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I've driven in all of these cities except for Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago. To me, the answer is NYC, Manhattan in particular, and it's not close. I've sat in traffic jams in LA and Atlanta. No fun to be sure, but I didn't find it particularly stressful.
In Manhattan, in addition to the 4-5 lane avenues absolutely packed with traffic, you have an insane number of pedestrians, bikers, delivery guys all just running out across the street. Your head needs to be on a swivel at all times. Not to mention that army of taxis and now uber drivers who mindlessly weave in and out, knowing that you will eventually let them in (because you care about your car, or you have kids in the car, etc.)
And then you have the entrances to the tunnels, which take said 4-5 lanes and squeeze it down to 2 before entering the tunnels, which will of course back them up. While I wasn't driving in this particular instance, it once took my an hour in a taxi from my office in western midtown to the Queens Midtown tunnel on the east side, a distance of about .75 miles en route to JFK. Nearly missed my flight.
Yeah, NYC.
What do you think about the availability of street parking in Manhattan? Which borough would be the second worst to drive in after Manhattan?
Pittsburgh can be frustrating if you are not used to it. Pittsburgh has tunnels, which always causes a bottleneck, as well as many many bridges, hilly terrain, steep streets, and short freeway ramps with little time to merge. Some streets end and then pick up a little further down the road. In many instances, there's no straight point between point A and point B. Even some stairways have their own street name.
The one way streets in downtown Pittsburgh are the most annoying part of driving around there.
Good for you. I have a very hard time shifting gears (pun totally intended) when traveling. My girlfriend's parents live in rural Vermont. My father splits time between rural Maine and rural Virginia. When I'm in any of those places, I have to regularly remind myself (not entirely true - my gf is good at letting me know what I'm doing wrong behind the wheel) that I'm not in the city anymore and that I need to back off the car in front of me, give the other car at the 4-way stop more than 1/1,000,000th of a second before I decide he's "hesitating," and that it's not going to kill me to stop to let cars turn left across my lane of traffic or pull out of a parking lot. It's really not easy for me to change styles just because outside of the city, but I wish it was. I can fully appreciate why people in many of these places have issues with drivers from bigger cities - they often don't leave their habits in the city when they head out to the country (or a vacation spot like Orlando).
I’ve been bludgeoned into driving the speed limit in Vermont. Speed limit + 4 on cruise control is it. Too many speed traps. I normally have the enormous grille of a full size SUV with out of state plates occupying my rear view mirror. As a semi-reformed Massholian driver, I’m aware of their spiked blood pressure and pull over when I can. I recall a Cadillac Escalade with NY plates on a bucolic country road where I pulled over to let him by and passed him pulled over by the speed trap a mile further down the road. I’ll drive 80+ with everyone else on the Boston roads but I’m speed limit + 9 in New Hampshire and speed limit + 4 in Vermont.
The worst thing I drive on I’m sure you know. Locally dubbed “Dartmouth Shoals”. Dartmouth Street from the city line in New Bedford to Allen Street. Cars parked on both sides of a high traffic street and insufficient room for cars to pass in opposing directions. The skill level of the drivers is awful.
I’ve been bludgeoned into driving the speed limit in Vermont. Speed limit + 4 on cruise control is it. Too many speed traps. I normally have the enormous grille of a full size SUV with out of state plates occupying my rear view mirror. As a semi-reformed Massholian driver, I’m aware of their spiked blood pressure and pull over when I can. I recall a Cadillac Escalade with NY plates on a bucolic country road where I pulled over to let him by and passed him pulled over by the speed trap a mile further down the road. I’ll drive 80+ with everyone else on the Boston roads but I’m speed limit + 9 in New Hampshire and speed limit + 4 in Vermont.
The worst thing I drive on I’m sure you know. Locally dubbed “Dartmouth Shoals”. Dartmouth Street from the city line in New Bedford to Allen Street. Cars parked on both sides of a high traffic street and insufficient room for cars to pass in opposing directions. The skill level of the drivers is awful.
Yep, that's about right for me too. We take I-89 the whole way and traffic really thins out on that road so it's tempting to fly (especially heading north after being in traffic from Boston to the 89 split) but both NH and VT have several speed traps each time we're heading up. It's a dangerous stretch if you have out-of-state plates (and I recently moved to a car with a bigger bullseye). Thankfully, I haven't been stopped yet, but I've been cursing under my breath as I drive by two Vermont staties in the median. I usually feel comfortable at about 75 in NH and 70ish in Vermont. Once we're on 100, 5 over feels OK to me (we rarely see police on that stretch), but I usually end up behind a local going 5 under or just the speed limit. My favorite VT learning experience has been covered bridge etiquette (basically, alternating turns which should be self explanatory, but isn't to many with out of state plates) - not something I learned during drivers ed in New Bedford.
I know that road pretty well. The skillset makes it particularly awful. The pedestrians can be bad too. I once had someone walk out in front of me in the middle of the street (no crosswalk) and flip me off as I jammed on the brakes to avoid killing them. It's chaos over there.
What do you think about the availability of street parking in Manhattan? Which borough would be the second worst to drive in after Manhattan?
Street parking would likely be not available (at least below Morningside Heights), although there are garages if you're cool with paying $70 per day. I've never tried to park there since I live right across the river and just take PATH or ferry when I go into the city, so I only drive through when I'm trying to get to Long Island or occasionally when Google tells me the west side highway is faster to get up to New England or points north (vs. the normal GW Bridge route).
I will say this though. I drove through last April, right in the middle of the first COVID lockdown, and it was delightfully empty. I think I hit 60mph on 10th Ave, and it was exhilarating, ha. Not a soul around at that time, it could have been the set of a post-apocalyptic movie!
I’ve been bludgeoned into driving the speed limit in Vermont. Speed limit + 4 on cruise control is it. Too many speed traps. I normally have the enormous grille of a full size SUV with out of state plates occupying my rear view mirror. As a semi-reformed Massholian driver, I’m aware of their spiked blood pressure and pull over when I can. I recall a Cadillac Escalade with NY plates on a bucolic country road where I pulled over to let him by and passed him pulled over by the speed trap a mile further down the road. I’ll drive 80+ with everyone else on the Boston roads but I’m speed limit + 9 in New Hampshire and speed limit + 4 in Vermont.
The worst thing I drive on I’m sure you know. Locally dubbed “Dartmouth Shoals”. Dartmouth Street from the city line in New Bedford to Allen Street. Cars parked on both sides of a high traffic street and insufficient room for cars to pass in opposing directions. The skill level of the drivers is awful.
Since you bring this up, I wonder which metro is the worst for speed traps...
Since you bring this up, I wonder which metro is the worst for speed traps...
Good question. In my experience, Route 13 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia (from the border to the Bridge-Tunnel) is the most consistent. I've never driven even 4-5 miles on that stretch of road without seeing at least a cruiser tucked away waiting to nab someone, or someone already pull over.
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