Reno...absolutely the worst!!!!!! You have the old time Nevadans that are from the time when we had NO freeways through town and you could set a bomb off on the road and never hit a soul. They are creeping onto the freeway on ramp at about 20 miles per hour. They will then stop and look both ways and then start up again before actually getting on the freeway. They will get up to a blazing top speed of at LEAST 25 MPH once on the freeway. Then you have the guy that just moved here from the Bay Area passing the old timer going at least 80 with a Starbucks in one hand, a cell phone in each ear, and flipping the old guy off as he goes by, and running red lights is the latest sporting event. I never, NEVER, just go when my light turn green..a sure recipe for disaster.

Patrick, you bring back some "great" memories. I grew up in Florida but in the early 80's my husband and I moved to S. Florida (Naples back when there wasn't even a movie theater in town) and I was in shock. It was absolutely not unusual to be driving down the road and have a caddie in front of you straddling the white line meant to separate two lanes of traffic. Of course, you couldn't even see the driver except for a mass of white hair. We affectionately dubbed them "frog heads". We just learned to live with it and tried to find the humor in the situation. I can't imagine how bad it must be 20 years later!

Now we live in Austin, TX, which is a very young and hip city. We are constantly amazed at how awful the drivers here are. Everyone is glued to their cell phones and the concept of merging is non-existent. Also, driving down the highway in the middle lane doing 50mph is the norm!

I guess when you think about it, bad drivers are everywhere. Who knows, maybe we're all bad drivers and just don't know it!

Ahhh-Texas in general...where the "5 lane weave" is the norm...deeelish.
Patrick-you are hilarious. Sadly, you are also accurate. My one experience driving near Jupiter Island was a real eye opener.
Our town is one of those constantly on the "best to live in" or "best to retire in" communites. I'm just waiting for one our our lovely Farmers Markets to get ploughed into by someone who doesn't even know they are alive still, much less driving.

Hmmm. I make funny posts and they go unnoticed. I make an absolutely serious one without a single bit of humor and I'm told I'm hilarious.

They are all bad. Wherever I move to, wherever I drive in. Americans are bad drivers, period.

I drive all over the country, but, since I'm a Jersey gal, I'd have to say that the worst drivers I've seen lately are on Rte 1 in Edison. The rest of the bad drivers are in the other towns that span Rte 1.

I must say, though, I enjoy driving in NYC. I can wheel around with wild abandon, completely ignoring lanes, at high speeds on roads that are marked 25 mph. I must say, I did get miffed at the tourists on Monday that were taking pics of the skyline, while backing up traffic on 495 into the Lincoln Tunnel..

Five years ago I stopped commuting to SF. When asked what changes I had noticed since "not commuting", I stated I can go weeks now without using "a...hole" in a sentance. When commuting, I used it regularly and frequently.

that would be in a "sentence".

My uncle who lives in New England states that Boston drivers are known for their arrogance and incompetence, having been there on more than one occasion, I think I agree. Taxi drivers though are another breed in themselves, and the crazy ones are not confined to new york city. There is a Russian woman who drives a taxi here in Chicago who is legendary among a few people I know, I've had her twice and I know a couple of other people who have been unfortunate enough to sit her cab, praying for their lives, but getting home in record time and listening to her rant about how everyone else drives like 'idiots' while she takes corners at 40mph and her wheel scrapes the sidewalk.

I've driven in a lot of cities over the years. Almost all the major ones.

Then I moved to Memphis. Whoa....

I have seen multiple unsignaled u-turns in the middle of a busy 6 lane street. I've seen 5 - count 'em 5 cars make a left after the light went red (and this from a turn lane that would have given a green arrow back again in a minute or so).

I've seen full on left turns from the right across multiple lanes of traffic. I've seen people drive up the shoulder JUST so they can run a red light well after cross traffic had started through.

The other day I got to see a little car quickly cut off a big pickup to jump into the turn lane without a signal, then stop short at the light. Truck honks. Little car gives finger (a standard response). Another honk/finger sequence. Big bubba truck slams and pushes little car through a left turn. AND STILL NO SIGNAL FROM EITHER OF THEM. LOL.

And I've seen all of this in the past week. I can't drive to the store without one good OHMAHGAWD DIDYASEETHAT??? every single time. Does it sound like I'm exaggerating? The radio station I listen to has a buzz line - "Memphis drivers suck. Our listeners just suck less".

Oh, did I mention that one of the 5 cars running the red was a school bus full of kids?

muskoka -

I don;t think you understand. In NYC lanes are a foreign concept - you simply drive wherever you can fit through.

(This however, is deliberate - and a whole other thing from the incompetent soccer moms who occupy three lanes because they are driving SUVs - the size of a T Rex - which apparently they can;t control - talking on the phone, eating and screaming at the kids at the same time.)

I guess everyplace has those idiotic drivers, I know they are here in Vegas as well. We get a weird mix of it all, there are the locals that have all bought cars without turn signals, driving north on I-15 it is like a speedway with all the California tourists racing to get into Vegas, then on the other side of town closer to where I live we have the slow-pokes coming in from Arizona that I swear when you see a slow car ahead in the distance you can almost guarantee it will have AZ tags...just plodding along at about 45-50 on the freeway.

With all that said, I think that does not compare to the drivers I faced in Montreal. Half of the year the lines on the roads are covered with snow, so I guess they think that since they can't see or follow the lines on the road in the winter, then why should they in the summer? They are also the worst (that I have experienced) for double parking. Forget trying to drive up St. Catherines, you can be driving up nice and normal and then you come to a complete stop and your still sitting in your car behind a van, while you glance over at the nearest cafe and see the driver of that van eating a scone and sipping on a cuppa!

I live in Portland OR where most of us are REASONABLY courteous drivers, but don't know how to drive very well. Put most of us in LA or NYC and we're toast.

The reason I posted was to ask if what I observed on a roadtrip here in Oregon is the same where you live. It used to be that on roads with two lanes the same direction, the right lane was the lane you traveled in, using the left lane only to pass. These days there are waayyy more cars in the left lanes than the right lane. I think it's because drivers fear that if they pull over into the right (slow) lane, they'll lose their place in the fast lane.

This topic came up a few years ago and the overall consensus was that Florida had the worst drivers. I have never driven there. I think San Antonio has the worst drivers. If you want to extend the question to the western world Italy has the worst drivers. They are out of their minds over there.

When you guys say that merging is a foreign concept, are you referring to the drivers that decide to merge as soon as they hit the highway, without yielding, and of course without that rocket science turn signal?
Unfortunately, there are some highways here that give you almost no room to merge, and basically, as soon as the section with the diagonal yellow lines ends, you must merge right there, which is very dangerous, especially when you have a ten foot tall full-size pickup or SUV behind you, and he gets angry at YOU and honks when you can't see the road behind his mammoth car. Then he will decide to go himself without consideration for you. Maybe large vehicles should come with loudspeakers to announce upcoming road conditions since we can't see a thing in front of or behind their behemoth forms. This is metro Atlanta, though.

Metalbird91, you are absolutely right. The same thing happens at street corners when you want to make a right turn and those monsters are pulled so far into the intersection you can't see if any cars are coming on the street you are trying to turn onto. Hopefully the gas prices will keep them off the road now.

Ahh, crazy taxi drivers. Reminds me of the night I rode with one in San Francisco. I needed to get from my Union Square hotel to North Beach quickly and it was a bit too far to walk.

The taxi driver asked very politely, "where can I take you this evening sir?". He proceeded to pull into traffic, leaning on his horn, shaking his fist, flipping drivers the bird, screaming four letter words and even challenging another driver to fight. When we arrived at my destination he turned and very politely said, "thank you sir, you have a great evening".

Try driving in Montreal, Quebec. They are on a suicide mission there. I absolutely refuse to drive there.

I have yet to understand the problem of a large car or truck in front of you or behind you, blocking your view. Whatever is even further behind that car or truck in the same lane behind you shouldn't affect your moves. Most cars I know have decent side mirrors that easily allow you to see what's in either lane to the side of the car or truck behind you. That should be your only concern. And if the big vehicle is in front of you and you are keeping a reasonable distance back, what is the issue about not seeing what's in front of him?
Sorry, but I drive behind or in front of trucks all the time and I really don't get what the issue is.

What am I missing here other than an obvious bias against anyone driving a big vehicle?