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The whole bad-driving debate makes me laugh when I hear what people say (not necessarily in this forum). It's based off of their own personal experiences and they ignore all the bad driving experiences they had in their home state. It's rather biased. They put a microscope on every little thing that a driver does and make an assumption that Utah must have the worst drivers; totally ignoring that people do the same thing where they come from. He's an article from the US News:
This particular article scored New York and California at the bottom, meaning they didn't score very well on the driving tests. Idaho scored the highest on the test and Utah was # 7. I've heard more than one California person say their state has the best drivers, but the articles I've read on the subject tell a different story.
I've lived most of my life in Utah, but when I moved to Florida I immediately thought that Florida must have the worst drivers in the country. Then I moved to Tennessee, where I now live, and then Tennessee took the top spot on my list of states with the worst-drivers. So, I caught myself doing the same thing that many people do when they move in to Utah. People focus on their own little sphere and don't consider the entire picture. And the entire picture is Utah drivers aren't that bad. The things drivers do in Utah are done in every other state.
The whole bad-driving debate makes me laugh when I hear what people say (not necessarily in this forum). It's based off of their own personal experiences and they ignore all the bad driving experiences they had in their home state. It's rather biased. They put a microscope on every little thing that a driver does and make an assumption that Utah must have the worst drivers; total ignoring that people do the same thing where they come from. He's an article from the US News:
This particular article scored New York and California at the bottom, meaning they didn't score very well on the driving tests. Idaho scored the highest on the test and Utah was # 7. I've heard more than one California person say their state has the best drivers, but the articles I've read on the subject tell a different story.
I've lived most of my life in Utah, but when I moved to Florida I immediately thought that Florida must have the worst drivers in the country. Then I moved to Tennessee, where I now live, and then Tennessee took the top spot on my list of states with the worst-drivers. So, I caught myself doing the same thing that many people do when they move in to Utah. People focus on their own little sphere and don't consider the entire picture. And the entire picture is Utah drivers aren't that bad. The things drivers do in Utah are done in every other state.
That is a great point, I do find it funny as well. I know how bad drivers are in CA, plus there are just too many of them. The only difference I see here are 1) People keep going across an intersection when the light turns red. 2) Very few people signal when they turn.
The red light thing I understand, when it is snowy you don't want to stop so you just go through and the habit stays with you the rest of the year. In CA people continue on the red in the left turn lane but not the regular lanes.
In CA if you don't signal people go nuts so most people do. In Utah it seems more laid back.
I grew up in Utah and here's what I love about it, especially the Salt Lake area. Camping, hiking & skiing/snowboarding are 15-20 minutes away. I live in Knoxville, Tennessee and although the Appalachian mountains are close, it's 45 min to an hour to some really quality hiking & camping. Also, if it's approaching 100 degrees down in the Salt Lake Valley, you can escape the heat by driving up one of the Cottonwood Canyons and the temperature drops about 20 degrees.
...just checked the weather forecast and Salt Lake is expected to be around 93 tomorrow (8/24/10), and Alta will be in the upper 60's. Now that's nice. If I drive from Knoxville up to the Great Smokey Mtn National park the temperature doesn't change much; it's still hot (although there's lots of shade because of the dense forests).
One of the great things about the Utah weather is low humidity. After living in Orlando, FL and Tennesee, I can do without it. Every time I mow my lawn here in Tennessee I have to carry a towel around with me to wipe away all the sweat that comes pooring down my face. The Utah snow isn't for everybody, but I love it mainly because I'm a snowboarder. When I lived there I always hoped for a monster dump, where it would snow a couple of feet in the mountains. Snow is a good thing for somebody like me, and I don't mind driving in it. Living in 3 different states has made me appriciate Utah.
I like what Salt Lake and Park City have to offer in terms of shopping, arts, and restaurants. It may not be New York or L.A., but you can't compare a Salt Lake to a New York or an L.A. You really have to compare it to other cities of similar size and I think it is above average for mid-sized cities.
The Salt Lake area is a decent sports town with the Jazz, UofU, BYU and the Real SL soccer team. Especially now that the UofU is part of the Pac 10 where USC & UCLA will be traveling to town.
Another thing that I like is you can take weekend trips to all the relatively close national parks, such as Yellow Stone, Moab, Grand Canyon, Zion, Grand Tetons, Bryce, etc. There are a lot of things Salt Lake has to offer that other cities don't.
A big portion of the complainers are those who want a college party lifestyle everywhere and all the time. It's harder to find people who are social drinkers etc. Utah is great for families. If you want a night life you can go downtown but then go home and get a good night's sleep. My more outspoken friends who consider themselves open-minded etc. really mean they hate the pressure that going against LDS family/friends brings. Most of us are normal coexist people but you might get one of those neighbors you just have to wave at but give up on being friends with. Just don't live in the burbs areas and you'll be fine.
[color=black][font=Verdana]I've lived most of my life in Utah, but when I moved to Florida I immediately thought that Florida must have the worst drivers in the country. Then I moved to Tennessee, where I now live, and then Tennessee took the top spot on my list of states with the worst-drivers. So, I caught myself doing the same thing that many people do when they move in to Utah. People focus on their own little sphere and don't consider the entire picture. And the entire picture is Utah drivers aren't that bad. The things drivers do in Utah are done in every other state.
That's actually pretty funny. When I moved here from Florida, I was amazed by all the bad driving I saw. Top examples, people veering into my lane on the highway, stopping/starting at intersections and (my personal fav) pulling forward in parking lots or driving straight across them. I kept telling my wife it has something to do with ice/snow driving or maybe we were just remembering our FL driving too fondly. Well we just spent 3 weeks visiting family back in FL and I purposely watched for all these things. Nope we aren't crazy, Utah drivers really do all those things and they don't in FL.
But its still nice enough here that if I just keep being super paranoid while driving/parking, then it makes up for it.
I used to travel for a living from Ohio to the West Coast (17 States) and I can say without hesitation Utah drivers top my list as the most dangerous to drive around. 2nd would be the Seattle Metro area, 3rd would be Indianapolis Indiana area. 4th Cincinnati Ohio. I could refine a larger list but this does it for me. In Utah in particular I see more distracted driving then anywhere else, and they are indeed becoming known for their texting and phone conversation accidents while driving. Worse yet are the multiple lane changes at the last second with no warnings or signals, bumper hugging (tailgating), failure to pay attention to their driving while paying more attention to their gaggle of kids in the back seats of their mormon assault vehicles (extra large SUV's and Suburban's)sorry for the plug. Oh and my favorite like no other place on earth, blowing stop lights after they have been long red and continuing to make their turns regardless of the light change. NEVER NEVER NEVER trust making a turn when oncoming traffic has a yellow light. They will nail you between the eyes trust me....they consider yellow as a notice to speed up, NOT slow down. And there's nothing like the way they try to merge onto the interstate when you have 2 lanes becoming one. I've nearly had SUV's in my front seat more times than I can count when they decided they were coming over from the right lane whether I knew it or liked it or not. I love the indignant look they give you when you lay on your horn for such ignorant behavior. You're only safe if you drive a military issue tank around here that's for sure.
I used to travel for a living from Ohio to the West Coast (17 States) and I can say without hesitation Utah drivers top my list as the most dangerous to drive around.
Completely agree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcisive
I see more distracted driving then anywhere else, and they are indeed becoming known for their texting and phone conversation accidents while driving.
Yup. Half an hour ago I saw a classic case of this. I'm driving down a typically-busy state road in town. This woman in a minivan pulls right out in front of me from a side street on the right after not stopping at the stop sign. I had to slam on my brakes. She veers into the wrong lane of traffic (making this huge "farmers turn") and then putts along at about 20 mph (in a 35 mph zone) weaving as though she is drunk. She stops in front of me (right in the middle of the road with no signal light or anything) after a few blocks and then drives up over the curb on the right into a driveway/front yard (half and half). What could I see CLEARLY that she was doing as I passed???? That's right! Texting. She may as well have been downing a bottle of Bacardi 151. That's exactly how the moron was driving. I'm surprised she didn't drive through the wall of the house after she pulled into the driveway. I try to not let things like this infuriate me to tears, but this was too much. Absolute, wilful, selfish stupidity.
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Originally Posted by dcisive
bumper hugging (tailgating),
I've gotten to the point that I just pull off the road and let'em go. I'm not going to let them endanger me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcisive
Oh and my favorite like no other place on earth, blowing stop lights after they have been long red and continuing to make their turns regardless of the light change. NEVER NEVER NEVER trust making a turn when oncoming traffic has a yellow light. They will nail you between the eyes trust me....they consider yellow as a notice to speed up, NOT slow down.
There is an intersection where I would get hit EVERY SINGLE DAY if I drove through it when the light turned green. I've had to give it a good 5 to 10 seconds, but now it's getting so pathetic that my green light is turning yellow before the buffoons making a left turn in front of me decide to stop at the red freakin' light.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcisive
And there's nothing like the way they try to merge onto the interstate when you have 2 lanes becoming one. I've nearly had SUV's in my front seat more times than I can count when they decided they were coming over from the right lane whether I knew it or liked it or not. I love the indignant look they give you when you lay on your horn for such ignorant behavior. You're only safe if you drive a military issue tank around here that's for sure.
"Merge" is not part of the Utahese driving language. There is no knowledge of such a procedure. Just look at 99.9% of the folks coming down the onramp to get on the freeway... at about 35 mph.
Okay, that's today's traffic rant. Thanks for your time. Have a nice day
This particular article scored New York and California at the bottom, meaning they didn't score very well on the driving tests. Idaho scored the highest on the test and Utah was # 7. I've heard more than one California person say their state has the best
The article states: "The worst drivers in America live in New York. Of course, you knew that. You've been in the Holland Tunnel."
In partial defense you kind of have to throw the rule book out to an extent to survive driving in N.Y. Think of it as being trained what to do in Boot Camp but in actual battle conditions you go on instinct and adopt a survival strategy that may depart from training.
Oh, and another thing, we are not a two year in a row loser, article states New Jersey as last year's loser.....
there's as much garbage here as there was in minnesota, so don't say it's super clean here....
Last edited by MrHalfJack; 09-21-2010 at 10:26 PM..
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