I've lived all over the U.S. and driven in several different countries and the worst drivers I've ever been around are in the DC area. For me, no other place even comes close to that level or terrible. Riding my motorcycle down the beltway and having people look you in the eye and then try to merge into you gets pretty old in a hurry. I will say that people in North and South Carolina will ride in the left lane all day and not move. Haven't seen it as bad anywhere else and that shit drives me insane.
That is my biggest cause of road rage since moving down here, fuckers will never move from the left lane no matter what. NEVER.
New. Jersey. I was in Atlantic City for a funeral. I thought we are about to have another because I have never been terrified just making a turn. Lost track of all the near collisions in the span of just 2 days. Those people are insane. Highly aggressive, impatient, refuse to allow anyone to turn, speed at least 15 over on narrow lanes and turns, no signals, sideswiping, lane weaving. Everything. Constantly. People bitch about Miami, but Miami drivers are just pussies with a lead foot. Also, half of them came from countries where traffic laws are more of suggestions.
I still maintain that Texas has the worst drivers. Yes, we have the people who won't leave the left lane. But we also have people who are so oblivious to their surroundings and pull the most dangerous lane changes I've ever witnessed. We also have people who take the off ramp and hit the feeder road doing about 80mph. Right into traffic going 45 mph. The people who speed up to close the gap when you turn on your signal to change lanes. I would take slow or inconsiderate any day of the week over the pure recklessness that is houston.
Anywhere there's a college in Texas, I want to punch people in the back of the head. These motherfuckers at UTA are fucking TERRIBLE drivers. Add in the junior high and high school kids who fucking jaywalk when they're going to school...I hate mornings and early afternoons.
I am told Boston is the worst. Dayton is the worst experience for me, David Bowie stole my baby brother and hid from me on the other side of Dayton. Except instead of stench bogs and stair rooms there were spider-man crackheads and mothers one-handing their six-year-olds. Worst in Canada? Toronto. It's automotive rugby.
I've heard Italy is a fun place to drive. From what I understand, the traffic lights are more suggestions than anything else.
No. Ottawa's worse. Full of old people who spend more time on rascal scooters than their feet and middle-aged bureaucrats who don't understand even a glimmer of the concept of hurrying the fuck up. I saw people go into roundabouts the wrong way, blatantly run red lights, and make right turns at intersections after crossing two lanes from the left turn lane. I didn't find Boston all that bad, personally, but I didn't drive all that much there. Montreal isn't even as bad as Ottawa. But then, I'm from Toronto originally, and I always know I'm close to home on the 401 when I'm driving 130 and there are still people behind me waiting to pass. Luxembourg City was my worst driving experience. Windy, hilly roads, narrow lanes, and locals who are so inured to these conditions that you're not allowed to slow down to accommodate oncoming traffic until after your mirrors have been torn off. And they wouldn't let you in during gridlock. Also, Holland. There was a joke among the locals in Germany that if you failed your driving test three times, they would give you a yellow license plate (n.b. - Dutch plates are yellow). Then again, they were also the nicest and most orderly at letting people in to gridlock traffic.
I have had too much of an issue with Ottawa yet but I haventvtouredxaroundvit much. It's drawn out weird. Kitchener has the weirdest street grid. It looks like it was designed by a spider on Xanax, you have no idea what way you're driving in that town.
It depends on how you define "worst." If we're talking in terms of safety and regard for other human beings, it's by far the worst. If we're talking how many accidents occur based on the way the populace drives, it's probably the best. I'm shocked there's not more vehicle-related fatalities. I've been to and driven in most of the other cities mentioned and they don't compare to Boston/Mass drivers. It's frightening to drive here sometimes.
Nope, the worst traffic around has to go to Johannesburg. There, if you have to travel across the city, you leave home at 6am and are lucky to get to work by 9am. Yep. 3 hours. To get across one city. Here's Wikipedia's article on the Johannesburg Ring Road, which says that Gilloolly's Interchange is probably the busiest interchange in the Southern Hemisphere. Yikes. What it doesn't tell you is that there are frequent accidents at Gillooly's, which makes for an even bigger fuck-up, most of which are caused by minibus taxis, which are often overloaded and not completely roadworthy.
Boston is terrifying to outsiders because Boston somehow developed a culture of totally different rules of the road. I'm not going to say Boston drivers are the best in the world, but the locals all understand the rules and drive relatively sanely amongst themselves. That said, nowhere have I seen drivers who consistently make poor decisions the way LA drivers do.
It's not hard to drive because the streets are relatively gridlike, and with plenty of space the roads are generally wide. But it seems like every morning there's some moron turning in front of oncoming traffic while texting, or just coming to a dead stop in an intersection, or trying to exit the freeway across four lanes of traffic without signaling, or otherwise trying to cause a multi car pileup.
I've driven in almost all parts of all the states on the east coast over the years(and parts of Tennessee), and I'd say the worst is DC by far. Boston has the same "problem" that New York has: if you're not used to the way they drive there you think everyone's batshit insane. I remember driving in Boston one time after I spent about a year in NC, I had to pull over and remind myself that the overly aggressive fuck-everyone-my-business-is-more-important way of driving is the norm up there. Atlanta sucks, but that's more traffic than anything else. Oh, and no one knows what the fuck they're doing here in Charlotte. I find it more than a little hilarious that the NASCAR Hall of Fame is in a city where no one can figure out how to drive in a straight line without causing an hour-long traffic jam (Abermarle is infamous for this shit).
Hmm. It just occurred to me that this board has been here for just over four years. Anniversary drink??? DON'T MIND IF I DO!!!!
I feel like the situational awareness of most people in LA (and California as a whole) is extremely low relative to the rest of the country. This applies to all aspects of life, not just driving. I'm not saying Californians are dumb, but they rarely have a fucking clue about what is going on around them.
I don't mind LA drivers. They drive aggresively and with a purpose. If there's a spot in the lane next to them in the freeway and they're changing lanes they don't signal, wait there five minutes then maybe move over. No, they move over then, its decisive. People understand that there are too many people on the freeways and you can't really afford to drive like you're in Denver if you want to go anywhere. That said, there are plenty of people on cell phones etc, but thats anywhere. Denver has the worst rubberneckers, its not even a contest or question. If there is an accident in the opposite side of the highway then both directions slow down to a crawl. Why? Because they suck and everyone wants to see the fender bender so they slow down. Fuck that. Also if they change lanes on the freeway, they signal, wait 20 mins, then maybe move over. Its frustrating. You'd think they'd know how to drive in the snow but they don't, they suck at that too. Everything slows down to a crawl for an inch of snow even though everyone has a Subaru or Land Rover. The worst traffic I've ever encountered is actually I-70 just west of Denver in the mountains. Its a 4 lane freeway, but really it needs to be 8, but they won't do it because of the obvious cost. So what happens is that a trip which should take 90 mins ends up taking 4 hours. If there's snow its worse. I like snowboarding, I like the mountains, but the traffic getting to and from the mountains makes it not worth it. Its honestly that bad.