Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

Maybe this tells us something about road design too. I could not blame a driver for an accident at some of the combined, over-lapping on-and-off intersections where I am. I am amazed I have not come a-cropper at an intersection yet.

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

I know exactly where the worst drivers are. They're just around ME - wherever I happen to be!!

;)

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

I find it extrememly worrying that Houston is 5th best large city!

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

The data must be seriously at fault. No city in Massachusetts shows up among the ten worst.

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

Does the frequency at which drivers have accidents really indicate how "bad" they are? I'm sure there are plenty out there who have never had an accident but caused plenty.
As for driver behavior, around here it drives me up the wall;

You can rarely drive faster than 25mph, even in a 45mph zone.

While you're moving, they'll drive 6 inches off your back bumper, but at traffic lights, they'll leave a 15 feet gap.

At 4 way stops, they won't move until someone else stops at one of the other stop signs. i have visions of them sat there for hours in the middle of the night waiting for someone else to come along.

They love to signal a right turn when entering a roundabout regardless of which exit they're taking. As it's been explained to me, "I'm making a right turn onto the roundabout. Duh!"

Talking of roundabouts, they seem to think they're in 1960's France. Despite what the Oregon drivers manual says, there's a firm belief than traffic entering the roundabout has the right of way, no matter what traffic may already be on it.

Corners are scary and never to be taken at more than 10 mph, no matter how slight they are.

I could go on, but I'm getting very grumpy. Don't even get me starting on freeway driving and the complete lack of lane etiquette.............

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

Probably wishful thinking. And, easier to buy proper cigarettes?

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

To add, speed bumps in residential areas must be taken at less than 5-mph despite the fact you're driving a heavy-duty truck designed to swallow such bumps without you even feeling it inside. But then you only actually drive your bloody truck back and forth to the office, don't you?

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

Hmm, having spent a couple of weeks driving in one of the "best" places, and having driven from Virginia to New York passing through many of the places on the "worst" list, can't say I'm surprised.

However, it's not really comparing like with like. If the other "best" places are like Fort Collins, then they're all wide open roads without many other cars and easy grid like layout in the cities. Can't be a coincidence they're all mid-west.

However, the east coast roads are far more crowded, the drivers are in far more of a hurry and as per Kim's post above, the road designs are terrible, never mind having to do last minute swerve avoidance of car-swallowing pot-holes in the road.

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

Slight problem with the data, which is from Allstate customers. What about all the uninsured drivers :eek:

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

Ah yes:

- when passing a big truck or semi it is necessary to pull alongside and loiter in the blind spot of the truck for several miles

- you must put your cruise control on and never change speed no matter what is happening around you

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

when I was a kid I had a matchbox 007 Aston Martin that had guns come out of the front and things come out of the wheels. I fantasise about driving one of those when I meet the "haven't looked in my mirror since a week last Tuesday" cruise control crowd doing 60mph in the outside lane while overtaking someone doing 59mph, who is overtaking someone doing 58mph.....

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

It's the "guess where I'm going" crowd. No turn signals. Pull in front of you with a pickup into a mini sized gap. If they do happen to signal, it's right at the turn, or even just a sudden brake and turn. You do tend to keep a bit of a gap, as you just don't know which "Joe Bloggs" doesn't know how to drive.

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

Can I nominate the neighbour who just drove the wrong way up a one way street to pull onto her driveway? I has to reverse quickly or she's have taken my nose off.

Re: Best and worst drivers - where are they?
 

Agreed!

Soon after moving here I was asked my opinion of Houston drivers. I made some remark about how nobody seemed to use their indicators. I was asked what were indicators? The local term is blinkers (which seems appropriate).:D