Where are there actually good drivers?

30 comments

1. no such thing, all drivers are bad and all states/cities have the worst drivers

2. It’s all relative. In my experience, Massachusetts has the worst drivers. Therefore, everywhere that is not Massachusetts has good drivers.

   Edit: Hang on now. MA apparently has the fewest motor vehicle fatalities per capita and per vehicle mile traveled. Massachusetts has the best drivers. (Source: IIHS.org)

   I am shook.

3. Anywhere you live has the worst drivers, the weirdest weather, and the everythingest everything.

4. Wyoming.

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   They always get out of the fast lane after they pass someone, and they move over if someone is on the side of the road (cop, flat tire). And they rarely speed.

5. I think Seattle and Portland drivers are overall good drivers. Better situational awareness and willing to let others in to avoid an accident (or just to be nice). I haven’t been in the drivers seat much in the Northeast, but in the South people would seemingly rather die than let someone in front of them.

6. They don’t exist. When you are driving a car, everyone else on the road is bound by the laws of the universe to be an a-hole, jerkwad, dipsh!t, or idot.

7. Look at states with the cheapest car insurance.

8. When I travel I find drivers from most other places considerably more irritating than drivers from my city.

   Here, the most likely annoyance is people being too relaxed while driving. So things like someone accelerating too slowly up an on ramp, trying to wave other people on ahead of them at a 4-way stop when they should just go on their turn, or putzing along at the speed limit in the left lane of the highway.

   The biggest real issue here is the phone usage is way out of control. I’d say probably 1 in 10 drivers I pass are staring at their phones as they drive, and probably 80% of the unsafe driving I see is for the same reason.

   Overall, most people drive within about +/-10% of the speed limit most of the time, mostly use their turn signals, leave a reasonable space cushion, and mostly follow the basic rules of the road. Cops *do* give tickets for going more than about 10 over, and they don’t care about “flow of traffic.” They’ll occassionally post up anywhere from 5-20 traffic cops deep on the main highway overpass that runs through the middle of the city and pull over entire groups of cars that are all speeding together to keep that behavior in check.

   I think this is all due to the fact that we don’t have a real rush hour, and you can get from one far corner of the city to the other in about 30 minutes, and less than an hour at peak traffic. So people just don’t have the pent up aggression from driving and are more likely to be courteous and reasonable on the road.

9. Out of anywhere I’ve ever driven, the Rochester NY area is probably the best.

   People actually move when the light turns green, most people understand that the left lane is for passing, and you rarely ever see anyone going significantly slower than the speed limit. My one complaint is that sometimes someone will change lanes like they’re about to pass me, but then instead of passing they’ll sit in my blind spot. If I slow down, they slow down. If I speed up, they speed up. They’ll stay there for 5+ miles at a time.

   Compare that to the area I grew up (central PA). When the light turns green, people just let off the brake and creep forward into the intersection at 3 MPH, then very gently accelerate up to the speed limit over the next 1/2 mile. A lot of people treat the right lane as the entry/exit lane and the left lane as the travel lane when they’re on the highway. Half the time when I’m on the main road into town, I’ll get stuck behind someone going 20-25 in a 35 zone. It’s not unusual to see someone going 35 in a 70 on the highway, and they’ll usually be doing that in the left lane.

10. Everyone is going to say their state is the worst.

    Of the handful of states I’ve driven in I would say Wisconsin had the “best”

11. Mackinac Island, from what I understand.

12. The good drivers are robots who will soon take over all the roads in America.

13. Every place has bad and good drivers.

14. everybody just gets used to the way people drive where they live

15. According to this sub, the answer would be “404 Not Found”.

16. I’ve driven through Boise a few times and been impressed with everyone’s highway etiquette. People use their blinkers, pass on the left, and do a respectable 5mph over the speed limit under normal circumstances.

17. Germany

18. Raleigh by and large has good drivers but sometimes they’re just so God damn slow, 45 means go at least 45 people!

19. Upper Midwestern drivers are pretty good. They know how to deal with every kind of bad weather and generally putter along at the speed of traffic

20. I’m curious about your experience in Pennsylvania, OP, because the best drivers in my experience have been there! My partner’s family is from Lancaster / Harrisburg and every time we visit them I am impressed with the drivers there. Not too fast, not too slow, reliable use of turn signals, no one is aggressive, no one seems too distracted.

21. Statistically Texas is number 1 in car accidents on average, having lived here it definitely shows, most people here are taught by their parents who “learned” to drive on dirt roads when they were way too young and got their license when the bar to get one was set very low. People here in general are awful drivers, the speed limit is a suggestion they only drive too slow or too fast and there’s usually several people on the road doing either, they don’t check their mirrors, they change lanes without warning, and a yellow light means it’s time to floor the gas. People are either not cautious with their driving enough, or they’re so overly cautious that they’re a danger to the traffic around them, you never know which one it’s going to be with every car.

    California is the second worst but at least you know what you’re going to get, everyone there drives aggressively, you have to if you wanna get anywhere. In Texas it’s a mixed bag, you have no idea what to expect from anyone on the road.

    Texas is the best example I have that people really should have to take a driving test to get their license renewed at least 3-4 times in their life.

22. Inside the car of the person making that claim. EVERYONE else drives like a maniac and/or has no awareness, and that parked car totally came out of nowhere.

23. If you asked 5 years ago, I’d say Montana. Usually the drivers that made you ask “what the fuck are you doing?” Had an Idaho plate. Not so much now, was already getting bad prepandemic, so much worse now with all the transplants.

    Not saying they’re bad drivers, but if you drive in Bozeman the way people do in Boston, you’re going to cause an accident. An influx of a bunch of different driving styles at the same time is trouble period. And most of them do suck at driving in the winter.

24. When I was in the Army, it seemed like I rarely ran into locals outside of any military base. Maybe it was a little different for me, because I served during the Reagan years when LOTS of people were joining. But anyway, most of the people I ran into were service members, spouses/children of service members or retired service members. Hence, they came from elsewhere.

    That was especially true when I was at Ft. Eustis, VA. There was us, there was Langley AFB and farther south was the Norfolk NB. Service members from the various branches were all over the place. Being just out of high school, we would often go to the Hampton Mall (it was the ’80s, malls were still a thing!) on weekends and meet high school girls and, yes, they were almost all military brats.

    That was such a great time to be in the military. I would live those days all over again if I could.

25. Depends on what you consider “good drivers”.

    Out of the states I’ve lived in; TX, NJ, NY, and FL, I’d say TX has the best drivers. In Texas, sure people are speed demons, have some erratic moments but they get out of the way of emergency vehicles and as a whole keep up with the flow of traffic. NJ/NY they drive crazy, run red lights, and don’t typically move over for emergency vehicles (which something really should be done about) but that’s generally everyone drives like that so you get used to it. I will say they’re some of the better parkers I’ve seen though so extra points to the north easterners.

    In Florida though, the speed limit could be 60 and you could have cars going 40 and cars going 80 on the same stretch of road. I would also see plenty of cars without working break lights or headlights, or with tint so dark you couldn’t see the cars lights in front of them. All that together, to me, made Florida have the most dangerous roads and therefore the worst drivers.

    However, these are broad generalizations based on my personal experiences in the areas I was driving at the time I was driving. Your personal experiences may vary.

26. it’s all a bit relative. I think people in NY/NJ get a bad wrap. It’s way more agressive but because of that people are very defensivley aware

27. Colorado, even in Denver. Maybe a put too passive and overly nice though

28. I found driving in phoenix Arizona to be pleasant. Plentiful & wide driving lanes on the freeway. All the drivers around me were going the speed limit (or faster) and slower cars stayed in the right lanes. 10/10 would drive there again.

29. Every time I’m in St. Louis, I’m relatively surprised at how decent the majority of drivers seem to be. Maybe it’s just in comparison to where I live though.

30. As others have said there are terrible drivers everywhere. So far I’m *most confotlrtable* with fellow Central NY drivers because we’re predictable. For example we know how to drive in the snow with the exception of the first snowfall. Then if you are caught in the left lane going slow prepare for **PUNISHMENT**. The one with the biggest balls, the biggest grill on the truck, or (like me) looks the most like a cop will ensure that you move over if you’re *that guy* on 81 or the Thruway. The Canadians can attest to this, they’re stubborn left lane hogs.