After complaining about the insane drivers out here this morning, I heard this on WTOP this driving home this evening.
A new survey by Allstate rated DC area drivers third worst in the country after Worcester and Boston, MA
The best city for US drivers is Fort Collins, CO ….
People drive either way too fast or way too slow. It is a zoo out there.
Out of the frying pan into the fire! Oh well, you did not move there for the driving.
Never been to Mass, so I cannot vouch for them. But I have had to navigate the DC enough to know they are the worst I have experienced (and I have done many of the major metro areas).
In 1978, I drove from Arizona to Boston with a friend to attend summer school at Boston University. His car was stolen within two hours of our arrival – from the dorm parking garage.
Solved the driving problem. 😆
I’ve driven in Detroit, Atlanta, DC, Baltimore, parts of Philadelphia, LA, Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Jackson, Chicago, Indianapolis, Orlando, and Birmingham. Of all of those, I’ve found that Birmingham’s drivers are the worst. I suspect that the only reason why Birmingham, AL never gets mentioned is that its metro population is only about 1.25 million.
I’ve driven a big truck in every one of the lower 48 plus Ontario and Quebec. The only big city in the lower 48 I never had occasion to pass through was New Orleans. Never had a delivery or pick up there and when passing on I-10 I would take I-12 across the top. In my opinion a-holes are everywhere. The state or city does not matter really it is more about the concentration of traffic for the most part. But I will say that one does have to take special care in certain parts of Florida because of the Blue hairs. Some seem to be tired of waiting in God’s waiting room and are in a hurry to get it over with.
Thanks for the story. You did remind me that I had forgotten that I’ve driven in NO. I used to love visiting NO’s French Quarter, but not much else.
It depends. I’ve driven in all of those except Orlando & Detroit, but Dallas frankly takes the cake for shitty driving, espacially if there’s something made of dihydrogenmonoxide falling from the sky.
You got more southern cities than I do (I have not driven through the deep south except Florida). But our lists are similar other than that (add a few midwest and West Coast cities to my list).
I will take your word on Birmingham as I have never driven there, but you have driven both in DC and there.
I do have a lot of experience with Birmingham, given that I’ve lived there, currently live near there and my children/grand children live there. Of the larger cities, DC and Atlanta are the worst; though it has been some time since I’ve been to DC.
Rode a motorcycle for years around metro-Boston. And lived to tell about it. A school bus nearly put me in an early grave one morning.
I flew into Boston and from there drove north into Maine. I was coming from SoCal, and the difference was: Aggression. You can fly along at 80 in SoCal in very close configuration, but it’s all very smooth. In Boston, the guy behind you wanted to drive thru you, even when there was another bumper right in front of you.
The NW is courtesy central. Sometimes TOO courteous.
You sure know how to pick cities to live in Steven, among the best to among the worst, wow, no wonder you see such a huge difference.
I live in the DC area twice on consulting projects and the driving was quite crazy so the second time I got a temporary apartment across the street from the client’s office. That reduced my commute to between 5 and 7 minutes, the delay being a variable wait time for the elevator. Needless to say I usually took the stairs instead. Before that though the commute was an hour on that crazy highway going into DC.
Should be “I lived in …”. 😉
Money Magazine rated Columbia,MD, the second best place to live in the US, and Fort Collins #6
http://apps.money.cnn.com/bestplaces_2010/compare_tool_2010.jsp?id=PL2718116
I do everything on my bicycle in both cities.
I own a big slice of a very small mountain and thus have no neighbors and can look down on everyone since I built my house high up.
The only problem: when it snows, I have to plow half a mile of driveway and it is plenty steep. But the ‘no neighbors’ part is worth even all the snow removal work! 🙂
Boston has always been infamous for bad driving! I live just northwest of it and avoid the place. Then there is the eternal mess of the Tunnel when you go to the airport, another facility I avoid after picking up people there over the years.
I had a friend who had lived all over the world. Was shot in Belfast Ireland, worked on a geo survey ship in Alaska, lived in Africa… He flew into Boston Logan Airport for a visit thirty years ago and turned sheet white within minutes of riding in Boston traffic. Said it was the worst he had seen in his life.
The traffic in Boston has just gotten worse in the intervening thirty years.
Was just there this afternoon. It’s rude & they’re bad, but hardly the worst I’ve seen.
Expand your view, try driving in India.
I used to live mid-way between Boston and Worcester (in Hopkinton, MA) — many a day I felt like the meat in a crap driving sandwich.
Ultra high concentration of traffic in that area of MA. Short on and of ramps of the clover leaf design. That area is one of the arm pits of truck driving. And so you have a whole lot of midwest truck drivers that refuse to go there. As far as their concerned the eastern seaboard starts at the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line.
Opps “their” should be they’re.
i lived in DC area twice for a total of ten years; moved to Kendall, WI where a traffic jam is having to slow down for an Amish buggy.
I grew up in central MA and spent an awful lot of time driving in Worcester. There is an area of town called Kelley Square. It is essentially a giant paved area with no fewer than 10 different roads, some of them major, simply dumping out into it with essentially no sort of traffic control whatsoever. Somehow, it sort of works, but I can’t imagine what it must be like for an out-of-towner who’s never seen that intersection to suddenly find themselves having to negotiate that. The locals’ strategy there is pretty much simply “give it gas and go for it”.
There is HOPE
Cars in the US might soon be mandated to broadcast speed and location data.
http://rt.com/usa/183208-dot-nhtsa-rulemaking-v2v/
If you want a Fascist government you can keep it.
Great, that’s something else the hackers will ruin your day with.