Ash UK/US

Found a link to these on my welcome page tonight for anyone thats interested.

Deadliest States for driving in
http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/26/pf/a...able/index.htm

Most expensive states for driving in
http://www.insurance.com/entry_aol.asp?sid=6858

Ash

sibsie

Mass, especially Boston has got to have the worst drivers in the US. Indicators are seldom used and if there are they have no bearing on the direction of travel the driver is actually going in.

My pet hate with driving here is those flaming red indicators. Why can't they be amber which makes them far easier to see.

Bob

Yup, the roads are poor in Mass, ain't great in Maine either, but then it all depends on the safety laws, like they get more federal money if they include saftey belt laws and motorbike riders with helpmets, which is one they don't have in ME, yet cyclists have to...that made me laugh

sibsie

It costs me $3 a pop to go over the Tobin Bridge. It'll cost me way way more than that to replace my tyres and sump from going through the flaming pot holes!

I haven't made it up to ME yet but it's on my list of things to do this fall. I hear it's lovely.

Chopper-Chris

We call them Massholes in NY

CitySimon

There is no way that NY is that low... Drivers here are complete shite! I got my drivers license in June and have had several near misses with people who didn't even know that they had nearly had an accident. :scared:

For a while, I honestly wondered whether US cars were actually made with indicators!

Sibsie, I completely agree about the RED indicators. My favourite ones are the cars whose brake lights actually flash rather than having seperate lights for the indicators.... Whoever thought that one up isn't playing with a full deck!

The art of driving in a straight line appears to be lost on most upstaters (Chris, I couldn't possibly comment about NYC drivers).

Chopper-Chris

NYC drivers don't get much practice...they tend to sit in one place for hours just using the horn...their clutch control is great though (at least it is if they even have a clutch!)

effi

Sorry, gotta disagree that you have the worst drivers. Here in AZ we have to contend with the 'snowbirds' who invade our state for 6 months every year. Mind you thinking about it some of them probably come from Boston LOL. You would not believe the things I have seen here, most days I just shake my head in despair and I must say at least a dozen times a day "you have got to be shitting me". It is not just the driving that pisses everyone off it is all the other stuff that goes along with them invading. Hotel prices go up, golf courses start charging an arm and a leg, you cannot get a seat in a restaurant, sometimes the lines are so long it looks like they are giving away free stuff. Doctors offices, emergency rooms etc are filled to overflowing. The people who live here permanently take a back seat to these invaders. It would not be so bad if they were boosting our economy but they are extremely cheap and want everything for nothing.

Still with so many people moving permanently to this state, it looks like the snowbirds are slowly making their way back to Florida. It is getting too expensive here for them to park their double wides. The accident rates in this state must go up by at least 10 fold between Sept and Mar, you can almost guarantee that if you pass an accident during those months there will be a geezer at the wheel.

Bob

That's what there called in Maine too

sibsie

I'd bet good money that a few of those geezers are inlaws of mine! Still at least they bugger off and leave me in peace for 6 months of the year. The other 300 inlaws stick around though.

My 98 year old grandfather in law was driving the haying tractor out last week. Within a few mins he'd taken out a fire hydrant, three telephone poles and brought down a cable. Why the hell no one has ever stopped him is beyond me. He's a total meance on the roads.

Chopper-Chris

its a brave man that steps in front of a 98 year old blind man on a hayling tractor...if the hydrant and the telephone poles didn't stop him, I'm not going to!

Ash UK/US

My neighbour had her 90th birthday a couple of weeks back and she is still driving... it is scary :scared: she is as deaf as a post, last year one of her wheels locked up and she never heard the tyres screeching... luckly she realised it wasn't moving properly and pulled over (after having driven it up the street). I doubt she would be able to hear a fire truck etc... she refuses to wear a hearing aid. I think the US are really lacking in controlling older drivers... I guess it really is seen more of a right than a privilage here.

Ash

sibsie

Sounds like my Father in Law Ash. I swear no one in this flaming family ever dies! He's 91, he's had two strokes, can't use his left side properly, has a dodgy ticker and dreadful eyesight. He still drives like the clappers round town.

Grandad can't turn his head so he can only look straight ahead when he's driving. If he gets to a rotary he just goes straight over it and hopes for the best. Whenever I see him coming I leap well out of the way. He took the big gate out last week on his way home. Don't these people have to get retested every so often?

Ash UK/US

Don't think so... in here MI I think the only test they have is the same test as everyone else... the eye sight test... kinda ignorant if you ask me.

Ash

Bob

I think it depends on the state, but then again, there are plenty of knuckles driving around maine...
and there was that big accident that happened last year in the market in california, but I don't know if they did anything about it afterwards...