I made it safely to Wood's Hole after driving for nine hours. A good stereo system is a bulwark against madness.

One observation I've made every time I come here (this is the fourth summer) - Massachussetts drivers suck. It's not that they are incompetent a-holes like the drivers in DC. It's that they yield with absolutely no rhyme or reason. For some reason the basic principle that safety in traffic is enhanced by everyone behaving in a predictable manner is just lost on them[*]. My sample is pretty biased, so maybe this is just a Cape Cod phenomenon, but I've already had two incidents in which a dangerous situation was created by someone deciding that despite the fact that they have right of way, they'll stop and let me go. They are trying to be nice, oblivious to the fact that the people behind them think they are turning, so move to pass, just as the benevolent dimwit is waving me to move into a position to be T-boned. Perhaps its that this area is a vacation spot, so there are people from all over the place, each bringing their own local interpretation of how to behave in traffic.

[*] Incidentally, if you ever get a chance to drive in Brazil - don't do it. At least don't do it until you've aclimatized to the local driving customs. I thought Africa was bad, but Brazilians drive according to an unwritten set of rules which are universally understood by other Brazilian drivers and which bear only a passing relationship to the written traffic laws. The lack of carnage on the streets is due to the fact that everyone knows the unwritten rules, knows what to expect, and knows how other drivers will react.

When people try to be nice and let someone pull out or turn in front of them, they are assuming right of way over every other driver. That drives me crazy! I saw that at a stop light once, two guys in a truck wanted to turn left across traffic, some jerk (a few cars in front of me)let them go in front of him, regardless of everybody else in three lanes of opposing traffic. I saw a guy on a motorcycle coming up behind me in the right hand (turn) lane. I laid on my horn, but the motorcycle T-boned the truck and launched the rider. Luckily he wasn't seriously injured. I know of people getting killed like that!

The driving in Milan (Italy) also operates in the way you describe. There are rules, but they are unwritten rules known only to the Milanese. I grew up less than 50 km outside Milan, but I did not have a clue about these rules until I started driving there regularly...

For utterly terrifying driving, nothing beats Athens. Israelis are scary due to total disregard for the surroundings, and Italians make it a point of honour to drive at top speed all the time, but Greeks are just criminally insane behind the wheel.

Personally, I found that reading the NY Times or WSJ was the best way to get between Central NY and my job in NH. Time passed very quickly, although the fact that I usually exceeded the speed limit helped too. :)

When I lived in Mass., it was explained to me that NYC drivers are homicidal and Boston drivers were suicidal. Thus it was preferable to live in NYC, since at least you could count on the drivers having a self-preservation instinct.

Everybody has an opinion about which area's drivers are the worst, but I've encountered a general concensus that Boston area drivers are truly horrible.

I encountered this myself when driving down a four-lane Boston city street. All of a sudden in front of me three cars--yes, THREE CARS--all decided to make illegal U-turns at the same time. It looked like synchronized driving, or a movie stunt, as these cars all turned into the opposing lane. It was not particularly dangerous at that moment, but I was stunned by it nonetheless.

I find DC-area drivers to be bad, but not especially bad. My main beef is people who don't use turn signals.

My only other observation is that Chicago-area drivers are not particularly bad, but they do speed. I was on an interstate outside of Chicago and suddenly noticed that I was doing 85 in a 65 zone, and I was barely keeping up with traffic.

Andrew wrote:
"They are trying to be nice, oblivious to the fact that the people behind them think they are turning, so move to pass, just as the benevolent dimwit is waving me to move into a position to be T-boned."

Your operating on the assumption, of course, that they aren't TRYING to get you T-Boned :o)

>Incidentally, if you ever get a chance to drive
>in Brazil....

I had the experiance of being taxied to the train station in Naples when the Air Force put me on the wrong plane and sent me to the wrong end of Italy. The experiance caused me to activly forgo getting a vehicle until I HAD to :o)
A two lane road with 4 lanes of traffic, each going in opposite directions. I would have closed my eyes but I really felt it would be better to see my death coming... The fact that the taxi driver kept turning around to ask me questions was just icing on the cake I suppose...

Then there is Turkey. Where the 'requirements' to drive a vehicle seem to consist of (theoretically) being able to reach the gas peddle and still see out the window. (Then again I did observe more than one vehicle that seemed to accelerate in spurts while the 8-12 year old in the drivers seat alternated between pushing the gas and jumping up to see where he was going :o)

Then there is Europe. I loved driving over there. But "I" learned to drive like a European. Which has pretty much soured me about driving back here :o)

Randy

Chicago drivers speed?!? Who, us??? Naaaahhhhh... Must've been someone else...

On my monthly trips into the Chicago suburbs to visit family (coming in from Iowa), I enter the outer western suburbs on Interstate 88 travelling around 73 in a 65. Once the speed limit drops to 55 in Aurora, and the lanes increase from 2 to 3, the average speed _increases_ to somewhere between 78 and 85. Just watch out for random "full stops" in traffic when someone's on the side of the road changing a tire.

Best time in the world is driving on the Edens on a Saturday morning around 0630 or 0700. Made it from Gurnee (10 miles from Wisconsin) to the Indiana border in just over a half an hour, keepin gup with traffic and being passed by police cars.

I rented a car in Germany one time, and noticed the map of Europe displayed prominently on the countertop. Italy was shown with red hash marks across it. I, of course, inquired as to the meaning, and was told,

"You're not allowed to drive our rental cars in Italy."

-S

"They are trying to be nice, oblivious to the fact that the people behind them think they are turning, so move to pass, just as the benevolent dimwit is waving me to move into a position to be T-boned."

That's how I got hit once. When you are in the left lane with the light green, you don't expect some kid to pop out from behind a view blocking van headed for your lane to make a left turn. The best part is that the generous dimwits never stick around to help sort out the messes they make.

"My only other observation is that Chicago-area drivers are not particularly bad, but they do speed. I was on an interstate outside of Chicago and suddenly noticed that I was doing 85 in a 65 zone, and I was barely keeping up with traffic."

Ha! I was driving on a major highway in Chicago a few years ago. (A rare thing for me and I was sporting Alabama plates) Doing 60 in a 45 zone and not keeping up with traffic. A cop pulled up next to me and flashed me the finger, then drove on.

I'll second Dom's opinion of Milanese drivers. I worked in Milan for about 15 months back in the late '70s. I could have had a company-supplied car, but decided that, on the whole, I'd prefer to take the subway or walk and live to a ripe old age. Splendid folks, Italians, but every one of them thinks he's Fangio behind the wheel.

Ditto Bostonians. I once took a 2-week class at the campus of the late Digital Equipment Corp. outside Boston and had to drive a rental from Logan Airport to get there. There were two nearly-successful attempts on my life before I even got to the exit tunnel and that pretty well set the tone for the whole two weeks. I was never so glad to get back to L.A. in my life.

DC drivers are nasty -- and getting worse.

I've been involved in two major accidents in the past five years. In the first one I broadsided a cretin who drove right in front of me. The only good things about the accident? Well, I wasn't hurt and two cops were sitting there and watching the whole thing. As one said to me "He thinks he's going to get away with it. He's not." He didn't. Although my car was in the shop for about a month. After the second one -- a middle aged man in a truck rearended me -- said person commented "I wasn't following too closely. The traffic stopped too fast."

There are truly nasty levels of tailgating around DC. Cars and trucks will follow another at 10-20 feet at 70 mph and over. Now people are using turning lanes as passing lanes. They even get mad if you won't let them in. After all, what are right turn only lanes for? Right turns? Or passing the person in front of you?

You truly haven't seen bad driving until you've seen a school bus pulling out into an intersection with fire trucks with sirens on and lights flashing approaching the same intersection.