[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Plus you are not old enough to be a snowbird. He needs to see an optometrist.

I'm sorry. A few rude jerks a couple times a year is fine. Running into at least one every time you go out gets on your nerves after awhile.

I kid you not when I tell you that in the last year that I lived in Lee County I avoided going out at all costs. I was actually getting weird. It was a big deal for me to drive to Tennessee. My desperation was the only thing that kept me going. When I got here it took a long time to calm down. Thank goodness the people were patient and kind. To know me now, you would never think that I got like that. I am outgoing and love people. If I can make you laugh then I am happy. But Fort Myers almost did me in.

And I'm from the northeast, so I don't expect people to be all sweetness and light. But those people down there were more than rude. They were aggressive. Perhaps senile. Angry. As long as I live, I never wish to go back to that.

I believe you. I have lived all over the country and never saw more reckless and rude drivers.

I feel the same way, it is on daily basis here. You can't go from Point A to Point B without somehow either being involved in a close call or being a witness to some act of stupidity.

Maybe it is the heat. I have never seen worse drivers.

[ChrisA70]

Well, i rarely ever saw people drive like such idiots, or yell crap at you for no reason like down here. There is NO courtesy whatsoever. And now with the snowbirds back, it's worse. Now we have a couple thousand 80+ year olds driving 20 in a 50, no blinkers, pulling out in front of you.... yeah it's so fun.

[pel4us]

I read the posts and I am shocked. Perhaps in the Ft. Myers area it is that way. I have found that there are more senior citizens on the west coast of FL. I live on the east coast in the Daytona area and the only reckless drivers I see are the stupid teenagers who don't believe that they can ever die. I do see some slower senior citizens but hey it is usually because I am used to speeding everywhere I go. I don't think this area is a bad place to live other than there are few jobs and the pay is less than anywhere else in the state, but it is safe here. I have been here for 18 years and could not call anywhere else home anymore

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by pel4us

I read the posts and I am shocked. Perhaps in the Ft. Myers area it is that way. I have found that there are more senior citizens on the west coast of FL. I live on the east coast in the Daytona area and the only reckless drivers I see are the stupid teenagers who don't believe that they can ever die. I do see some slower senior citizens but hey it is usually because I am used to speeding everywhere I go. I don't think this area is a bad place to live other than there are few jobs and the pay is less than anywhere else in the state, but it is safe here. I have been here for 18 years and could not call anywhere else home anymore

You are correct. I lived in Orlando and didn't have any problems. I moved to Fort Myers, and oh boy, what a difference.

I think anytime that you have a very large demographic that outweighs the others, there could be potential problems. When a good portion of that demographic has slow reaction times there can be huge problems, and when there is larger incidence of some of the earlier symptoms of Alzheimer's being present, you can often be confronted with aggressiveness.

And there is also the domino effect, where a small group of people are nasty but it snowballs into a larger group having a bad day and so on and so on. Then add relentless sun, heat and humidity.

Eek.

[ChrisA70]

Originally Posted by pel4us

I read the posts and I am shocked. Perhaps in the Ft. Myers area it is that way. I have found that there are more senior citizens on the west coast of FL. I live on the east coast in the Daytona area and the only reckless drivers I see are the stupid teenagers who don't believe that they can ever die. I do see some slower senior citizens but hey it is usually because I am used to speeding everywhere I go. I don't think this area is a bad place to live other than there are few jobs and the pay is less than anywhere else in the state, but it is safe here. I have been here for 18 years and could not call anywhere else home anymore

No, when I lived in vero beach, or Melbourne, it was nothing like here in Fort Myers/Naples. We are LOADED with retirees and snowbirds.... Anywhere else I lived in FL was not bad at all, it's here that is bad. In the community I live in, over the last month, they all came back, and it's like an obstical course driving in here now.

[tercel95]

Here in Jacksonville it is a serious issue because of the transient nature of the city... We get every other states bad driving habits...

We cover the whole spectrum of bad drivers... No turn signals, getting over at the last minute, driving aggressively, driving too fast, driving to slow, people who just generally cannot operate a machine, we have it all in spades...

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by ChrisA70

No, when I lived in vero beach, or Melbourne, it was nothing like here in Fort Myers/Naples. We are LOADED with retirees and snowbirds.... Anywhere else I lived in FL was not bad at all, it's here that is bad. In the community I live in, over the last month, they all came back, and it's like an obstical course driving in here now.

How about the ones who just stop in the road for no reason? Or they looking for a store or a garage sale and so they just slow down, no other cars matter.

Then you have the poorly trained FL driver who doesn't know you suppossed to look in the rear view mirror....lol. Or stay back every 10 feet for the every 10 miles of speed.

They just stare straight ahead....clueless....

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by tercel95

Here in Jacksonville it is a serious issue because of the transient nature of the city... We get every other states bad driving habits...

We cover the whole spectrum of bad drivers... No turn signals, getting over at the last minute, driving aggressively, driving too fast, driving to slow, people who just generally cannot operate a machine, we have it all in spades...

Funny I lived in CA for 20 plus years, which is also a very transient state and never saw such lousy drivers like there are in Florida.

It has to do with poorly trained FL driver and the elderly who come here from other states.

You can't be 80yrs old in CA and renew a license over the phone. You also can't drive around with no car insurance like they do here.

FL is a joke when it comes to drunk and reckless drivers.

[TriMT7]

Ah, the bi-monthly debate on who has the worst drivers.

Luckily, a much larger sampling of opinions has been examined, with the following results:

Originally Posted by Survey/Study

Worried about getting hit by some careless driver who doesn't know the rules of the road? Well then you might want to steer clear of New York, New Jersey, Hawaii and California.

Those four states top this year's list of the states with the worst drivers, according to a survey performed by GMAC Insurance.

"Their drivers, for whatever reason, are less familiar with the rules of the road," said Wade Bontrager, a senior vice president for GMAC Insurance which ranked drivers. "People need to be understand that they need to be educated. They need to remember the rules of the road and that educated drivers are safer drivers."

GMAC for the past five years has surveyed 5,000 people across the country with 20 test questions taken from various state driving tests. It turns out than many Americans don't really know what it means where there is a solid yellow line on one side of the center line or what type of lights to use when driving in the fog. (No passing and use your low beams.)

So where does your state rank? Below is a list of how each state fared from worst to best. There are several ties, so study up New Yorkers, there's always next year.

51: New York

50: New Jersey

49: Hawaii

48: California

47: Georgia

46: Rhode Island

45: Massachusetts

44: Washington D.C.

43: Florida

42: Connecticut

40: Maryland

40: South Carolina

38: Mississippi

38: Tennessee

37: Louisiana

36: Pennsylvania

35: Kentucky

34: Ohio

33: New Hampshire

32: Delaware

31: Maine

30: Arizona

29: Illinois

28: West Virginia

26: Nevada

26: Alabama

24: Texas

24: Arkansas

22: Michigan

22: Indiana

21: Virginia

20: North Carolina

19: New Mexico

17: Washington

17: Oklahoma

15: Montana

15: Colorado

14: Vermont

12: North Dakota

12: Arkansas

8: Minnesota

8: Oregon

8: Iowa

8: Wyoming

7: Utah

5: Nebraska

5: South Dakota

4: Kansas

3: Montana

1: Wisconsin

1: Idaho

Gosh, it's amazing how yet again, the most outspoken in their opinions are contradicted so easily!

And no, sorry, I DON'T take anybody's word here at greater value or worth than the GMAC survey of 5000 people.

[ChrisA70]

Yeah, Massachusetts is on there, the worst ones there are in the Boston area for sure...

And I believe it would be NY, and NJ.... No doubt.