Where are the worst drivers in America?

[adams house cat]

My top 5:

Albuquerque NM
Atlanta GA
Memphis TN
Oklahoma City OK
Miami FL

Honorable mention:
Eastern NC
Phoenix AZ
Madison WI
Dallas/Fort Worth TX

[ursus arctos]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

Survey says

Boston
Washington, D.C.
Providence
Baltimore
Philadelphia

Though as the linked article notes, there is always an argument for wherever we happen to find ourselves at the time.

Boston really is miserable, though.

[caja-dglh]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

I would think the Massholes are indeed the worst. There are varying styles though. New Jersey is terrifyingly fast and aggressive. Indiana is very slow yet with a strange interpretation of the five second rule that if the light turned red less than five seconds ago, it is kind of green.

[ursus arctos]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

Yes, there are notable regional differences, but Massholes tend to combine recklessness, entitlement, and flat out insanity (e.g., backing up for several blocks at 30 mph so as to traverse one way streets the wrong way) in a very "special" way.

[Janik]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

ursus arctos wrote: flat out insanity... e.g. backing up for several blocks at 30 mph so as to traverse one way streets the wrong way

Ha, yeah, I've seen an example of the logic that 'If my car is pointing in the right direction, then it's legal'. In this case not in Boston, rather in the French Alps. For added crazy, the bit of road people were reversing down was the on-ramp onto a dual carriageway.
Eventually someone thought things through and concluded that no court would accept that the direction the car was pointing in made the manoeuvre legal, so if they were going to escape the traffic jam this way it would be better to just accept it, turn around and drive forwards down the up-ramp.

[Cal Alamein]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

Sorry, AHC nails it. ABQ has the shittiest drivers on the planet.

OKC wasn't too bad in the past, but the last 10 years w/ a higher speed limit has made them more shitty.

EDIT: Dallas is definitely in the top 5. As a state, Colorado drivers are easily the worst. They are in their own little world, oblivious to other drivers - and that was before the legalization of pot.

[Elvis Wilbury takes a turn]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

Boston's a nightmare to navigate, though. It's not laid out like a grid as in most US cities, it's a twisty, bendy circumlocative place that is utterly baffling if you're not familiar with it and maddening if you do know it but get stuck behind someone who doesn't. Then there are the one way streets that are one way in three different directions depending what section you're in. I've had recourse to do the 30 yard back up more than a few times when confounded by the sudden one way change in direction, otherwise you have to go around about twenty blocks to reach where you want to go. I got caught by the Boston PD once doing that. It was quite comical. I was backing up my taxi, the patrol car was coming forward behind me, we met in the middle, side by side, the cop rolls down his window, and I think for sure I'm getting a ticket.

But the cops there seem to take this kind of behavior in stride. He informs me that the "preferred direction", the preferred direction, is that-a-way. I mumble my apologies and tell him I'm picking up a fare in the middle of the block and I miscalculated the house numbers. He sort of rolls his eyes and drives off.

It's generally acknowledged that Massachusetts' drivers are the worst in the country. I was fucking brilliant, though. When I lived there, I was like Han Solo on the crazy streets and asteroid belts of Beantown.

[San Bernardhinault]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

Boston's even a nightmare to navigate in the era of satnav because since the Big Dig you're underground half the time and the satnav can't tell you which exits to take. And then you're in downtown with most of the signal blocked out by buildings. I've had all kinds of problems.

California's drivers are generally bad, but bad in different ways depending on where you are.

San Diego's behave like they are basically stoned all the time. They'll plod along at 55 in fast lanes and then forget that they were meant to take an exit and skip across 4 lanes in front of everyone.

LA's drivers are on speed, instead, and have to move into the tiniest gap in the traffic flow just to get half a car length ahead (interestingly, almost all the crashes I've seen on LA's highway shoulders involve SUVs, which is probably distracted moms not totally on edge waiting for the next crazed move).

San Francisco's drivers I don't remember being particularly bad unless they're in white Priuses.

Anyway, bad though California's drivers are, they're not the worst in the country. My instinctive feeling was that the drivers in the cities of the big plains states are the worst. They still think they're in a rural backwater and not in a city of a few hundred thousand. Kansas City, St Louis, Denver... I only drove through Albuquerque once, at rush hour, and I can believe they are in fact the worst drivers in America.

[adams house cat]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

In ABQ to turn left you often have to cross 3 lanes or more in a short distance for instance exiting I-25 onto San Mateo to turn left onto Academy is a nightmare as there is no courtesy or lane discipline.

Here in eastern NC tailgating is endemic and the police steadfastly refuse to enforce the laws against it. You can also be the victim of what is called the 'envy chase'. Two friends have a Jaguar and an Audi respectively and I drive a Grand Tourer and we all get subjected to it a couple of times a week. The police here are abysmal at enforcing traffic regulations.

[Eggchaser]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

Slowly lift off the accelerator until the tailgater is stuck next to the car in the lane inside so they are going slowly AND can't undertake you.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

caja-dglh wrote: New Jersey is terrifyingly fast and aggressive.

John Nash with wife died yesterday or today. The cab they were in crashed.

[anton pulisov]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

The worst drivers in the world are on the left lane of the German autobahn. Agressive dickheads, every last one of them.

[ursus arctos]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

The Nashes were both in their mid 80s, but their loss is nonetheless tragic.

They were taking a cab home from Newark Airport to Princeton after returning from an award presentation in Oslo. The cab tried to pass another vehicle, lost control, hit the median and threw them out of the vehicle (they weren't wearing seat belts).

[WOM]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

Does anyone wear seatbelts in a cab? I touch as little as possible in those rolling germ traps, seatbelts included.

[ursus arctos]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

That's a good way to end up dead in New York.

Which certainly takes care of any germ issues.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

you lads have nothing on The Border regions of Ireland. They all think that they're fucking ayrton Senna.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

You have to wear a seatbelt, it's the law.

[Gangster Octopus]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

Aye, I've always thought of you as someone who would nev3r break a law.

[adams house cat]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

New Jersey is also known as 'The Whiplash State'.

Tried that Eggchaser. Doesn't work to well when faced with a homicidal redneck with their hat on backwards driving a beat up F-150 and floating along on a mist of Bud Light fumes.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

How much bud light do you have to drink to be over the limit?

[adams house cat]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

When I was a public defender 4 12oz Bud Lights was considered the threshold for a normal healthy male. A normal healthy female was thought to be able to handle 5.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

Imagine how pissed off you'd be if you were done for drink driving if all you'd been drinking was Bud Light.

[Cal Alamein]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

I'd venture to guess that 90% of USA beer drinkers done for drink driving consumed only Bud, Miller, or Coors products.

[adams house cat]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

Happens all the time AB. Cal is right, given a couple of percentage points, joined by PBR, Milwaukee's Best and Schlitz although these brands may be owned by the giants anyway. Up in San Juan County it was nearly always Bud Light with a side order of Dark Eyes. I had a client who blew 0.34, over 4 times the legal limit, and it was all Bud Light. I don't think I could take that much liquid in an hour.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Where are the worst drivers in America?

There's no way of knowing how many beers it takes you to be over the limit on any particular day. Just don't have any, if you're driving.