Bad Drivers

[xoxoxoBruce]

Boston is #1. I've had a couple people comment that I drive differently there. You have to in order to survive.
I quit riding motorcycles because it's just too damn dangerous now, between the condition of the roads, and people buttoned up in their cocoons on wheels, Hell, they don't even hear police sirens right behind them.
PA ranks #2 right behind FL in Social Security checks and probably elderly drivers.

[elSicomoro]

In St. Louis, Illinois drivers were pretty bad, but the elderly and those with handicapped plates were particularly atrocious.

In the MD suburbs of DC, the people with the Icthuses on their cars were horrible. And drivers from the District itself.

Here, the Jersey drivers are a tad worse than PA drivers, but I would say that city drivers are the worst (though you won't be able to distinguish city drivers from suburban drivers after this year).

[plthijinx]

a huge pet peeve of mine is when your entering the freeway behind someone who doesn't speed up to get on the freeway. it's a freeway for crying out loud!!! speed up, or we're gonna get run over by an 18-wheeler or wind up on the receiving end of some motor-mouthed jackass with a gun stewing up on all his built up road rage! road rage is a HUGE problem here.

[Torrere]

According to the bicyclist in Zodiac by Neal Stephenson, while on a long ride through the country, explaining why he wouldn't wear bright flourescent clothing: "If they can see you, then you're already dead."

[wolf]

One of my personal rules of thumb is that people who drive Volvos do so because they need the crash protection equipment.

Oh man, if you want adventure on the highway, come to "Colorful Colorado." Just nothing beats "ma and pa Kettle" from Kansas (or Texas) driving their monster RV over one of Colorado's mountain roads. The moment they notice they're on a road grade of over 1.5% they freeze. Its 25mph from then on because they're in the MOUNTAINS, and it sure don't look like Kansas to them. Now, most of the roads in Colorado are two lane highways with the exception of I-25 and I-70, so you ARE going to meet "Ma and Pa" on a road near you - "meet" as in glimpsing the top of their RV 20 cars ahead of you as they force everyone to travel 25mph across open country on highway 160 or 50. Sooner or later "Ma and Pa" will encounter that most dreaded of Colorado phenomena - the raindrop! ACK! We're in the mountains and a raindrop hit our windshield and I bet it was really a snowflake and you know what happened to the Donner party (who cares that they were in California?), so NOW we're all cruising along at 15mph just to be on the safe side, don't you know?

"Ma and Pa" have inspired me to feats of highway daring and adrenelin rushes inspired by a combination of fear and rage as I finally pull out of the parade and pass 15 cars at once on a blind curve with no guardrails and 1,000 foot drop off's on either side. Hell, even death is preferable to even one more mile of this! On the next blind curve I pass the final 5 cars including Ma and Pa in their RV and I turn round in the driver's seat to flip them the bird and pull back into my lane just in time to avoid annilation by a semi going 70 mph in the other lane. I then spend the rest of my drive taking mountain curves at 80 mph, glorying in my freedom. AS for the rest of you, please vacation somewhere else. You REALLY don't want to take the chance of encountering ME on the road.

[Katkeeper]

The worst drivers I have ever encountered were in Italy. And they have the crashes to prove it. Example: on a 2 lane road leaving the montains on a Sunday afternoon, a car is passing us on the left when another car starts to pass him, and on the paved shoulder on the far left, a motorcycle proceeds to pass all of us! They just assume that no one is driving into the mountains on a Sunday afternoon so that the road is all theirs.

I have also seen some really dangerous moves by speeding trucks on 81 and on the turnpike in western PA.

And I can agree with the D.C. area drivers who are into that high speed lane changing. I've never seen them use a turn signal however. And in Boston, I thought I was not going to make it one rainy night with poor visibility with everyone speeding as usual and having to merge onto the highway from the left. The rain was pouring onto the mirrors so that it was really hard to judge the distance. I remember thinking that the Italians get away with it .

[Beestie]

As far as cities, Boston has the worst drivers I've ever seen. They drive like a pack of starving misquitos. Philly wasn't all that bad and I actually thought New Yorkers drove pretty well. The city with best drivers I've seen though is Atlanta.

But the distinction of the Worst Drivers On Planet Earth belongs to the Chinese with no one close enough to qualify for "distant second."

[BrianR]

I left out foreign drivers because their road rules are different than ours and not everyone has had or will ever have the heart-stopping adventure that is driving in a foreign country.

I've done it. In Italy, Egypt, Spain, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Bahamas and Bahrain. Italy is indeed scary, can't speak for China.

Brian

[Beestie]

Originally posted by BrianR

I left out foreign drivers because their road rules are different... can't speak for China.

I was talking about San Francisco.

Also, after re-reviewing this thread, it looks like Boston got three first-place votes for the worst drivers in America.

[Griff]

Originally posted by Beestie
Originally posted by BrianR I was talking about San Francisco.

Also, after re-reviewing this thread, it looks like Boston got three first-place votes for the worst drivers in America.

Make that four. Boston drivers are amazing, they seriously don't think the basic laws of physics apply if you're wearing a seatbelt. It's bad enough in Boston but apparently through some misguided Federalism Mass drivers are allowed to drive on NY and PA roads.

[Pie]

Originally posted by Griff
Make that four. Boston drivers are amazing, they seriously don't think the basic laws of physics apply if you're wearing a seatbelt.

Another Boston vote here. I was commuting up to Tewksbury, MA every week for six months last year. I took little puddlehoppers from Trenton to Bedford to avoid flying into Logan and dealing with Baaah-stan traffic.

Thank god that's over.

- Pie

[Elspode]

Originally posted by Clodfobble
Austinites in general are the WORST rubberneckers I have ever seen, though.

You know, I've been told this exact thing by some of the people who work here with me (native Austinites).

In Missouri, we blame the Kansans (mostly those from Johnson County - one of the wealthiest counties in the US - because their giant SUVs and luxury cars take up too much space, and are operated by people with some sort of sense of entitlement).

In Kansas, people just tend to look around and go, "Wha' Hoppened?"

[Radar]

I grew up in Vegas, and all I've got to say is it's full of old retired people, 24-hour alcohol, tourists who get drunk and walk right into the street, and a freeway system that was designed for a maximum of 300,000 people when they've got well over 1.5 million now.

The people in Vegas and LA lose thier minds when it rains.

But the very worst drivers I've ever seen are from Oklahoma.

[tw]

Worst drivers tailgate. They have not a clue why the car in front is going so slow. So they get angry, tailgate closer, and only end up going slower. If you cannot see where the rear wheels touch the road when driving or stopped behind another vehicle, then you are tailgating agressively - and don't have a clue as to what a bad driver really is.