Worst/best drivers by state

Mtns2Skies

Final Approach
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Mtns2Skies
Who have you found to be the best/worst?

Worst: Wisconsin, the drivers are all slow, camp in the left lane AND are not courteous. Generally slow drivers are courteous and fast drivers are not, but here we have the worst of both worlds.

Worst runner up: Tennessee... They do the "Tennessee pullout" no, not that type of pullout. They turn right without looking left. Universally, even when I see this happen in other states and I have to slam on my brakes or swerve around them... they're Tennessee plates.

Best: Michigan, Everyone seemed to mesh and work well together, fast drivers, slow drivers it all worked out okay. Everyone was able to accommodate difference in driving styles and it kept traffic flowing without any butthurt.

Caveat: All obviously generalizations, YMMV
 
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Worst: Ohio. Everyone's on drugs and trying to kill you.

Best: I'm pretty happy with Kansas drivers. Courteous, follow the rules (mostly). Almost never have to honk at them, get out of your way.
 
Where I am it doesn't matter what state they're from, but it's always the tourists.... Here, let me pull out onto this 55mph highway and accelerate really slowly. 55MPH speed limit, let me do 40 and ignore the turnouts, oh, speed limit now 25, let me keep doing 40, passing lane and it's now time for them to speed up to 70. Also, the painted lines on the road appear to be merely suggestions, especially when you go to pass them in a passing lane and they decide to come a couple feet over the line, or just generally drive on the line as they look for their AirB&B.
 
Worst runner up: Tennessee... They do the "Tennessee pullout" no, not that type of pullout. They turn right without looking left. Universally, even when I see this happen in other states and I have to slam on my brakes or swerve around them... they're Tennessee plates.

I live in TN, a lady with a phone plastered to her year did that one to me. Pulled right out without looking, then proceeded to blow through a stop sign just up the road. Didn't even slow down, just right on through at speed. Drivers here suck badly.

Oh, another peeve. They all go up the onramp at 25mph. Hello? You can't just merge onto a highway running at 70+ when you're doing 25. But they do, all the time.
 
Worst: Florida (the home of the newly wed and nearly dead). If it wasn't bad enough to have 90 year old's crossing 4 lanes of traffic to make a right turn and driving 15 below the speed limit in the left lane, we also have newbie drivers drag racing and going 70 mph+ in 25 mph zones. Wrong way drivers killing cops, speeders running over people just crossing a street. Then you get the folks that are so dumb they need a reminder when they leave the car that their baby is still IN the car or they will forget and the kid will die. Every so often you'll also get the old guy that mistakes the gas for the brake and plows into a restaurant and kills people, or smashes your bumper at a red light.

Best: Not Florida
 
Northern NY (I’m talking about the *REAL* northern part, as in NOT freakin Orange and Westchester counties, but waaaaay up there well north of Albany!) drivers are actually very good drivers. We get a solid amount of winter weather and our roads are not straight for very long. If someone is going slower than the vehicles that caught up to them the locals will move to the shoulder (if there is one) or slow down a bit and wave the faster traffic past. Also, when stopped, waiting to turn left for example, locals will hug the centerline so others can get past. Tourists will hover on the white line with no turn signal, holding everyone up. And so forth. I LOVE Labor Day weekend because all the morons leave the Adirondacks for a while, til ski season hits...
 
N Also, when stopped, waiting to turn left for example, locals will hug the centerline so others can get past.

Oh geez, don't remind me of the number of tiny cars that think they need to hug the right side of the road to make their left turn. It's either that or the ones who decide the oncoming lane is a left turn lane and drive in it for 50-100 feet to try and be 'helpful' for their left turn.
 
Oh, another peeve. They all go up the onramp at 25mph. Hello? You can't just merge onto a highway running at 70+ when you're doing 25. But they do, all the time.
No joke, happened to me the other night actually. Was merging onto 153 at Lee Hwy and I got behind a guy doing ~35 on the on-ramp. Not a soul was on any of the four lanes either.

Drivers around here definitely suck, but besides that, my other peeve is the immense construction that seems to be taking place everywhere. Bogs down the traffic that much more... Trying to go I24W or E between 5p - 6p? Forget it - it’s like Los Angeles. LOL
 
New England are the worst - truly wretched; not that they ignore the rules, they just don't know the rules.

In the DC area - NoVa drivers can't grasp the "slower traffic keep right" concept; Maryland drivers think a turn signal grants right-of-way, and that the traffic on the highway is supposed to make room for them when they merge. DC drivers have zero depth perception, or lack intuitive understanding of mass and velocity; whatever it is, they tailgate at any speed.

Business trip to Dupage County in IL - saw all kinds of weird - slower traffic kept right, people stopped at red lights, didn't cruise in the fast lane, actually finished their turns in the lane they started from (when there were 2 or 3 turn lanes), could take an exit without driving onto the shoulder.
 
Business trip to Dupage County in IL - saw all kinds of weird - slower traffic kept right, people stopped at red lights, didn't cruise in the fast lane, actually finished their turns in the lane they started from (when there were 2 or 3 turn lanes), could take an exit without driving onto the shoulder.
The number of times I just about took out a car next to me when there were 2 right turn lanes in California was very high. The right-most lane was to get on the freeway and was marked so you had to stay in your lane, but no one wanted to get on the freeway, but the next lane was right or straight so they also didn't want to have to wait for the straight traffic. I always took the not-freeway lane, and everyone in the freeway lane always tried to drift over during the turn. I got to use the horn frequently on that turn.
 
Here in Gallup, red lights, stop signs and speed limits are mere suggestions. I think most people believe that using a turn signal is giving information away to the enemy.

Motorcyclist are the worst, except for the natives. They love their Harleys and it shows.

Part of the problem is the city. The city police don't really enforce traffic laws, however If a person is pulled over by a state trooper, a ticket will be issued. And the city just doesn't have enough officers. The streets were designed to handle traffic in 1940.

When the streets ice over, it is cars from Colorado that will be found in the ditches.

not that they ignore the rules, they just don't know the rules.

And that is the biggest problem here. New Mexico is the place where illegal immigrants come to get a drivers license. Until recently when the feds forced the DMV to check citizenship first. When my wife got her license, all she had to do was take the written test then a driving test.

I used to be a full time flight instructor, but the biggest fear I ever had was teaching my wife to drive....:lol::lol:
 
DC and Boston rank amongst the worst.

Most of NY, NC, and Minnesota rank among the best.
 
New England are the worst - truly wretched; not that they ignore the rules, they just don't know the rules.
This is the problem we run into in Oregon(and other not-California states) the laws are totally different, among others: Here: no U-Turn at a signal unless it's posted that it's legal, don't drive in the 2-way left turn lane, don't drive in the bike lane, right turns on red arrows and lights(after stopping) are legal.
California: U-turns legal at signals unless posted not-legal, Can drive in the 2-way left turn lane for a bit as you begin/complete your turn, as well as the bike lane if making a turn, right turns after stopping only legal at a red light(not arrow).
 
Worst: Florida (the home of the newly wed and nearly dead).
Of course, most of the bad drivers in Florida came here from somewhere else. If we were to put up a wall around the State and keep everyone else's bad drives out, things wouldn't be nearly so bad here.
 
I feel like everyone thinks their state/town has the worst drivers. And of course everyone is much better than average, including me! :p
 
Of course, most of the bad drivers in Florida came here from somewhere else. If we were to put up a wall around the State and keep everyone else's bad drives out, things wouldn't be nearly so bad here.

Hah, maybe. But that is true, we end up getting all kinds of people from all over. But hey, I guess that means that if we can deal with that we're pretty much ready for anywhere in the US? :)
 
Best: Michigan, Everyone seemed to mesh and work well together, fast drivers, slow drivers it all worked out okay. Everyone was able to accommodate difference in driving styles and it kept traffic flowing without any butthurt.
OMG are you serious??? See my post in the Dorian thread. Michigan drivers tend to be absolutely crazy. Sure things can work well in good weather, and slowpokes on 2-lane highways are few and far between - but in less than perfect conditions, Michigan drivers can easily kill you (and themselves).
 
I think every state has terrible drivers. I thought Michigan drivers were bad when I lived there. Now Vermont drivers are okay with weather, but my main complaint is that they drive in all conditions as if it was middle-of-winter zero-traction conditions. Many drive as if they were afraid to. Their normal speed is very slow (at least 10 to 15 mph under the speed limit), and even slower going around even the gentlest curves. And they do not (or rarely) pull over to let faster traffic pass.

I've done very little cycling in the last two years, and it's partly because I don't care for drivers who have zero confidence in their ability to drive. I'll probably go back to it at some point, but drivers who are afraid to pass me even when I'm almost in the dirt really give me the willies. There is usually a case of incipient road rage in at least one of the long line of drivers behind them.
 
Utah drivers are my least favorite.

I resemble the remark about DuPage county in IL. That is where I learned to drive. :D
 
Best: Hamburg

Oh wait, you meant American states?:)
 
Worst: Ohio. Everyone's on drugs and trying to kill you.

Best: I'm pretty happy with Kansas drivers. Courteous, follow the rules (mostly). Almost never have to honk at them, get out of your way.
I am not on drugs here and people here try to kill each other on the roads. :eek:

And California is by far the worst.
 
Who have you found to be the best/worst?

Worst: Wisconsin, the drivers are all slow, camp in the left lane AND are not courteous. Generally slow drivers are courteous and fast drivers are not, but here we have the worst of both worlds.

Worst runner up: Tennessee... They do the "Tennessee pullout" no, not that type of pullout. They turn right without looking left. Universally, even when I see this happen in other states and I have to slam on my brakes or swerve around them... they're Tennessee plates.

Best: Michigan, Everyone seemed to mesh and work well together, fast drivers, slow drivers it all worked out okay. Everyone was able to accommodate difference in driving styles and it kept traffic flowing without any butthurt.

Caveat: All obviously generalizations, YMMV

Michigan has the highest insurance rates and Wisconsin is the lowest. Maybe you are the issue?

https://www.insure.com/car-insurance/car-insurance-rates.html
 
Worst: Ohio. Everyone's on drugs and trying to kill you.

Haha... I lived in Ohio for 6 years and thought they were slightly below average but wouldn't pick for the worst. Too many left lane campers for sure.. Usually Toyotas or Saturns.

I am not on drugs here and people here try to kill each other on the roads. :eek:

And California is by far the worst.

California is a big, heavily populated state so I'm sure it varies across the state. As an example, I lived in Silicon Valley many years ago and the whole bay area was full of horrible drivers but now living in San Diego I have been pleasantly surprised. The drivers here are fairly decent - not too slow, and you rarely see truly boneheaded moves. Not the best in the world but not bad at all by US standards.
 
what does the insurance companies say?

ETA: Did a Google-Fu. Michigan is the most expensive, by a long stretch, but only because of the highest PIP requirements of the nation. The second and third highest are more telling: (2)Louisiana and (3) Florida. Both top the chart on uninsured drivers on the road, with Louisiana having a peculiar tendency for drivers to sue for personal injury claim (and I here I thought Texas' Rio Grande Valley was the king of personal injury graft).

In the case of Florida, it appears they have the highest uninsured rate in the Nation, but they also have a higher percentage of high-risk driver population (college students and the nearly dying) combined with high population density (which is the third stated element that increases insurance costs, due to the relationship of population density and collisions per square mile).

Oklahoma rounds #4 on account of the disproportionate comprehensive claim rate for their population due to their weather, and DC is #5 due to the artificially high population density measurement compared to the land mass of the other states.

So, if one is to normalize for the elements that don't have to do with driver ability, the only one that does have it as a significant reason for insurance claim hikes is Florida. It doesn't surprise me that the Transplant Hell we call the 27th state is indeed the leader of bad drivers.
 
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Worst: Boston
Runner-Up: Florida

Absolute worst: Anywhere in the US with roundabouts. Americans still don’t know how to use them. And probably never will.
 
In the case of Florida, it appears they have the highest uninsured rate in the Nation, but they also have a higher percentage of high-risk driver population (college students and the nearly dying) combined with high population density (which is the third stated element that increases insurance costs, due to the relationship of population density and collisions per square mile).

https://babylonbee.com/news/residen...use-of-hurricane-but-just-because-its-florida
 
Tied for me is Mississippi and Arkansas. MS everyone drives slow, camps in left lane, and can't follow basic road rules, AR you have to be ready to slam on brakes in a moment's notice. I have never nor have I seen so many cars that have to jet off into the shoulder because they will stop in an instant with no warning.

The best I say is Texas. Everyone drives fast and they all now how to merge and keep the flow going.
 
Absolute worst: Anywhere in the US with roundabouts. Americans still don’t know how to use them. And probably never will.
Oh I know... I have had a few near collisions in roundabouts over the years. People flying through them and don’t yield or getting behind someone who STOPS at them when nobody else is around.
 
Worst: South Carolina. Apparently they charge extra for turn signals and stop lights when you buy a car there and consequently no one buys them or uses them. And a stop sign simply means go faster. When I moved there from Washington state, rates on my cars went up 25%. I called USAA to ask why and was informed (at least at that time) South Carolina had the 4th highest accident rate in the nation. Sure enough, I got T-boned by a women who ran a stop sign and my wife was rear-ended by a pickup truck with no brakes.

Best: I know this is going to bother some (and I can’t believe it myself) but I would have to say some of the best are California drivers. I know, I know. But at they least know how to drive fast and close; they know how to merge and change lanes; and while they all tailgate at 80-85 mph (assuming no parking lot conditions) they don’t seem to have that many accidents in comparison to what you would think they would have. And I don’t get the motorcycles including the CHIPS riding between car lanes at fairly high rates of speed. But they don’t seemed to get killed off at any significant rate. One CHIPS scared the he11 out of me this past March in SoCal. He had to have been doing 90+ (I was doing 80 for sure) and he came up on my blind side, in fact so close the blind spot monitoring didn’t pick him up until he was level with my door. No lights, no siren just going some place fast.
 
Weirdly, people in California (Bay Area) seem to know how to zipper merge, unlike in Colorado where they merge way in advance then get mad at those who keep going in the right lane.
 
Atlanta drivers are extremely passive aggressive when they are not being just blatantly aggressive.

In the afternoon, I have a left turn across 2 lanes of traffic to enter my subdivision. There are afternoons where traffic is at an absolute stop there and still nobody will make eye contact and let you take the left turn. These same people couldn't execute a zipper merge if thousands of lives depended on it. On the other hand, we also have a large contingent of "F U, I don't care what the law says" drivers who blow through red lights, weave through traffic, and otherwise radiate "Whatever the rules are, I'm going to blatantly flaunt them in the most obvious and disrespectful way possible." Unfortunately, the police are rarely around to catch the second type.

And of course, you have your "regular" texters, surfers, and handheld device nincompoops.

So, yeah, I'm going with Atlanta drivers.
 
I just drove through the Holland tunnel. I'll revise the above to 'all of the eastern seaboard+Ohio'.
It's not that hard to merge 10 lanes into two. One left one right everyone zippers together. Really.
 
From my experiences:

CA drivers > AZ drivers. Neither are terrible. Most are pretty good.

CA drivers have to deal with Waaaay more freeway upset than AZ does.
80mph-zero-80mph with no warning builds character.

Worst: Illinois/Missouri - when I'm back there visiting family, the drivers there make my skin crawl.
 
Worst: Boston
Runner-Up: Florida

Absolute worst: Anywhere in the US with roundabouts. Americans still don’t know how to use them. And probably never will.
We have them here in VT. Drivers are no worse going through them than anywhere else, which is not saying much. Of course most of them stop before entering even when there is obviously no traffic coming through from the left. But that is just par for the course here. I have not seen an inordinate number of accidents in our roundabouts, which is saying something.
 
Weirdly, people in California (Bay Area) seem to know how to zipper merge, unlike in Colorado where they merge way in advance then get mad at those who keep going in the right lane.

How did they forget when they all moved here?! LOL.

Atlanta drivers are extremely passive aggressive when they are not being just blatantly aggressive.

Hahaha Atlanta is up there. Not my top but up there. I was even talking to a vendor of ours in Atlanta today and he yells out “Okay azz whole!” And then realized he was still on the phone with me.

I completely understood and knew exactly why he was yelling it at me. LOL LOL. LOL.
 
Northern NY (I’m talking about the *REAL* northern part, as in NOT freakin Orange and Westchester counties, but waaaaay up there well north of Albany!) drivers are actually very good drivers. We get a solid amount of winter weather and our roads are not straight for very long. If someone is going slower than the vehicles that caught up to them the locals will move to the shoulder (if there is one) or slow down a bit and wave the faster traffic past. Also, when stopped, waiting to turn left for example, locals will hug the centerline so others can get past. Tourists will hover on the white line with no turn signal, holding everyone up. And so forth. I LOVE Labor Day weekend because all the morons leave the Adirondacks for a while, til ski season hits...

Amen on Labor Day. It's become my favorite weekend of the year.

In terms of skill, I've found that drivers who learned to drive in New York City or other big cities tend to be the best drivers. In terms of attitude, however, they tend to be pretty horrible, but not immutably so. They usually mellow out once they live in the country for a while and learn the social rules of driving here.

I learned to drive in Queens, a borough of New York City. My high school was on Queens Boulevard, where two out of every three vehicles was a truck or a bus; and I learned highway driving on the BQE and the LIE. Learning to drive in that environment results in developing excellent skills, but not a good driving attitude. The competitive aspect of driving in a big city results in driving that's too aggressive for less-developed venues.

Two specific examples of the difference are following distance and proximity comfort. All Downstate drivers tailgate. If you try to obey the three-second rule on the LIE, three cars will pull in front of you. The only way to maintain three seconds of space forward would be to drive backward. That's the first habit Downstate drivers have to break when they move.

Proximity comfort is another. Drivers who learned to drive in big cities are accustomed to having only inches between themselves and other cars. So, for example, if part of the roadway is blocked, whether or not remaining traffic in opposing lanes will continue moving is a function of whether the laws of physics allow for it. If that means that the vehicles have only an inch or two of space to their sides, that's fine. Up here, not so much. Drivers would rather stop and wait for oncoming vehicles to pass them than to pass them moving with less than a foot or so of space to the side.

In summary, a lot of it is context. "Good" drivers in any context are the ones with sufficient skill to safely operate their vehicles, and sufficient contextual awareness and attitude control to operate them in ways considered normal and appropriate in the context. When I visit The City, I drive like city people do because it's what's expected. When I drive where I live now, I drive like people here do.

As for states...

I've observed that people from Connecticut tend to drive either way over the speed limit or way under it. They rarely travel at or near the speed limit. But as a group, they also tend not to tailgate. When they can pass you, they may zoom by at 90 or 100 MPH. But they generally won't tailgate you.

People from Downstate and New Jersey do tend to tailgate, but it's usually not to get you to move over. They may be perfectly content with the speed, so they won't pass you even when they have the opportunity. They're just used to tailgating. When they want you to move over, they're more likely to beep the horn, flash the headlights, and give you the middle finger.

People from the South tend to drive like they're lost, probably because most of them are.

People with Florida plates in particular are almost always retired snowbirds who are in no hurry to get anywhere, and their driving shows it. I often wonder if they're reminiscing about people who used to live along the road because they slow down in front of random houses and look at them, for no apparent reason.

People from Pennsylvania tend to be good drivers. Based on what I learned when my goddaughters started to drive, I'm inclined to think that their driver training requirements have something to do with that. New drivers in Pennsylvania have to get a physical to get a learner's permit. They also have to keep a log of their practice driving that includes 65 total hours of adult-supervised driving, divided into driving in daytime, nighttime, good weather, foul weather, and so forth. I don't know how strictly the requirements are enforced or how much falsification goes on; but on paper, their requirements are very thorough and would tend to produce good drivers.

Rich
 
I live in Ohio, and have had three accidents in recent years, all someone else's fault. All three were lane changes right into my car. One pushed me off the road completely—they fled, I'm sure they were on drugs.
 
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