Why have Pittsburgh drivers gotten so aggressive and angry? (better, Sunday)

[WhoIsStanwix?]

Originally Posted by tyovan4

39th St?

40th St is Hell to drive down during rush-hour. It can take 15 minutes just to get down that street - the onstreet parking for the houses means there can't be two lanes, the Get-Go doesn't help, and it seems the bottom of 40th St where it intersects with Butler St is always screwed up/sunken which makes people go very slowly over it.

Not 39th. The street is irrelevant, as almost every street in central Lawrenceville becomes a cut-through during rush hour to bypass numerous major arteries. The fact that there is a lot of traffic isn't surprising at all. The issue I take is that virtually every stop sign serves as a yield sign (at best) and speed limits are meaningless. It is definitely a price I pay for living in the city, however it would be nice if those who drive through would respect the residents and travel at speeds that the tight streets dictate.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

So yesterday I was involved in a road-rage incident. I was pulling out of my on-street parking space on Brereton Street. It was a tight space, so I needed to make a couple of swings to successfully shimmy my hatchback out. As I was making my last swing out I noticed a car approaching in my lane coming up the hill from the stop sign at 30th Street by West Penn Park, but it was still a couple hundred feet back at the time. Just as I pulled out the guy intentionally sped up to close the gap and then rode my rear bumper up to the top of Brereton Street, where I promptly slammed on my brakes as we hit congested traffic at the intersection with Hancock/Herron. The guy behind me, driving what looked to be a Subaru WRX, flipped me off. I flipped him off back. This antagonized him even more as he again rode my rear bumper up the hill on Herron. I again slammed on the brakes as we got closer to the red light at Bigelow. He again almost rear-ended me.

Polish Hill is a nightmare of aggressive drivers during the evening rush. People come up the hill from the Strip, see that Paulowna/30th is backed up to West Penn Park, so they'll then either GUN IT up Brereton Street or Phelan Way to hopefully get let out into traffic on Herron and then hit the first green light before the folks on Paulowna Street get the second green light cycle it would take to clear them.

The guy looked to be late-20's or maybe early-30's. I'm really learning to hate my generation. I thank God I now have a job within walking distance of my home and never have to deliver food on these mean streets ever again! I was five seconds away from getting out of my car and getting into a shouting match. Bill Peduto really needs to raise taxes so we can get more cops out on the street to calm these jagoffs down!

Face it, SCR, you just like to get rear ended. Sorry, but we were ALL thinking it. You gotta relax and just realize there are a lot of jerks out there. Most are in the city.

[tyovan4]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Face it, SCR, you just like to get rear ended. Sorry, but we were ALL thinking it. You gotta relax and just realize there are a lot of jerks out there. Most are in the city.

HAHAHA, classic comedy, absolutely classic.

No offense SCR, just a joke in good fun

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Face it, SCR, you just like to get rear ended. Sorry, but we were ALL thinking it. You gotta relax and just realize there are a lot of jerks out there. Most are in the city.

Originally Posted by tyovan4

HAHAHA, classic comedy, absolutely classic.

No offense SCR, just a joke in good fun

I have been rear-ended one too many times in my life for my liking!

In any event I agree with WhoIsStanwix that I should have probably just pulled over somewhere on Brereton while he was tailgating instead of letting him antagonize me all the way up the street. Like him, though, I'm just tiring of so many out-of-neighborhood residents using streets like Brereton or 39th or Foster or Fisk like drag-racing strips just to get to the next red light more quickly while pushing actual RESIDENTS of those streets out of the way in the process.

[Benzman66]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Bill Peduto really needs to raise taxes so we can get more cops out on the street to calm these jagoffs down!

Heh, traffic enforcement is nearly non existent in Pittsburgh. I saw someone go down the street between Carson City Saloon and Beehive last night, which is a very narrow one way street with parking on both sides, the wrong way, cop had to see it as he was behind me, and never went after the person.

Heck, everyone walks like zombies on Carson every Sat night in traffic, which some night, someone is going to get killed. Cops are too busy chatting with the ladies or players.

[8YearsinPittsburgh]

About a week and a half ago, I had the greatest drive to Niagara Falls, NY. It was a marathon, starting at my home in Point Breeze at about 2:20am, hitting the pa turnpike off of 79 at around 3, in to Youngstown OH at 3:59, and then off to Niagara Falls NY at 4:20am. The most enjoyable part of the ride, was through metro Buffalo and metro Niagara Falls. You may wonder how enjoyable it was when I say I hit East Aurora (fringe of what's considered metro Buffalo) at the height of their rush hour (between 7-8 am). What made it so enjoyable was, it was driving as it should be; people using the left lane for what it's meant to be, although no one tailgating or driving 80-90mph plus, no one slowing down any less than 40mph, and in the rain, no less (except for the toll booths, which of course, that is acceptable), just thousands of people focused on keeping THEMSELVES moving. There is a two lane on ramp in the Orchard Park/East Aurora area, and I saw lots of break lights there, but it was not like Pittsburgh, where people in the main flow of traffic slow to a complete stop just to let ONE driver merge.


You can throw at me outdated roads, you can throw at me an older driving population, you can throw bridges, tunnels, and rivers, but that's all BS. If that region can keep traffic moving smooth and easy, there's no reason Pittsburgh can't

[tyovan4]

Originally Posted by 8YearsinPittsburgh

About a week and a half ago, I had the greatest drive to Niagara Falls, NY. It was a marathon, starting at my home in Point Breeze at about 2:20am, hitting the pa turnpike off of 79 at around 3, in to Youngstown OH at 3:59, and then off to Niagara Falls NY at 4:20am. The most enjoyable part of the ride, was through metro Buffalo and metro Niagara Falls. You may wonder how enjoyable it was when I say I hit East Aurora (fringe of what's considered metro Buffalo) at the height of their rush hour (between 7-8 am). What made it so enjoyable was, it was driving as it should be; people using the left lane for what it's meant to be, although no one tailgating or driving 80-90mph plus, no one slowing down any less than 40mph, and in the rain, no less (except for the toll booths, which of course, that is acceptable), just thousands of people focused on keeping THEMSELVES moving. There is a two lane on ramp in the Orchard Park/East Aurora area, and I saw lots of break lights there, but it was not like Pittsburgh, where people in the main flow of traffic slow to a complete stop just to let ONE driver merge.


You can throw at me outdated roads, you can throw at me an older driving population, you can throw bridges, tunnels, and rivers, but that's all BS. If that region can keep traffic moving smooth and easy, there's no reason Pittsburgh can't

And the driving gets even better in Ontario!!

[Moby Hick]

Twice in this month there have been huge tangles on the Parkway East because somebody was trying to focus on keeping themselves moving and made a tiny overestimation about how fast they could go. You simply can't safely drive as fast on Pittsburgh's freeways as you can on freeways in other parts of the country.

[8YearsinPittsburgh]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

You simply can't safely drive as fast on Pittsburgh's freeways as you can on freeways in other parts of the country.

Only if you believe that

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by 8YearsinPittsburgh

Only if you believe that

They Transcendental Medication people say I could levitate if I tried hard enough.