there.

[body2body]

The worst drivers seem to be wherever I happen to find myself behind the wheel. The minute I turn out onto the road everyone becomes, aggressive, distracted, and careless. It doesn't matter where I am. If I am on the road then all around me seem transformed into Cretins and troglodytes. It couldn't possibly have anything to do with me, could it?

[+ WmClarke]

What about the worst drivers?

Right. In front. Of me.

[+ Funguy]

Monterey Park, California - if you need a new car, you drive to Monterey Park, sit at a stop sign or red traffic lite and someone will hit you within 30 seconds. Guaranteed!

[+ azdr0710]

love this type thread!....thanks, QTR!!....sure to be a multi-page thread within hours!

 

amazingly enough to some, I find LA drivers to be among the best I've ever seen.....everybody there just "gets it"....nearly every driver realizes we're all in this together and works with each other....all are operating at a raised level of aggressiveness, yet that's the key!!! - everybody is on the same page!.....they (usually) stop promptly at red lights, let you out from a parking lot or side business, stop for peds, maintain safe following distance, the whole bit.....

 

despite the wholesome Midwest sensibility, downtown Chicago drivers have no regard for peds, I noticed one recent afternoon.....despite a "walk" signal and a crosswalk jammed with peds, one driver found a space in the crosswalk exactly the width of his car and went for it.....the Loop is certainly no stranger to peds, so wondering how the tradition of drivers utterly ignoring the rules re: peds developed.....

 

"left-lane campers", those who drive in the #1 lane on limited access highways with no intention of passing, are a huge pet peeve of mine.....that lane is for active passing only.....admittedly, some drive in it to avoid getting "stuck" in the right lane behind grandma with no chance of passing her, but......

 

was driving, as passenger, with a born-and-bred New Yorker once and we emerged from the Holland Tunnel into utter gridlock in Manhattan.....as this driver negotiated the traffic, first time I ever covered my eyes (true!).....

[+ quoththeraven]

In my experience (admittedly, it's been many years), Boston drivers are as Bearofdistinction describes South Philly. They will make an extra lane out of anything anywhere and then try to merge willy nilly. That I saw my life flash before my eyes on the Masschusetts Turnpike when some ass parked on the shoulder decided it would be fun to pull out in front of me didn't help any. I've been paranoid about passing anyone parked on the shoulder of a limited access highway since then.

 

New York drivers are aggressive, but they have a better idea of where their car is than Boston drivers and do not generally just make lanes wherever they feel like it. (Maybe the Bostonian lightheartedness just didn't spill over to me.) My heart used to be in my throat when driving on, say, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, but I've lived here long enough that I'm more chill about it -- chill enough that my daughter insisted I drive when going to Manhattan rather than her father because he would get too het up about others' driving.

 

I share azdr0710's dislike of left-lane bandits. Another pet peeve: the people who leave their turn signals on.

 

And funguy, I already had my car totaled as a result of an accident that wasn't my fault. I will stay away from Monterey Park! It sounds like a highway not far from here with stores on the left median, which is a recipe for disaster. My ex once was rearended there twice in the same day.

[AdamSmith]

In my experience (admittedly, it's been many years), Boston drivers are as Bearofdistinction describes South Philly. They will make an extra lane out of anything anywhere and then try to merge willy nilly. That I saw my life flash before my eyes on the Masschusetts Turnpike when some ass parked on the shoulder decided it would be fun to pull out in front of me didn't help any. I've been paranoid about passing anyone parked on the shoulder of a limited access highway since then.

 

New York drivers are aggressive, but they have a better idea of where their car is than Boston drivers and do not generally just make lanes wherever they feel like it. (Maybe the Bostonian lightheartedness just didn't spill over to me.) My heart used to be in my throat when driving on, say, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, but I've lived here long enough that I'm more chill about it -- chill enough that my daughter insisted I drive when going to Manhattan rather than her father because he would get too het up about others' driving.

 

I share azdr0710's dislike of left-lane bandits. Another pet peeve: the people who leave their turn signals on.

 

And funguy, I already had my car totaled as a result of an accident that wasn't my fault. I will stay away from Monterey Park! It sounds like a highway not far from here with stores on the left median, which is a recipe for disaster. My ex once was rearended there twice in the same day.

Driving on the Cross-Bronx Expy was when I knew ultimate salvation if I made it through. After that, Boston was as heaven.

[JayCeeKy]

They say, facetiously, that on California highways you're either a Dodger or an Angel. However, having lived in Los Angeles for several years, I agree with azdr010 - LA drivers are pretty good, for the most part. It might be due to my belief that CA policemen take themselves waaay too seriously - and demand as much of drivers (see Jack Webb on Dragnet). And, having lived in Filthadelphia for a year or so, I agree that Philly drivers are among the worst.

[klifhangar]

I have literally driven all over the world and, when I read the title, I immediately thought "Boston". I would rather drive on the left side of the road, seated on the right side of the car and shifting with my left hand in England, Ireland or South Africa, than drive in Boston. New York is nearly as bad but mostly just in Manhattan. Getting into the Midtown Tunnel at 5pm on a Friday is hell. I've tried.

[+ ArVaGuy]

[quote="Truereview, post: 1099283, member: 12213"

• DC drivers are just reckless
  

*population=1 (76 year who no longer drives except on Sunday)

 

If by "DC drivers" you mean the the ones from Maryland then I agree with your assessment. Maryland drivers are apt to cut people off, change lanes without signaling, then change back again, have a propensity to run red lights, and an uncanny knack to flip a vehicle in a one car accident.

 

Ask any taxi or Uber driver in the area who's worse, DC, Maryland, or Virginia drivers they will invariably say Maryland. That an entire state exists populated by Maryland drivers is a frightening concept.

 

I actually love to drive in LA. As noted by @azdr0710 everyone "gets it" and though aggressive most seem to know how to drive collectively to keep the traffic moving.

[+ quoththeraven]

New York is nearly as bad but mostly just in Manhattan. Getting into the Midtown Tunnel at 5pm on a Friday is hell. I've tried.

 

I think that's the traffic, not the drivers. I drove to the Metropolitan Museum of Art last Friday to (a) save myself from having to walk around in the rain (turned out it all happened while I was in the museum) and (b) a long and tiring commute (I'd have to walk from 86th and, I think, Lexington to 82nd and Fifth, which for me is a lot on top of walking around the museum), and I made the mistake of leaving via the Lincoln Tunnel instead of the GWB because I'm more familiar with the Lincoln. It took me more than an hour to get out of Manhattan and two hours to get home. And I left a little after 7 pm, not during rush hour.

[klifhangar]

Oh actually the worst I've ever seen was in Haiti. I'm not sure that third world countries count though..

[Mo Mason]

I was stuck behind a tractor doing 25mph on my way home today. It took ten minutes to get three miles down the road.

 

I didn't mind... I turned up the volume on my Bob Seger CD and cruised...

 

Turn the page...

[+ azdr0710]

I was stuck behind a tractor doing 25mph on my way home today. It took ten minutes to get three miles down the road.

 

great lyrics.....

 

Well you may be on a state paved road

But that blacktop runs through my payload

Excuse me for tryin' to do my job

But this year ain't been no bumper crop

If you don't like the way I'm a drivin'

Get back on the interstate

 

[instudiocity]

Monterey Park, California - if you need a new car, you drive to Monterey Park, sit at a stop sign or red traffic lite and someone will hit you within 30 seconds. Guaranteed!

There's an Asian driver joke hidden in there somewhere.

[Mo Mason]

"If you don't like the way I'm drivin', get back on the interstate."

 

That's my mantra. I've always got someone riding my ass on a back road.

 

If you wanted to do 85, then you should have got on the highway. I slow down at that point...

[marylander1940]

Boston and San Francisco...

[edinbrooklyn]

,

[+ quoththeraven]

There's an Asian driver joke hidden in there somewhere.

 

Oh dear. I will say, though, that my daughter will needle me about being an Asian driver. And also about being a bad Asian for not much liking plain rice.

 

As he aged, my father lived up (or down) to the stereotype.

[WolfRamNHard]

In the West, the worst drivers I have ever encountered were in Italy, hands down. No US city comes close.

 

Worldwide, I would say India has the worst driving that I've ever experienced.