Philly Drivers Suck!! (Philadelphia, Plymouth: calculation, dangerous, to move)

[Whatdoesthefoxsay65]

Here are my top 8 complaints about Philly drivers (in no particular order).

1. No one actually stops at a stop sign. Two years ago I was in a car accident, and when I asked the other driver what happened, he said he, "Didn't think I was going to ACTUALLY stop. Just pass and go." Excuse me, but stop signs are meant to protect people trying to cross the street. Which brings me into point 2.

2. No one stops for pedestrians. How many times have I been crossing the street when a car making a right turn comes up on me and *honks* the horn telling me to move. Excuse me, but I am sitting here, half rushing across the street as to not get hit by a negligent idiot like you, and then you have the nerve to pull up on the cross walk while I'm trying to cross the street and act like you're the one who is annoyed? Wrong, just wrong.

3. Cars try to cut you off when crossing the street. So I'm crossing and out of no where some car pulls up on the crosswalk with an angry driver yelling all types of swears at me. Apparently I have no right of way and you can just make your left turn onto the road and nearly cut me off and I am wrong because I should have known you were trying to get through the yellow light? Seriously, Philly?

4. Yellow light does not mean go faster! I mean, come on people, when you see the yellow light, that means slow down. Not go as fast as I can to get through it. I have seen at least 3 accidents because people slam on the breaks when they realize they cannot speed through and the person tailgating them realizes that too.

5. You people tailgate too much. My bumper is not for you to chase and crash into. I mean, when I come up on a light the person behind me leaves about a 2 foot gap. After 30 seconds of hitting the gas and inching closer they're on my bumper, and as soon as the light turns green, they're blazing their horn and hitting the gas. So they can tailgate me while waiting at the next light.

6. No one bothers to drive the speed limit. This is not a problem, but when you start getting on dangerous roads like Kelly Drive and you think this is a good time to try and stay within 5-10 miles of it. Instead you people are doing freaking 10-15 miles above it and honking at others who are not as crazy and stupid to do it with you.

7. You never seem to look before you exit garages or driveways. I was almost hit by a car in Chinatown when the driver suddenly busted out of the garage at about 10 miles per hour while the driver looked to the right and saw that he almost hit me. Instead of asking me of I was okay he rolled his eyes like I should have been looking out for his car first! Ridiculous! Almost hit by a car doing the same thing as well this morning.

Before yah try and say other cities are just as bad : http://ardmore.patch.com/groups/grea...in-us_37ed5db8

"That said, the Philly area did come in second nationwide in overall collision and pedestrian strikes."

The only people worse than are Miamiers!.

[mancat100]

The yellow light most certainly means to go faster. How else are you gonna beat the red light?

[MikeNigh]

Originally Posted by mancat100

The yellow light most certainly means to go faster. How else are you gonna beat the red light?

I thought the yellow light meant you will be soon running a red light

[motherofpearls]

1,4,6 are very true

[mcguirk]

We like to drive fast. It's a regional thing. I hate driving in Virginia because it's the most northern state on the seaboard whose citizens actually follow speed limits. However I agree that both Drives -- actually most anywhere within Philadelphia proper -- are bad places to speed.

There's a reason #1 is known as the South Philly Slide. I think it's just a well-known trait of our area. Even city cops pull that all the time. Methinks it's a holdover from when more people operated standard transmissions. The lazy/sloppy drivers couldn't or didn't want to perform all that footwork so they just slid through every stop sign.

If you come to the older suburbs (like inner Delco), we've also got grid-like street layouts with seas of stop signs. And, no surprise, we also slide through them. The problem is I've moved to the exurban sticks where people actually stop at a stop sign; it unnecessarily infuriates me.

I agree on the yellow light thing. It's extraordinarily dangerous so I've personally banned the maneuver. It takes one miscalculation and a wild turn-on-red to ruin your life forever.

[2e1m5a]

Haha ^ I love the South Philly slide. And OP I agree with some things but try spending time in Boston-they are worse.

I only hate when drivers dont go around left turners and unnecessarily block traffic at a light.

[Whatdoesthefoxsay65]

Originally Posted by mcguirk

We like to drive fast. It's a regional thing. I hate driving in Virginia because it's the most northern state on the seaboard whose citizens actually follow speed limits. However I agree that both Drives -- actually most anywhere within Philadelphia proper -- are bad places to speed.

There's a reason #1 is known as the South Philly Slide. I think it's just a well-known trait of our area. Even city cops pull that all the time. Methinks it's a holdover from when more people operated standard transmissions. The lazy/sloppy drivers couldn't or didn't want to perform all that footwork so they just slid through every stop sign.

If you come to the older suburbs (like inner Delco), we've also got grid-like street layouts with seas of stop signs. And, no surprise, we also slide through them. The problem is I've moved to the exurban sticks where people actually stop at a stop sign; it unnecessarily infuriates me.

I agree on the yellow light thing. It's extraordinarily dangerous so I've personally banned the maneuver. It takes one miscalculation and a wild turn-on-red to ruin your life forever.

I hate the whole slide thing because people end up hitting pedestrians that way. Which is why we're second worse in the country for that.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by Whatdoesthefoxsay65

Here are my top 8 complaints about Philly drivers (in no particular order).

1. No one actually stops at a stop sign. Two years ago I was in a car accident, and when I asked the other driver what happened, he said he, "Didn't think I was going to ACTUALLY stop. Just pass and go." Excuse me, but stop signs are meant to protect people trying to cross the street.

People are definitely big on rolling stops here. Driving through Plymouth Township, I recall seeing signs that said something like "complete stops: free; rolling stops: $100; the choice is yours."

[Avalon08]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

People are definitely big on rolling stops here. Driving through Plymouth Township, I recall seeing signs that said something like "complete stops: free; rolling stops: $100; the choice is yours."

Except in my town there was no punctuation on the sign, so it read:

FULL STOPS
FREE
ROLLING STOPS
$100
YOUR CHOICE

Because of the lack of punctuation and the fact that you're trying to read it while rolling through the stop sign, I couldn't figure it out at first.

I guess that's true about the pedestrian thing. When I moved out to Southern CA, I was driving somewhere and my friends were behind me. I made a left turn and I could hear them yelling at me. When we got to our destination, they were freaking out because apparently a pedestrian had stepped off the curb (on the opposite side of the street) as I was making the left. Apparently there are strict pedestrian laws there and I was supposed to stop, even though the pedestrian had only taken one step and was nowhere near my car. Pedestrians have the right-of-way, always.

[newmarlig]

Speaking for pedestrians, I agree with Nos. 2 and 7. I hate that drivers ignore the line they are supposed to stop behind so people can cross the street without being hit by cars coming in the cross direction.