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Everyplace I've been I hear folks complain about how terrible the drivers are: NY, Boston, DC, Chicago, Atlanta, LA, Detroit, San Francisco and on and on. Plenty of stories about speeding, road rage, drunk/high guys behind the wheel, nobody uses turn signals, tailgating, and lots of other examples of bad driving.
So is this just inevitable in the big cities I'm used to visiting and/or driving in? Or are there some sizable cities out there where most people don't complain a lot about bad drivers because they're relatively rare?
drivers in Portland, Oregon are courteous and orderly and are almost too passive. In Seattle cars will stop if you even look like you might approach a cross-walk while down the road in Tacoma people drive like they're in LA, Phoenix or Dallas. Lots of swerving and hard braking.
In general, the idea that some places have better drivers than others doesn't pass the smell check. However, a few thoughts on this:
1. I've heard the idea that different regions have different driving styles, and a problem that transplant-heavy cities have is that there is no a consistent style; everyone is driving differently and it is unpredictable.
2. My wife believes that people who start driving early in life are much better than people who pick it up later. I think people in the country tend to start earlier than people in suburban cities, and people in urban cities start even later (or not at all).
3. Here in Texas, it's hard not to notice that immigrant communities can be very bad. It's probably a bit of both #1 or #2 (they learned late and/or in a driving style *very* different than here).
Given that, give me a more well-off rural area with relatively low immigration as the best drivers. Maybe somewhere in New England or something? Just guessing.
Unfortunately in states where current drivers are perceived as being good TODAY, the incoming new drivers will feel safe when they themselves are wild and crazy. That’s because good drivers are predictable as to their specific actions. That allows uneducated and arbitrary drivers to be wild with few consequences. Speeding, weaving, no turn signals, incomplete stops.
As more and more new drivers behave that way, TOMORROW that state will get a bad rap.
drivers in Portland, Oregon are courteous and orderly and are almost too passive. In Seattle cars will stop if you even look like you might approach a cross-walk while down the road in Tacoma people drive like they're in LA, Phoenix or Dallas. Lots of swerving and hard braking.
People in Seattle definitely do that, same in parts of Denver and Boulder. In New Orleans, you'll die trying to cross a crosswalk.
To answer your question on the thread title - NONE, till the driving schools change their way of teaching driving and final exams. And driving laws start to be enforced.
Right now one can be completely clueless, unfit even - just get a good lawyer.
I've yet to see an Ohio plate that wasn't a good driver so probably give Ohio a look.
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