Pittsburgh drivers (Washington: school, price, floor)

[psulions2007]

Originally Posted by greg42

This is likely true, but the trouble is you can't compare your observations with anyone else's measurement of driving in a given place. The only way to validate driving on the same relative scale is to observe it yourself. Everyone else's measurements will be clouded by their particular biases which won't be the same as yours.

This is true with a lot of things, but driving is especially susceptible.

I'm guessing, since your info says you're not from here, you have a specific curiosity about or beef with something you experienced when you drove through or visited, or heard something somewhere. Just spit it out.

I just want to see what people there think of it. If you have enough responses from various people, you can cancel out the biases and see a general perception from the average. In Omaha, for example, the general perception was that the drivers were good except in snowstorms...and therefore there were not very many complaints overall...there were also less accidents. In Louisville, the complaints about drivers are extremely high, and this shows itself on the roads with many aggressive and/or terrible drivers and increased amounts of accidents. (A good way of tracking this is counting, over the course of a month of regular driving, how many accidents you see... then averaging it on a month-by-month basis).

I love Pittsburgh, and I want to move there someday after I finish my schooling and exploring of the country. Granted, driving through there isn't the most fun I've ever had (most of my driving has been coming in on Parkway East onto Ft Pitt Bridge towards the Airport, but I have driven on 28 out to the NE and Veterans Bridge up to 279 and out.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Like many places in this country, the drivers here are pretty bad. I've seen worse, but that doesn't negate the fact that people drive like morons here. Be cautious and you should be fine.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by greg42

no matter what place you are talking about or where you are from, everyone else's driving always sucks!

Isn't that it in a nutshell? Can we close the thread now before we get the usual crap? :d

+1,000,000

[Mugatu]

As a transplant to the area, I think Pittsburghers generally drive slower, less aggressively and are more courteous than in other areas of the country (sometimes to a fault). But the one idiosyncrasy I have observed time and time again is that they simply do not know how to merge. At all. Beware of cars stopped on on-ramps at any time. And as h curtis mentioned, they DO like to get in line as quick as possible before a lane closure as if they are trying to break the world record for the longest single file line in history.

[pburghfan]

People drive like morons everywhere. IMO, the drivers in Pittsburgh are less moronic than average.

[chielgirl]

There are probably 10 threads on this topic but I'll bite.

Tunnel turtles are the bane of drivers.
The Squirrel Hill tunnels should have cops on the other side that ticket SLOW drivers through the tunnels.
There are traffic signs that clearly state maintain speed through tunnels.

If you're afraid of tunnels, take another route.

</end rant>

[psulions2007]

Originally Posted by Mugatu

As a transplant to the area, I think Pittsburghers generally drive slower, less aggressively and are more courteous than in other areas of the country (sometimes to a fault). But the one idiosyncrasy I have observed time and time again is that they simply do not know how to merge. At all. Beware of cars stopped on on-ramps at any time. And as h curtis mentioned, they DO like to get in line as quick as possible before a lane closure as if they are trying to break the world record for the longest single file line in history.

It seems like the merge issue could be a byproduct of the fact that it seems many on ramps in the Pittsburgh area are shorter than regulatory standards due to age and size/areal constraints.

[Hopes]

The merge issue is tricky for some out of towners to understand because in some areas of the country, the highway actually yeilds (slows down) for cars coming off the ramp. In PA, the law is that the ramp yeilds to the highway.

Sadly, many Pittsburghers think yeild means stop. Many stop at a yeild regardless of if it's on a ramp or elsewhere. I rear ended someone at Washington Boulevard back before the "keep moving" sign put in place of a "yeild" sign. The yeild sign was unnecessary because the ramp has its own lane. But idiots would stop dead there.

And I've seen idiots stop dead in the middle of a road to let an oncoming car make a left turn. This happens when there's no red light, no stop sign, no yeild sign. Just a car wanting to turn left. You can be traveling down the road behind a car and it will STOP for what seems no apparent reason because it saw someone else wanting to turn.

So I agree with Brian, pittsbugh drivers tend to be too cautious and too polite.

Oh, and Magatu and Curtis, I'm one of the cars blocking you from cutting at a construction merge. It may be stupid that everyone forms one long line, but that's no reason for you to take advantage of the situation and fly down the other lane to cut in front of someone who has been waiting.

[Mugatu]

Originally Posted by psulions2007

It seems like the merge issue could be a byproduct of the fact that it seems many on ramps in the Pittsburgh area are shorter than regulatory standards due to age and size/areal constraints.

It's definitely a factor. The locals are so used to seeing dangerously short ramps or even stop signs on on-ramps, that they don't know the proper merging procedure when met with a full-length acceleration lane.

The first time I visited here I flew through the stop sign at the Greentree on-ramp to the Parkway West and thought to myself, "was that a stop sign I just went through? Noooo, couldn't be. There's no stop signs on on-ramps to highways!" I had a lot to learn about Pittsburgh roadways.

[Copanut]

Ah, can't pass this thread, it sucks you in.

Merging seems to be a lost art or something never taught. Again last night, I am the slow lane, car parallel to me, jack-wagon on the ramp ASSUMES I'll move over. No turn signal, never looked, I had to floor it to get ahead of him. Drives me nuts, and it's just not in Pgh, I see it all the time. I guess Driver's Ed is no longer taught in High School, no doubt those teachers were making too much money.