Worst Drivers in Nation...Guess Who? (Washington: transplants, neighborhoods, live)

[coldbliss]

YAY, DC! You did it! Number #1 baby!

Worst drivers in America? Washington, D.C., takes the honor - Bottom Line

Reasons for this honor not mentioned in the article?

1. The Type A, hyper-aggressive personalities who staff our law firms, policy wonk joints, trade associations, Capitol Hill etc. The rules of the road don't apply to them because they feel like they are the ONE percent of the population and rules are only made for the 99 Percent of the loser slobs. Those BMWs, Acuras, RangeRovers and Priuses are weapons of mass destruction around here.

2. The cab drivers who just got off the boat from Africa and the Middle East. There are no rules of the road back in Addis Ababa, folks.

3. Transplants from the northeastern part of the nation have lead feet and never heard of turn signals or slow braking. If you see New York or New Jersey plates on a car, there's a good chance that car will be in an accident soon.

There you go.

[11KAP]

crackheads on the road lol..

[OleSchoolFool]

the ratings people must have not driven in nyc...

[reddoor54]

haha, I'm not surprised. I have to admit I probably contribute to that statistic. Not intentionally - it's not like I'm in a rush to go to places. I can just be impulsive. I have my moments...

[r small]

Why am I not surprised?

[Curbed Enthusiasm]

Not one bit surprised.

[bornindc]

Originally Posted by coldbliss

YAY, DC! You did it! Number #1 baby!

Worst drivers in America? Washington, D.C., takes the honor - Bottom Line

Reasons for this honor not mentioned in the article?

1. The Type A, hyper-aggressive personalities who staff our law firms, policy wonk joints, trade associations, Capitol Hill etc. The rules of the road don't apply to them because they feel like they are the ONE percent of the population and rules are only made for the 99 Percent of the loser slobs. Those BMWs, Acuras, RangeRovers and Priuses are weapons of mass destruction around here.

2. The cab drivers who just got off the boat from Africa and the Middle East. There are no rules of the road back in Addis Ababa, folks.

3. Transplants from the northeastern part of the nation have lead feet and never heard of turn signals or slow braking. If you see New York or New Jersey plates on a car, there's a good chance that car will be in an accident soon.

There you go.

You are absolutely right. This list was based on the number of accidents as I understand it. But how many of those accidents involve people who A) don't live here at all or 2) moved here within the last few years from somewhere else (maybe as you suggest a place with few traffic laws or where it has never rained or snowed)? A significant number I bet.

Having grown up here, when I learned to drive I learned to avoid like the plague cars with dip tags, cabs and out-of-state tags. These people are accidents waiting to happen. I've seen enough of these vehicles lock their brakes in the middle of a traffic circle because they are so clueless for example. Most US cities are much more homogenous with a much higher percentage of "locals" on the road.

Of course there are still plenty of the aggressive/type A people as you described and distracted drivers here too. Blended all together with six-way intersections, roads designed originally for horse carts, motorcades, a lot of bikes/pedestrians, etc. I'd be surprised if we weren't at the top of the list.

[HurricaneDC]

Oh god, northeastern drivers are mentally insane.

[11KAP]

dc has all those cramped roads, and people
in certain neighborhoods drive like they're
on drugs all the time. they won't even
move over to let another car by. instead,
they just take up the whole road. there
are some creeps down there.

[stateofnature]

I think the problem is that many many (maybe even a majority) Americans are unfamiliar with city driving. That's because most cities in the US really are more like giant suburbs. In most US cities it is rare that you ever need to parallel park, encounter a traffic circle or many other common elements of driving in dense urban areas.

There are only a handful of U.S. cities that have these elements, and DC is one of them. But I think a lot of people are not aware that DC is like this, at least not until they drive here. Everyone knows driving in Manhattan is insane, so that keeps the non-city drivers out.

But I can't tell you how many times in DC I've seen people struggling with parallel parking, or clearly unsure what to do in a traffic circle, or forgetting to yield to pedestrians on a left turn (probably because they are used to driving in suburbs where there are almost no pedestrians).

I would guess the fact that many people drive here who are unprepared to do so is one of the main reasons DC ranks so high in this study.