Driving in San Francisco vs Manhattan (trucks, drivers, tailgating, California)

[ragnarkar]

If you've driven in both places, which do you find more difficult to drive in?

Although I've never driven in Manhattan, I drive in San Francisco regularly. Downtown can be a PITA but the areas in the city proper outside of downtown isn't too bad. Sure, we got a lot of hills, but unlike Manhattan, we don't have to deal with snow in the winter months (except maybe once every couple of years at the higher elevations.)

[louie0406]

Never driven in California period but I dont see how anyplace can be worst than driving in Manhattan. You're sharing the already congested streets with buses, yellow taxi's, uber drivers, bicyclists, delivery trucks and some of the worst pedestrians in the world.

[fluffypoopoo]

Never driven in Manhattan, but have ridden in taxis and shuttles. Manhattan is by far much scarier to drive through. The worst place I've ever seen would probably be in Naples, Italy and followed by parts of Asia.

[vision33r]

I've driven in LA but never in SF but driven in Manhattan for over 20 yrs. LA driving sucks because there are way too many cars and bottlenecks, not enough roads and highway to handle the traffic. People are too slow and snobbish too. What looks like a 5mi drive in LA takes over 30mins to get through during the day. Manhattan can get bad in a jam but people will do whatever it takes to get moving even if it means breaking traffic laws.

I've done some reverse driving in Manhattan to back out away from jams just to get around. There's also the option of just parking the car and take subway. Mass transit in CA sucks.

[Phyxius]

I've driven in both cities. Manhattan. After being nearly swiped by two taxi drivers in the same block and cut off by a tour bus, I had enough. The bus driver didn't care that I was ahead of them. I adjust my driving to be more aggressive.

[Malloric]

Never driven in Manhattan. I've taken cabs/uber though, and I'd say it gets the nod. San Francisco downtown can be horrible as there's only a few routes that get on freeways. If you're trying to get on a freeway or are stupid and use a route that goes to the freeway to get elsewhere, it's up there. If you know what roads to avoid, however, even during rush hour it really isn't that bad. Manhattan has the same problem SF does with bridges/tunnels but then there's more routes and a whole lot more people who aren't trying to get out of Manhattan. That doesn't tend to be the case in SF. You have a few people going out to the Avenues who aren't trying to get on the freeway and traffic is heavy but no one is really trying to drive around downtown during rush hour. They're just trying to leave.

[cdelena]

Neither is easy but I found Manhattan much more difficult.

[car54]

I once watched an interview of Dale Earnhardt Sr when he was in NYC.

They asked him, "Hey Dale, how do you like driving in Manhattan?".

The Great One replied, "Oh no, not me, I'm not driving in Manhattan!".

[Pruzhany]

NYC driving is one notch worse than SF. Same tailgating idiots. Same race track. Have to watch a little more for brain donor pedestrians. Yellow is Red. Don't get stuck in a intersection when the light changes.

[bmwguydc]

Manhattan is worse than San Francisco, but Manhattan doesn't faze me since I'm a native-born son, so I am conditioned to it. San Francisco has the hills, but New York is a much more complex operating environment.