I have to chime in here with the following subjective opinions. Being
a native, and having many miles of driving behind me in many states
and countries, I would rank Phoenix as 6th with a bullet (due to the
enormous growth and influx of people moving here from other places
which apparently do not have the same traffic laws that we do).
Fifth would be New York where I experienced my most hair-raising
driving experience sitting in the back of a taxi moving between 12 and
70 miles an hour within only three city blocks. This is the
originating city of the one finger salute.
Fourth would have to be Seattle, and only because they still haven't
defined rules governing which side of the road an exit should be on.
This often mandates severe four or five lane swerves by so-called
drivers, holding a cell phone in one hand and a coffee cup in the
other.
Third would have to Be Los Angeles. When traffic does move, it moves
with a reckless abandon that I have seen nowhere else. And heaven help
you if you get in the way.
Second would be Paris where they first learned how to fit six lanes of
traffic in a two lane alley, and sidewalks are officially considered a
lane.
The absolute worst place I have ever driven was Boston. They practive
an almost primal form of Bumper-Cars. Your car should be considered
disposable if you drive in that city. Oh, and don't respond to
gestures there! You will get their basic meaning.
Thanks all. I had fun with this one.
Donn
On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 09:20:45 -0700, Josef Lowder <
joe@actionline.com> wrote:
>
> Definitely off topic, but I can't help but respond to this with a rant.
>
> On Tuesday 11 January 2005 00:13, Kevin Brown wrote:
> > > and of course driving with these people in the rain is funny. when we
> > > have normal weather they drive like maniacs, when the road gets wet
> > > suddenly it's dangerous.
>
> It's not just when it gets wet that it is dangerous, though.
>
> > Roads are dangerous because idiots can't be bothered to think farther than
> > 1 second ahead. Wet, dry, cold, hot, doesn't matter they still drive like
> > madmen. Diving across lanes, puttering at 45 when flow in 75, turning left
> > from the right hand lane, turning right from the left hand lane, etc.
>
> Arizona drivers are, hands down, the absolute worst, most inconsiderate,
> most careless, most reckless drivers I have ever experienced in 40+ years
> of driving in 30+ states in the US and in England. I lived here for three
> years before I saw the first Arizona Highway Patrol vehicle stop one
> of these lunatics. The evidence of just how bad it is can be seen in
> the dailiy refreshed black skid marks cris-crossing the freeways and
> the absurd number of residue of crashes into the concrete barriers that
> can be throughout the valley, especially on 60 where I drive most.
>
> When we were in England last summer, I saw not one single skid mark
> nor one single barrier damaged from a crash in all the hundreds of miles
> we drove, even though the drivers do drive quite fast (and of course
> everyone drives on the wrong side of the road ;)) They have very few
> concrete dividers or barriers. Most miles have none at all. But the few
> dividers or barriers that they do have are old, undamaged steel ones
> that have obviously been there for a very long time with no recently
> replaced panels.
>
> Judging from the number of crash sites on Arizona's concrete barriers,
> It's hard to believe that there are any vehicles left on the roadway here.
> What is most amazing is that all these crash sites are every few feet on
> both center dividers and on the side-of-the-road barriers ... and not
> just where there are curves in the road, but they are also every few feet
> on the long straight-ways when there are 5 or 6 lanes across. Good grief!
>
> Since moving here four years ago, I have personally witnessed,
> at close range more collisions happen right in front or behind me
> than I saw collectively in my previous 40+ years of driving.
>
> The most disgusting part of this whole mess is that most of these
> crashes could be eliminated if the state would just use photo radar
> and mail out tickets to _every_ lunatic for every single mile-per-hour
> they drive over the speed limit. Notice, that word is LIMIT.
>
> Sorry for the rant. I've called 911 to report several of the most extreme
> offenders and I've written to the state highway patrol several times,
> but I get the impression that they really don't care. I've had Arizona
> highway patrol vehicles pass me going 10-20 mph faster than the
> speed limit when they were just crusing along with no lights or sirens.
>
> Please friends ... slow down and live.
>
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--
Donn
"Sarcasm is the safe alternative to expressing anger."
--Richard North Patterson
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