so to recap, slow drivers think fast drivers are bad and fast drivers think slow drivers are bad.

Didn't George Carlin have a bit about this? Everyone who drives slower than you is an idiot, and everyone who drives faster than you is a maniac?

As long as you drive in the appropriate lane it shouldn't matter.

If you're on single lane backroads and cruise at 5 mph under the already conservative speed limit, then you're prob a bad person.

Then why are WA drivers so much worse? Why specifically is there so much cruising in the left lane compared to here? Surely we have a higher from-California population, as a percentage of drivers.

Agreed on all points. There are a couple spots on I-5 with absurdly low limits. Terwilliger curves are pretty bad but 45? 55 for the rest of it. Salem used to be even more absurd, complete with state cops everywhere, but they at least raised it up to 60.

For all the other freeways you definitely need to know when the splits are coming and which lane you need to be in. I still get caught in the wrong lane sometimes when I'm driving somewhere I don't go often. The bad planning also extends to intersections.

Everyone thinks their drivers are somehow special in a good or bad way. New Jersey, however:

1. Doesn't trust their people to execute left turns on highways, so makes them instead perform a more complicated series of turns which end up with the same result, wtf and

2. Doesn't let people to pump their own gas (like Oregon), wtf

Depends which lane you are in. Slow highway drivers in the fast lane are the WOAT. Left lane is for passing, right lane is for cruising.

The other WOAT highway driving tactic is not allowing someone to merge into traffic when it's very doable.

yup, which is why it blows my mind that people are saying that midwest drivers are good. they're obviously taught there to set the cruise control for 2 mph below the limit and stay in the left lane at all costs while driving to pick up potato salad from the schnucks.

Thinly veiled roman-a-clef

I don't know why people get so butthurt about this - other states have huge intersections where you sit for 5 minutes because of left turn lights in addition to regular ones, NJ avoids this issue on many major roads. Jughandle4lyfe

Etats360

Indeed, it is an accurate but fictionalized portrayal of driving in Century City.

fml I have to go off my $50 /mo insurance from Michigan when its up in February and get LA insurance. To add to this I turn 25 in March so I have no idea what to do. Guess I should talk to an insurance guy or just get quotes online?

I have better than state minimum coverage, but mine is more than double that and I have no accidents that were my fault nor any tickets of any kind. I pay every 6 months though, as it lowers your overall amount, so you might be looking at even higher.

NJ drivers are obviously the worst.

Upstate NY drivers are pretty GOAT.

Ha! I found Detroit so strange for that reason. Downtown at lunch hour on a work day? DESERTED

wtf

This doesn't seem like a recap at all.

Have you any comparison? If you've never left the midwest you probably just assume they are bad. But once you've been to a city with true bad driving you will be like "wow - how do these people survive?"

Also nobody in St. Louis coasted in the far left lane. When we moved to Texas we drove here and I distinctly remember not long after crossing the Texas border all the idiots were coasting in the left lane. My dad was furious, but he was right. Everyone here does this for some reason - it's infuriating. Even my wife (native Texan) does it and I can't get through to her how inconsiderate and unsafe it is.

Think about how dumb Arkansas hillbillies are and realize even they knew to drive in the right lane and pass in the left.

phb, you and your wife have like 20 kids, correct? Just testing a theorem.

Detroit abandon-ness being a topic, I decided to take the scenic route home and give 2p2 a little drive by tour of some of the more "less-traveled" areas of the city.

This was a few years ago, but it shows the passion Detroiters have for great food.



A standard neighborhood on the West Side



Burnt out building with millions of tires auspiciously placed in front of it



Packed roads!



Urban prairie fields!



Less passion this time around, but not too bad desertion-wise.



Parade going down under a bridge



Birthplace of American union labor. **** you Rick Snyder.

Detroit confirmed who we thought they were.

If it's such a great idea then how come traffic engineers elsewhere aren't clamoring for similar implementations? Could it be that making a right turn followed by a u-turn just isn't as efficient nor intuitive as simply making a left turn?

I'd much rather pay it every 6 months in any case. I am in the same boat, no accidents or tickets. My girlfriend is the same way and she pays almost 3x of what I do now, which is why I haven't registered my vehicle in LA yet when I moved here in September. I'm getting a company car in the first quarter of 2013 if all goes well anyway so I might just say screw it and keep my car parked.

The only picture of DETROIT that matters:



Took it on the way to Windsor over Thanksgiving. lol at stopping in Detroit.

I don't think that's a jughandle.

dye, those pics are pretty depressing, but im glad you made it out alive.

Michigan lefts are the GOAT road-related drivers safety initiative.