Tuesday, May 15, 2007

SF Bay Area ranks #11 on Rude Driver list

I would agree with that list. NYC, Boston, and LA are all MUC MUCH worse than the Bay Area in terms of rude drivers. Miami ranks first but I've only been a tourist there, transported around in buses and tour shuttles, or walking straight to the beach from my hotel....so I've never actually been in the thick of traffic there to judge.

I think Bay Area has more stupid or timid drivers than rude drivers. If anything, I think people are more clueless here than rude or impatient. I see people who don't pay attention to lights, who back out of parking spaces without turning their head to see what's behind them, break for no reason, or they merge into lanes way below speed of traffic, causing everyone to brake. I

I'm probably one of the more impatient drivers around and think people drive way too slowly in non-pedestrian zones, stop way too early for a yellow light, take way too long to merge into lanes, are too scared to make a quick turn or lane change, and too often insist on following or driving under the speed limit.

Ranking high on that list might mean you're in the middle of a lot of driving hazards but it also means that people are more efficient (impatient) and you can count on the person in front of you to not waste a second during a green light. Whereas here, I have to wait 3-4 seconds sometimes for a driver to respond!

Cleveland is #19. Not surprised. My sister lives there and has gotten ticketed twice for driving over 25mph on an open, carless road!

3 comments:

Josh said...

One of the reasons I dislike driving so much is because of the aggressive, impatient way so many people drive. It bugs the hell out of me the way people tailgate and won't allow you to merge into their lane. I'm not talking about cutting somebody off, I'm talking about the situation when you're both going the same speed anyway, I need to take the next exit, I turn on my signal, and the jerk closes the gap anyway. Probably the same types of people who, on BART, bum rush the doors and won't give up their seat for a pregnant lady...

bartmusings said...

OK, I'm not that bad! I admit I get impatient sometimes but I'm not crazy aggressive! I'd let you change lanes to exit :)

Anonymous said...

What has always been confusing to me is the drivers who stop twenty feet back from the limit line at a red light. Why do they do that? I sat behind one of these folks several months ago, for about 5 minutes. Finally, I pulled around them on the right, and I activated the roadway sensor and the light turned green! They would still be there waiting for the light to turn, if I hadn't pulled around them. Don't they realize, you have to pull up far enough to activate the sensor in the roadbed, otherwise, most signals will not know you are there.