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Worst drivers


urbanvb

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I have often heard here in the US that NYC has the worst drivers. (To be fair though I have never driven in NYC). So what city has your pick for the worst drivers and why? List other cities as comparison if you want. Supporting documetation is welcome but not required. :whistling:

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Boston and Providence, as far as knowing the rules of the road:

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11777

I have to agree with this, driving is a free for all in both cities and their suburbs. When your light turns green, you have to pause for five seconds to let the stream of cars running the light go through. People here think that traffic signals and laws are just suggestions, not mandatory...

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I have often heard here in the US that NYC has the worst drivers. (To be fair though I have never driven in NYC). So what city has your pick for the worst drivers and why? List other cities as comparison if you want. Supporting documetation is welcome but not required. :whistling:

NYC drivers are pretty terrible -- I'm sure that every city has its fair share of crappy drivers but there seems to be a high concentration of them here. It's the standard stuff -- weaving in and out of crowded lanes on the expressways -- no signal of course -- doing that thing at bridge and tunnel entrances where they cut into a long line at the front causing the line to not move...

In the city itself -- read: in Manhattan -- they are bad but it's not as terrible as on expressways -- in the city the streets ae just pretty crowded so it can be hard to change lanes -- the most annoying thing is probably when people block an intersection and cause gridlock.

Having said this -- I've come across this same stuff in most cities I've driven in -- it's the same thing everywhere.

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There are just so many cars and people trying to get through manhattan that it makes it a jungle at sometimes the level aggression isn't neccessarily outragous.

I will also say this that driving on metro NYC expressways in NY itself, northern NJ and southwestern CT and even metro Boston highways (I-93, I-95, I-90/Mass Pike) the people that drive on these roads are usually less of a pain then people who drive on highways in the Hartford and Providence area who try to cut into lanes, cross over medians, etc.

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Unquestionably the most difficult and dangerous place to drive in the US I've been is, specifically, Cambridge in Boston. Nowhere else I've been comes close. Recchia is correct, though, that Mass and RI are pretty bad overall, and I've seen some spectacularly bad driving here in Providence (where red light running is surprisingly widespread).

Oddly, I found the Midwest in general to be pretty dangerous, since people there hyper-follow the rules. Speed limit is 55? Everyone is going 52. Therefore, there is a big speed gap between those driving by "the rules" and those of us perhaps bending them a bit ;). Also, they'll do bizarre things. I've seen people in the Midwest, to be friendly, stop dead in the middle of a major road to let a pedestrian walk through, except there is no crosswalk there! I'd panic break behind the guy freakishly stopping in the middle of a major artery...

NYC drivers are actually quite good and rather skilled. It's just the volume of traffic that is daunting to the uninitiated. As long as you expect everyone to behave selfishly, NYC driving is very predictable and safe.

- Garris

Providence, RI

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When we visited Seattle, my mother, a born and raised Long Island driver commented that everyone was following all the driving laws and that they should be careful not to cause an accident like that. We may drive badly in New York...but since everyone drives badly the same way as long as you're not a tourist things are fine.

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Definitely have to go with Mass as having the worst drivers. They really only care about themselves and don't seem to comprehend that they have to share the roads with other drivers and cyclists. And they ignore people in crosswalks. And in one instance, my girlfriend and I got lost in Ashland and some guy behind us decided to cross over the solid yellow lines and blow right by us. This was at night, mind you. He's lucky another car or truck wasn't driving the other way or he would have killed himself doing what he did. Ugh, it just irritates me so much, the way a lot of people in Mass drive.

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I though in some R.I. suburbs.. the local city governments were supposed to install cameras in the stop lights that would record if a driver blew a red light...resulting in catching their plate on camera and sending them a ticket in the mail. Maybe it was just a rumor. But if that were to happen, it would certainly straighten a bunch of people out in terms of reckless driving.

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I nominate Miami. I lived in Boston for 5 years and Miami drivers are far far worse. Normal NYC drivers aren't that bad, its just that there are so many Taxis and taxi drivers are bad in every city.

Miami worse than Boston? Is that humanly possible :lol: ? Or the Grand Concourse in the Bronx (although Boston's worse than that). Well, I'll have to see it to believe it.

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Miami worse than Boston? Is that humanly possible :lol: ? Or the Grand Concourse in the Bronx (although Boston's worse than that). Well, I'll have to see it to believe it.

Oh, Boston's definitely worse than the Grand Concourse... However, I had forgotten about the retirement zone of South Florida... That certainly could be subjectively more dangerous than Cambridge...

- Garris

Providence, RI

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When we visited Seattle, my mother, a born and raised Long Island driver commented that everyone was following all the driving laws and that they should be careful not to cause an accident like that. We may drive badly in New York...but since everyone drives badly the same way as long as you're not a tourist things are fine.

I could not agree with you more. I also noticed that people drove the speed limit up there. It's not a bad thing, but at the same, time kinda drove me nuts. Are other cities like that I wonder?

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Miami just can't get over the miami-retirement connection. That was 20 years ago people. The problem in Miami is not the old people it's a combo of foreign born citizens and overly aggressive drivers. The joke is that you follow the traffic laws of your home country in Miami. If you've ever driven in Central America you'd understand. Miami is also one of the top luxury car markets in the US. This kind of "me first" attitude is very apparent in the way people drive as well. Don't even mention all the construction trucks driving around now a days.

I've driven in Boston, New York, Chicago and Atlanta. Miami was the only place were I actually feared for my life (in the US, none of these places hold a candle to Mexico or Central America when it comes to bad driving).

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I've always been scared of driving through Mississippi - unpredictable drivers. I think they think that a intersate median is for U-turns! ;)

^^Speaking of drivers in Mississippi, this is how bad they are. I heard on the news that a blind man was driving on the road in place of his intoxicated friend who was telling him where to go! Nobody can top that!

As for Charlotte, there are crazy drivers in every large city. Charlotte is the same as the rest of 'em. If I had to say wild or safe, by far wild, there's very few good drivers left here. But nothing along the lines of Boston or Miami it seems? But hearing about Seattle, it is NOTHING like that :lol:

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The DOT did a study this year and here are the top 5 most dangerous cities to drive in order.

1) Atlanta

2) Houston

3) Dallas

4) Miami

5) Orlando

Notice they are all in the south, pretty interesting. Only northern city in the top 10 was DC at 9.

^^Where did you get this? I wanna see the rest of the list..... :D

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I did not find it on the internet. I actually got the information from the DOT itself in one of their local branches. You could probably call the operator and find out where the nearest DOT branch to you is. Other cities on the list:

12)Boston

15)New York

17)Detroit

22)Chicago

45)Los Angeles

66)Denver

88)Seattle

94)Portland

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Miami just can't get over the miami-retirement connection. That was 20 years ago people. The problem in Miami is not the old people it's a combo of foreign born citizens and overly aggressive drivers. The joke is that you follow the traffic laws of your home country in Miami. If you've ever driven in Central America you'd understand. Miami is also one of the top luxury car markets in the US. This kind of "me first" attitude is very apparent in the way people drive as well. Don't even mention all the construction trucks driving around now a days.

I've driven in Boston, New York, Chicago and Atlanta. Miami was the only place were I actually feared for my life (in the US, none of these places hold a candle to Mexico or Central America when it comes to bad driving).

I agree, Miami is the worst I've been in by far. I live in Dallas now and it's comparatively docile. Speed limits in Miami have no meaning (sportscars going 100+ on I-95 never really shock you), there is no fear of driving drunk, and the vast majority of drivers grew up in Latin America, the Caribbean, are over 80, or are tourists and have no idea where they are going. Turn arrows are rare and there are specific socially-mandated rules about running red lights (it's OK for two cars to make left turns when one turns red, but not three or four). Yellow lights are meaningless. I agree - I constantly fear for my life every time I drive there.

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