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Drivers in the Phoenix area have the tendency to drive very fast and recklessly. Phoenix was (and may still be) the metropolitan area with the most red-light running deaths per capita in the United States. Our roads are very straight and our lanes are pretty wide, so that combination causes people to speed quite a bit. Most people go at least 10 miles over the limit on surface streets, and up to 15 miles per hour on the freeways. Turn signals are rarely used here, however, I always use mine except in some cirucmstances. A lot of people will gun it through yellow lights, but if you have ever been to Phoenix, you know how wide our intersections are, so the light turns red before they make it all the way across.
I do a lot of driving in rural Michigan, mostly in the central and western parts of the state.
One interesting thing here when you're driving on gravel roads: We wave at random strangers when we pass each other going in opposite directions.
I think it might have something to do with the fact that the roads aren't heavily traveled, and you are going slow enough to make eye contact when you do encounter another car. Or, possibly, that we EXPECT to know the person that we are passing, whether we do or not.
Either way, I have waved at many a random stranger while driving around here.
I was having a discussion with my brother recently about the misconceptions people have of NYC drivers. I won't deny that we're aggressive; we most certainly are, but that does not mean we're bad drivers (on the contrary, I'd say we're very good drivers as we're used to having to be hyper-aware of our surroundings when behind the wheel). In NYC, aggressive driving is the norm, so nobody takes it personally if they're cut off, which happens all the time. What may seem rude to outsiders is just standard to us. Someone from Nebraska was saying that its polite to roll down your window and say thank you when someone lets you in. This is a really funny concept to me.
Anyway, I'll be traveling cross country soon and I was wondering what the driving culture is like in different areas of the country.
(As an aside, why are there so many Florida drivers all over the place? Every state I go it seems, I see Florida plates.)
I see Ohio and Michigan a lot in the south. You probably see them because they are people who now live in Florida, but who are back visiting their relatives. Either that, or they are snowbirds who purchased a vehicle in Florida, but who then take that same vehicle back to Michigan or Ohio to live during the warmer weather months.
If you honk at another driver in Tennessee, you're probably from Florida, California or the northeast. Don't do it if you come to my state. And if you have a reason to get out of the car, most men who are natives of this state, have exceptional manners...like in they hold the door open for you BEFORE they go through it themselves and it doesn't matter if they're poor, rich or in-between. That demanding rude boy stuff doesn't work here.
Now, all of that goodness aside, there are a lot of unlicensed and uninsured people driving around here and most of us residents aren't required to have the car inspected/do emissions stuff.
Oh yeah, one more thing, if you should have an encounter with the police while you are in my county, your name and full address will go in the newspaper with whatever it is you did, even if it's a car accident or even if you are a victim and not the perp.
Oh that's funny because I'm from Ca and totally forgot about honking! Yes, we honk in Ca for anything that's annoying to us. When we moved to Missouri, I realized that wasn't common place and never honk anymore, unless someone's about to run into me! I had completely forgotten that I used to be a honker
For some reason people in San Diego don't really seem to use their horns as much as other parts of CA, especially LA and SF. Twice in the same day at the same location I saw a line of cars waiting at a left turn signal. The signal turns green and the car at the front sits there through the entire cycle and NOBODY honked at them to go and instead just waited till the next cycle to go. I was going straight or I would have laid on my horn after about 10 seconds but apparently nobody else in that line cared and just sat there. And that was TWICE in the same day at the same intersection at different parts of the day and I've seen stuff like this before. Must be the whole "laid back" thing or something...
For some reason people in San Diego don't really seem to use their horns as much as other parts of CA, especially LA and SF. Twice in the same day at the same location I saw a line of cars waiting at a left turn signal. The signal turns green and the car at the front sits there through the entire cycle and NOBODY honked at them to go and instead just waited till the next cycle to go. I was going straight or I would have laid on my horn after about 10 seconds but apparently nobody else in that line cared and just sat there. And that was TWICE in the same day at the same intersection at different parts of the day and I've seen stuff like this before. Must be the whole "laid back" thing or something...
Well then things must have changed because when I lived there, birth till 2001, people were crazy on their horns! And definitely when you sit 2 seconds past a green light! Something I stopped doing after moving!
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