city with slowest drivers? (state, compared, places, population)

[tdatl]

let me say to start that i'm not knocking them, because when I'm visiting a city it sure makes it easier to navigate if I don't have speed demons around me. For someone who doesn't know the roads, for instance, Birmingham is a much easier place than San Francisco because they drive at a more leisurely pace in Birmingham.

so just curious in which city you've found drivers on uncongested freeways to be the slowest? For this, i mean metros over 1M in population.

Baltimore absolutely blew me away. City streets, freeways, didn't matter. It was almost like speed limits were a theoretical maximum, whereas in many areas that's the starting point. I can't help but wonder if traffic enforcement there is pretty strict, they have high fines, or both? And maybe the population has been beaten into submission??

[Rachael84]

Not a city, but southwest Florida drives REALLY slow.

[DailyJournalist]

Originally Posted by Rachael84

Not a city, but southwest Florida drives REALLY slow.

LOL, I agree southwest Florida has to be the worst. 10mph is the norm there.

[tdatl]

what i find funny about Florida drivers is that some people say they are slow, but i've noticed pretty consistently that the fastest drivers on freeways in the southeastern states almost always have Florida tags. I drive pretty fast on trips, and if i'm passing pretty much everyone on the freeway, a Florida driver will pass me.

[DailyJournalist]

Originally Posted by tdatl

what i find funny about Florida drivers is that some people say they are slow, but i've noticed pretty consistently that the fastest drivers on freeways in the southeastern states almost always have Florida tags. I drive pretty fast on trips, and if i'm passing pretty much everyone on the freeway, a Florida driver will pass me.

Thats because they are from Miami.

[WestbankNOLA]

As for southern states, I would put Florida, Texas, and Louisiana down for the fastest. Georgia and North Carolina in the middle.
Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee as the slowest.

This observation comes from watching the driving habits of out of state licesne plates around NOLA.

On a statewide level, I think NOLA drivers are the fastest in Louisiana, followed by Baton Rouge. In Texas, Dallas drivers appear to drive faster and more sporadic than Houston drivers to me. Mississippi and Alabama drivers tend to drive according to w.e. move they are in. Most fast Georgia drivers I encounter are usually have Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett?, Dekalb, or Douglass stuck to their license plates. The remaing GA plates I see drive slower. Drivers from S. Florida remind of drivers from Boston or NOLA for some reason, with less order and skill though.


^This all opinion, don't get offendended.

[sav858]

Honolulu, but the speed limits are 55mph max anywhere in that state.

Miami, I was actually surprised by how slow many of the drivers were there, expected them to be faster but I wouldn't call them the slowest. Plus I only drove between South Beach and Key West so I didn't do a lot of driving in the metro area north of Downtown or South Beach.

The SF Bay Area, compared to the rest of CA they are the slowest and worst drivers in the state imo.

[pw72]

Originally Posted by tdatl

let me say to start that i'm not knocking them, because when I'm visiting a city it sure makes it easier to navigate if I don't have speed demons around me. For someone who doesn't know the roads, for instance, Birmingham is a much easier place than San Francisco because they drive at a more leisurely pace in Birmingham.

so just curious in which city you've found drivers on uncongested freeways to be the slowest? For this, i mean metros over 1M in population.

Baltimore absolutely blew me away. City streets, freeways, didn't matter. It was almost like speed limits were a theoretical maximum, whereas in many areas that's the starting point. I can't help but wonder if traffic enforcement there is pretty strict, they have high fines, or both? And maybe the population has been beaten into submission??

I think you made a very good assumption about enforcement. Places where enforcement is heavy tend to be slower. A good example is the Washington State Patrol, when there was a time (I think in the late 80's-early 90's but not positive) when they really slacked off on enforcement, and what do you know practically everyone was speeding. Then a new regime came in, changed that, and everyone slowed down. Human nature in play there.

I currently live in a 75 mph freeway state, and if you think that means anything, wrong. If the limit is 75, most will go 80. If the limit is 65, most will go 70. Again, human nature.

[Deezus]

Portland drivers are pretty slow on the highways...the speed limit is about 50-55 mph through most of the city on the interstates and expressways--and alot of people will barely go 50. Even on I-5 through Oregon the speed limit is much lower than Washington---where as pointed out above the limt is 75 mph.

But Oregon drivers have a particular reputation as being very passive, slow drivers--which isn't always a bad thing...People even stop for you sometimes when you are walking and haven't even got to the cross walk yet.

[mike0421]

Originally Posted by Deezus

Portland drivers are pretty slow on the highways...but the speed limit is about 50-55 through most of the city on the interstates and expressways. Even through much of Oregon on I-5 the speed limit is lower than Washington---where as pointed out above the limt in 75 mph.

But Oregon drivers have a particular reputation as being very passive, slow drivers--which isn't always as bad thing...People even stop for you sometimes when you are walking and haven't even got to the cross walk yet.

Post of the day. I was going to add, but couldn't. As a region, I've never seen anything slower than Portland. And it's not due to anything other than a slower pace of driving. I don't usually like to over-generalize on these forums, but when it comes to slow driving, I've never seen anything like Portland Oregon and the surrounding environs.