Top 6 Things I Hate About Cincinnati (Ontario, Madison: taxes, live, shop)

[jersey_too_expensive]

Sorry, I'm usually very positive, but during the past 14 months, the following have made the transition to life in Cincinnati more difficult than it ought to be:

1) You people can't drive. Really. Either you're racing past us at 100mph on the highway, or you're queuing up behind someone who's turning left -- and you sit there forever rather than going around them to the right. Either way, you almost never use your turn signals.

2) Speaking of turn signals: would it kill you to put some left-turn arrows at your major traffic light intersections? It is unbelievable how many busy intersections around here don't have such a simple and logical item.

3) Speaking of intersections: who is the genius that came up with the mess that is the Glenway/Crookshank/Boudinot/Glenhills Way "intersection"? What the heck were they thinking?

4) You haven't got a clue how to design a retail parking lot. There are either far too many or far too few spaces, no sense of traversal path, and where there are paths, poorly marked lane lines.

5) Plow your streets! You want to build a streetcar system but you can't even maintain your existing roads and infrastructure!

6) Shovel your sidewalks! Where we come from, clearing your sidewalk (the portion in front of your residence) is the law. Here, 95% of the sidewalk is a sheet of ice/snow whenever such precipitation presents itself. Get outside and shovel!

OK, enough with the rant. Sorry, but I needed to get that out of the way. Been bugging me for a long time now.

[Ohiogirl81]

Not altogether an unreasonable rant. First thing you gotta know, and plan for, is that Cincinnati drivers are courteous to a fault. They'll cheerfully tie up traffic in order to allow someone to merge onto the freeway, or to let someone turn right from the left lane. If you expect this kind of behavior, you'll save yourself a blood pressure point or two. I used to shout myself hoarse by yelling "How is it my fault that you're in the wrong lane?? Idiot!!" and then I learned to go with the flow. Or the non-flow.

And the people racing past you at 100 mph? They're from Michigan or Ontario.

I completely agree about the sidewalks. So many homeowners are just plain lazy. Also, people in Cincinnati are illogically terrified of snow to the point where they don't want to be physically involved with it, for any reason at all. Even the shop owners downtown don't shovel their walks promptly. It's mind boggling.

And the plows ... yeah. I lived in Madisonville for 13 years. Only one time in those years did I see a city snowplow come down my street. That was five days after a 17-inch snowfall on Martin Luther King Day 1994. There have been numerous discussions about how to solve the problem, but everyone's still talking and not doing.

I guess it could be worse ... You only found six things!

[Briolat21]

Hey - I'm from MI and I'm not racing by at 100mph anymore!! In 8 months I have been broken of my aggressive driving. Now I am the one sitting passively in the right lane going the speed limit. The EXACT speed limit.

No, the ones racing by going 100mph have OHIO plates, and usually seem to be under 25 years of age. Though its hard to tell from the blur as they whiz past. But it does seem that the NEXT generation of Ohio drivers are a lot more reckless than the last.

Oh, and why do I drive in the right lane now?? Because the sheer unbelievable number of accidents I have seen (and nearly been in) since I moved here in May has made me absolutely paranoid of driving on the highways here. Ohio drivers really can't drive at all. You do things that are ridiculously counter-intuitive (like merging at the last second when someone has given you space for a mile to merge). You drive too fast in poor weather conditions (snow/ice/rain) - and then spin out across 4 lanes of I-75 (right in front of me!!) and then in perfectly wonderful road conditions (sunny day, dry pavement) you go SLOW. You don't leave enough room to stop going down hills (I've been rear-ended twice in 8 months) and don't accelerate going up the hills.

Literally I am now a white knuckle driver -- after driving and thriving in super-agressive Detroit Metro traffic for the past 15 years!

It is SCARY down here. And don't get me started on "the cut in the hill" *Shudder*

[*Danielle*]

Originally Posted by Briolat21

Hey - I'm from MI and I'm not racing by at 100mph anymore!! In 8 months I have been broken of my aggressive driving. Now I am the one sitting passively in the right lane going the speed limit. The EXACT speed limit.

No, the ones racing by going 100mph have OHIO plates, and usually seem to be under 25 years of age. Though its hard to tell from the blur as they whiz past. But it does seem that the NEXT generation of Ohio drivers are a lot more reckless than the last.

Oh, and why do I drive in the right lane now?? Because the sheer unbelievable number of accidents I have seen (and nearly been in) since I moved here in May has made me absolutely paranoid of driving on the highways here. Ohio drivers really can't drive at all. You do things that are ridiculously counter-intuitive (like merging at the last second when someone has given you space for a mile to merge). You drive too fast in poor weather conditions (snow/ice/rain) - and then spin out across 4 lanes of I-75 (right in front of me!!) and then in perfectly wonderful road conditions (sunny day, dry pavement) you go SLOW. You don't leave enough room to stop going down hills (I've been rear-ended twice in 8 months) and don't accelerate going up the hills.

Literally I am now a white knuckle driver -- after driving and thriving in super-agressive Detroit Metro traffic for the past 15 years!

It is SCARY down here. And don't get me started on "the cut in the hill" *Shudder*

This cracks me up! I moved to the metro Detroit area about 4 years ago...I lived in New Jersey for 2 years before that...but I was born and raised in Cinti....Out of all those places I think Cinti. people drive the best! Jersey was insanity and I would pour sweat and pant all the way home...It was nuts...Michigan is Michigan...they are ok except slow pokers driving slow in the fast lane on the highway...
I swear I am going to invent a sign to hang in my windsheild that I can type messages and flash the to people in front of me...Like get the heck out of the fast lane! LOL

Cinti people are slow and careful...

Funny how your opinion varies on where you probably were most comfy behind the wheel...


Eh...cut in the hill is a piece of cake.

[Ohiogirl81]

I swear I am going to invent a sign to hang in my windsheild that I can type messages and flash the to people in front of me...Like get the heck out of the fast lane! LOL

I want one! I want one!

[Cincy-Rise]

... I've thought about the driving a lot. It seems that everyone I know in Cincinnati complains about Cincinnati drivers? What's wrong with this picture? lol

[jlrosen]

everything you hate about cincinnati has to do with driving

[jersey_too_expensive]

Sidewalks == walking, not driving.

But you're right -- I've focused on the driving aspects. There are other things that make us nutty, too. Trust me, driving in NJ is no picnic -- but we do take much better care of our roads (one of the reasons taxes are higher there) -- and we do shovel our sidewalks faithfully. Makes walking around here in Cinti very difficult. Drivers themselves in NJ are scary -- because everyone is always in a rush. But it's a "devil-you-know" type thing -- they were predictable in their insane behavior. Here, you never know what to expect. The turn signal thing really bugs us. And most drivers here seem to think that they'll never get in an accident -- they can just back up whenever/wherever they want, turn and change lanes without signaling, etc.

Pedestrians behave in a similarly unfamiliar fashion here, too. In a busy parking lot, you guys will just cross right through the main line of cars without looking or stopping. Not so back home. We stop. We look. We wait. We don't step out in front of cars and make everyone screech to a halt. We behave ;-)

[lydunn]

I totally agree with you being orginally from upper Ohio by the morning the streets would be clean and the driving down here kills me most of my friends say are you from Michigan because you drive like no one here...that maybe true that people are courteous I don't know but half the time I do blow... scream (with windows up) saying go around.... sometimes I will just pull in front of them and go around and I courteous sometimes depends on how I feel

Originally Posted by jersey_too_expensive

Sorry, I'm usually very positive, but during the past 14 months, the following have made the transition to life in Cincinnati more difficult than it ought to be:

1) You people can't drive. Really. Either you're racing past us at 100mph on the highway, or you're queuing up behind someone who's turning left -- and you sit there forever rather than going around them to the right. Either way, you almost never use your turn signals.

2) Speaking of turn signals: would it kill you to put some left-turn arrows at your major traffic light intersections? It is unbelievable how many busy intersections around here don't have such a simple and logical item.

3) Speaking of intersections: who is the genius that came up with the mess that is the Glenway/Crookshank/Boudinot/Glenhills Way "intersection"? What the heck were they thinking?

4) You haven't got a clue how to design a retail parking lot. There are either far too many or far too few spaces, no sense of traversal path, and where there are paths, poorly marked lane lines.

5) Plow your streets! You want to build a streetcar system but you can't even maintain your existing roads and infrastructure!

6) Shovel your sidewalks! Where we come from, clearing your sidewalk (the portion in front of your residence) is the law. Here, 95% of the sidewalk is a sheet of ice/snow whenever such precipitation presents itself. Get outside and shovel!

OK, enough with the rant. Sorry, but I needed to get that out of the way. Been bugging me for a long time now.

[lydunn]

Its already been invented I remember seeing it on Dateline about 5 years ago and it was a guy who did it....I don't remember anymore info

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

I want one! I want one!