Bad Drivers: Where do you rank?

Worst Driving Ranked by State

I would agree that NYC drivers are pretty bad and that Connecticut drivers are not much better... During a given week I probably cheat death 3 or 4 times on I-95 in CT from New Haven to Norwalk and back because so many drivers just don't seem to pay attention

EDIT: Bad link, stupid yahoo news.... Better details below

Where does your state come in?

Um....Bad Link?

Hey CN, you ever see a red mustang on your commute with tinted windows?? That was my commute the past two years until my wife and I moved into our place in Hamden 3 weeks ago.

I was lucky though. I got on at Long Wharf (missing the merge), and I work in Bridgeport (off at exit 29, just before the mess). All in all, I couldn't complain, considering I came up here from LI, AKA parking lot.

Horrible I guess. So much so that the PC Magazines Editor don't even mention us.

The only issues I have here is that no-one understands that "on coming drivers yield to highway traffic". I can't even begin to tell you how many birds I have seen or how many times I have been mimed at because I didn't slow down to let in a merger.

Then there are the drivers that can't be bothered to slow down and change lanes into the grand canyon sized gap behind me. Noooooooo! You fapper got to speed up and plug the Min-Cooper sized hole in FRONT of me with your f**king Winnebago!

Oh and then theres also the.......

Besides that, Oklahomans are tame drivers considering that HALF OF THEM ARE MORONS!

I think that is what makes this place worse. NYC, LA, DALLAS, Malaysia, etc.... you expect horrible ettiquette. Here, they blindside you and it's YOUR fault.

The Worst Drivers in the U.S. Live in... - U.S. News Rankings and Reviews

I think this is the same thing for those of us getting a bad link.

Doesn't suprise me in the least bit to see Hawaii at the bottom of that list. I lived there for 4 years. Red lights don't mean much, people have no idea what to do when traffic signals are out, and big problems with late night racing. I think people are frustrated because there are tons of cars and nowhere to go.

The following is a complete list of state rankings for the 2008 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test:
1 Kansas
2 Wyoming
3 Nebraska
4 Idaho
5 Minnesota
6 Alaska
6 South Dakota
8 Oregon
9 Iowa
9 Washington
11 Indiana
12 Wisconsin
13 Utah
14 Missouri
15 Alabama
15 Colorado
15 Montana
18 Michigan
18 Texas
18 Vermont
21 North Dakota
22 Arkansas
22 North Carolina
22 New Mexico
22 Oklahoma
26 Delaware
26 Ohio
28 Florida
29 Kentucky
30 New Hampshire
31 Maine
32 Illinois
33 California
33 Connecticut
33 Tennessee
36 Arizona
36 Nevada
36 Pennsylvania
39 South Carolina
40 Virginia
41 Rhode Island
42 Maryland
43 West Virginia
44 Louisiana
45 Hawaii
46 Mississippi
47 Georgia
48 Massachussetts
49 New York
50 Washington, D.C.
51 New Jersey

The fact that Nebraska ranks #3 comes as no surprise to me. There are only 12 people in this town that know how to use a indicator light and red lights are considered more of a guideline.

MISSOURI!

Personally I have never been in an accident of any sort. And I have only had a few minor speeding tickets, which is very rare. Hopefully it stays that way now that I have said it.

Nurmey said:

The fact that Nebraska ranks #3 comes as no surprise to me. There are only 12 people in this town that know how to use a indicator light and red lights are considered more of a guideline.

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The lower numbers are the better drivers. Maybe the rest of Nebraska is safer. That might be because the rest of the state only has 12 people.

McKBrew said:

The lower numbers are the better drivers. Maybe the rest of Nebraska is safer. That might be because the rest of the state only has 12 people.

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Oh, had the backwards.

Maybe the balance of people that DON'T live in Omaha is what gives the state it's good rating. It's hard to run red lights on a tractor in the middle of the prairie.

Ugh, Maryland, DC, and Virginia should all get subgrouped to indicate the DC Metro area. Craziest mofos on the road. Drive agressive or get smashed into a concrete barrier.

Nurmey said:

It's hard to run red lights on a tractor in the middle of the prairie.

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I thought it was the Red Corn that you stopped for there.

Odd that Alabama is near the top, yet our neighbors Mississippi and Georgia are near the bottom.

Freaking Ohio, We get such a bad rap for being Normal and Boring and Average, Then this poll comes out and smacks up RIGHT in the middle. Uhg, My state is so...Bleh

IrregularPulse said:

Freaking Ohio, We get such a bad rap for being Normal and Boring and Average, Then this poll comes out and smacks up RIGHT in the middle. Uhg, My state is so...Bleh

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Yep! We do that ALL the time!!

I don't worry bout bad driving. I just drive at 55mph everywhere I go. Interstate, town, outside of schools, turnpikes.....It's all the same. 55mph

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

Yep! We do that ALL the time!!

I don't worry bout bad driving. I just drive at 55mph everywhere I go. Interstate, town, outside of schools, turnpikes.....It's all the same. 55mph

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B*ll Sh*t!

Yer reading the wrong scale you wanker and yer in the way! Tri-cycles are passing you at 36mph. Oh, and FYI all the flashing lights and horns...they aren't saying hello They are saying "THE DRIVER RIDEs THE INSIDE OF THE LANE" ya pelican.

jmulligan said:

Ugh, Maryland, DC, and Virginia should all get subgrouped to indicate the DC Metro area. Craziest mofos on the road. Drive agressive or get smashed into a concrete barrier.

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I hear ya.

I don't get this state at all! (i'm not a native)

In Maryland, you pull out and go IMMEDIATELY into the left lane, then proceed to drive the same speed as the guy next to you - if that's 85 or 15. When it's rush hour and everyone's parked - you change lanes like a nut or sneak into the exit ramp lane to scoot 25 cars ahead then ride the side because "those buttholes won't let you merge in." Then when it's WIDE OPEN and no other cars - drive about 35 on any road - no matter the conditions or speed limit.

I hate driving in this state.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

I don't worry bout bad driving. I just drive at 55mph everywhere I go. Interstate, town, outside of schools, turnpikes.....It's all the same. 55mph

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Yikes. If you drove that slow in Texas you'd get run over by an F350 4x4, and then flattened further by an Expedition, and finally flattened into a pancake by a pimped out Honda Civic. Even in a school zone! :cross:

We rank worst but that is only because drivers from PA and NY on their way to the shore cut us off the road and into a tree while they continue to drive on while yelling at the kids in the backseat and we get blamed for the accident.


Now on the other hand we still have "circles" which are drive at your own risk and the most aggressive driver wins. I used to have to drive through 4 of those things ONE way to work and then back again until they turned 2 of them into intersections, now just 2.
Trick is with circles is never make eye contact with other drivers making them think you don't see them and they get scared and back off so you have a clear path through. Circles are easy to drive through unless traffic is backed up then it is a 1 mph battle with everyone trying to wedge in front of the other to get where they are going. I have seen it so slow and backed up that the only way the car IN the circle (must yield) could move would be to sit there 3 hours before they can move. Polite drivers let 1 car per every 3 or so advance but often I get beeped at violently for letting a poor guy get in front of me (we are only doing like 3 mph). I have all my life driven the worst commutes in NY and PA. Any accidents I ALMOST get into nowadays are because of another driver not of my fault. Haven’t been the cause (that I know of anyway ) since I was in my early 20’s.

Once on the PA turnpike the left lane traffic was going 5 miles under the speed limit and all backed up and jammed up with like 15 cars in a row while the right lane was empty. I passed them all on the right and this guy beeped and yelled at me for doing so. F him, if I am breaking the law by passing on the right then let the troupers pull me over for just keeping up with the speed limit. Should be pullimg them over for doing under the speed limit in the left lane.

jgln said:

Now on the other hand we still have "circles" which are drive at your own risk and the most aggressive driver wins. I used to have to drive through 4 of those things ONE way to work and then back again until they turned 2 of them into intersections, now just 2.
Trick is with circles is never make eye contact with other drivers making them think you don't see them and they get scared and back off so you have a clear path through. Circles are easy to drive through unless traffic is backed up then it is a 1 mph battle with everyone trying to wedge in front of the other to get where they are going. I have seen it so slow and backed up that the only way the car IN the circle (must yield) could move would be to sit there 3 hours before they can move. Polite drivers let 1 car per every 3 or so advance but often I get beeped at violently for letting a poor guy get in front of me (we are only doing like 3 mph). I have all my life driven the worst commutes in NY and PA. Any accidents I ALMOST get into nowadays are because of another driver not of my fault. Haven’t been the cause (that I know of anyway ) since I was in my early 20’s.

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Therein are the two biggest problems with driving in Jersey. 1, they are rotaries, not circles.
2, it's absolutely retarded that drivers in the circle must yield. Let's see, I've already got my spot so I have to give it up to this dickhead coming into the rotary. Makes perfect sense.

(said the guy who learned to drive in Massachusetts)

For those of you from the area I drove the Skukill every day both ways all the way for close to 10 years, crazy. One of my co-workers at the time had coffee thrown at him for breaking down in the one of two lanes (2 lanes each way).

shecky said:

Therein are the two biggest problems with driving in Jersey. 1, they are rotaries, not circles.
2, it's absolutely retarded that drivers in the circle must yield. Let's see, I've already got my spot so I have to give it up to this dickhead coming into the rotary. Makes perfect sense.

(said the guy who learned to drive in Massachusetts)

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One of those rotaries is famously called the "Airport Circle" because there used to be an airport next to it...and it is a CIRCLE.

I think it is because there are far more people going through the circle to continue on the main highway they were on then those trying to exit or enter at the circle. In other words you would be stopping say 10 cars to let one go and before you know it you DO have a traffic jam. I always try to be courteous and try and slow down just enough they can get in but they have to act fast I ain't waitin'.

Traffic engineers think circles are Gods gift to vehicle flow, but anyone who's been out of Yankland knows perfectly well, nobody gets them right. We did a 2K mile motorcycle ride of both islands of NZ last fall and even though they've been driving circles their entire lives, they suck at 'em.

Watching the traffic go around the massive circle around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris is easily an hour of comedic entertainment too...

jgln said:

For those of you from the area I drove the Skukill every day both ways all the way for close to 10 years, crazy. One of my co-workers at the time had coffee thrown at him for breaking down in the one of two lanes (2 lanes each way).

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jgln said:

One of those rotaries is famously called the "Airport Circle" because there used to be an airport next to it...and it is a CIRCLE.

I think it is because there are far more people going through the circle to continue on the main highway they were on then those trying to exit or enter at the circle. In other words you would be stopping say 10 cars to let one go and before you know it you DO have a traffic jam. I always try to be courteous and try and slow down just enough they can get in but they have to act fast I ain't waitin'.

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That's why those of us who grew up in PA call it the Sure-Kill Expressway. By the way - you horribly misspelled it. Schuylkill

And it's not a circle - it's a roundabout. And it's one of the most retarded things that our parent country ever gave us (even though we were long free by the time vehicles showed up).

My theory on them - drive into it as FAST as you can and squeeze through the other side. Too many people sit and wait at a nearly empty roundy because the guy at the other side might just come around fast so they stop at the entrance and creep in at 2mph -- without any traffic.

As someone who drives in N.W. Indiana WAY more than I'd like, I have a hard time believing that they are the 11th BEST in the country !!! The only people I know of that get in the car without knowing HOW to get where they're going ! They get lost in their OWN HOMETOWN !!!






Walking away before I go on a full-blown rant.

jezter6 said:

That's why those of us who grew up in PA call it the Sure-Kill Expressway. By the way - you horribly misspelled it. Schuylkill

And it's not a circle - it's a roundabout. And it's one of the most retarded things that our parent country ever gave us (even though we were long free by the time vehicles showed up).

My theory on them - drive into it as FAST as you can and squeeze through the other side. Too many people sit and wait at a nearly empty roundy because the guy at the other side might just come around fast so they stop at the entrance and creep in at 2mph -- without any traffic.

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I couldn't remember exactly how to spell it as that was over 10 years ago and I almost never even go over the river anymore, so I did a quick search on the internet and everywhere I saw it spelled that way, I was pretty sure it was wrong but you can't argue with the internet.

In NJ they are called CIRCLES period and Striped Bass are called Stripers!!!!