Worst drivers in US?

Matt ya know they've got traffic circles in Maine also. I spent about 30 minutes trying to escape one in Portland a few years back. I lived in Skowhagen Maine some years ago and was surprised to find the ill feelings that the Mainers had toward the Mass holes I guess the same as Oregon and California. As far as driving in Boston the main problem I see is the city is just plain grid locked there are so many historic buildings and the streets are so narrow there's just no way to get from point a to point b. I'm guessing the big dig tunnel didn't help things at all?
 
marvin4239":2pcxe3j7 said:
... I'm guessing the big dig tunnel didn't help things at all?
Click to expand...

The Big Dig is an infamous financial debacle of course riddled with corruption but as long as the ceiling plates stay up it's actually a significant improvement to traffic flow.
 
I've driven in most major cities in the U.S. NYC, DC, Houston, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, LA, Baltimore, Orlando, ABQ, ...

Boston wins, hands down, for "most jaw-dropping traffic maneuvers attempted per capita." The mantra adopted there is that blinkers (or "directionals" for you Yankees) are solely used to indicate the direction opposite from which you just came. People drive near the speed of light in an attempt to slow down the rest of time. Coupled with the paved-over-cow-paths that the Massachusetts Highway Department calls "roads", and you have the perfect mix for "festive" driving habits and very, very creative moves.

Given the above, one could reasonably argue that Bostonians (or Mass-Holes, as has been pointed out before) are the *best* drivers.

As far as the forehead-slapping, "no-way-that-idiot-just-did-that", geriatric type of driving goes, I'd have to say Las Vegas wins. I don't mean to offend anyone or imply bad things about anyone's driving habits in particular here, but there are some baaaad drivers out there. Yikes.
 
So last summer we're driving home from the San Juans with Tortuga in tow -- we get through San Luis Obispo about midnight -- the kids are asleep -- and as we are driving through the darkest section of 101 between Santa Maria and Gaviota we see red lights ahead about a mile or two. So, like everyone else, we slow to a crawl. As we approach we see a smashed car on the median, and a second smashed car in the middle of the street with a 20 something standing next to it talking on a cell phone.

This looks bad, no emergency response yet, only one driver standing. Can't be good. So we're all stopped in that moment of confusion. A couple of people get out of their cars to check on the drivers. The next thing I know, people are slowly driving their cars through the accident so as to get on their way. THROUGH the accident. Broken glass, smashed car, pieces of fender.

After one car comes careening from behind unaware that there even is an accident and screeches to a halt just feet from the smashed car it finally occurs to me to put some road flares out. Which I do (trying not to get creamed from the next car coming out of the darkness).

Once the flares are out, everyone stops. It's like they just needed someone to say, yeah... this is an accident. You oughta stop before you kill someone.

The kid from the car in the middle of the highway appears freaked out but in one piece. No driver is anywhere near the car in the median. That mystery remains unsolved to us (we hope it was an unattended car parked on the median that was just hit by the kid. So *hopefully* no one was injured in this mess.

Firefighters arrive and contain the scene. My youngest wakes up just then and blurts out 'hey... a firefighter' with obvious glee (he was 6 at the time).

I don't know what this means. But, the next time I come across an accident scene I have every intention of driving right on through... kids, boat, and all. :sad
 
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