The drivers around here where I live are almost as crazy, stupid, and rude as the drivers I've tangoed with in Boston. To make matters worse, every time I honk my horn a particular fuse blows and half my car quits working (see SL Class forum). I need to start carrying a bag of rocks around with me so I can throw rocks at cars instead of honking my horn.

I actually think drivers here are worse because although Boston drivers are on their own planet with a truly unique set of driving rules, when they drive they are at least consistent. I have no clue what some of these clowns are going to do where I live now. There's a very dangerous manuever done here where drivers making a right turn at a red light don't stop.

Once you learn the Planet of Boston rules, you know how to stay out of the way. Has anyone here driven up there? Live up there? I lived there for two years. It was scary as Hell at first.

Anyway, to the thumb. I call this area a one-thumb town because I assume that the drivers here are busy trying to stick their thumb of choice up their poop shoot (ah, Zappa). Once it's there, I think it stays there until they park ... once again an assumption, but I think I'm right.

How are the drivers where you live?

 

I'll definitely nominate Phoenix drivers as the worst in the country. The mentality behind the wheel in this area is unlike anything I've ever encountered. I have personally passed squad cars doing 10 over, and they don't even give me a glance. Four of the nations ten most dangerous intersections are here and Phoenix leads the nation in red light running fatalities, and I don't mean per capita. One reason is the startling high percentage of illegals here. They don't have licenses or insurance of course, and many just barely know how to drive. Hit-and-runs are ho-hum daily affairs here. There was a head-on in a busy intersection during morning rush not long ago -- both drivers fled on foot, abandoning their vehicles (wanna guess why?). A drag race between two idiotic jacked-up pickups one night ended when one of the trucks ran over a passenger car, killing all five occupants. Another recent incident had a 100mph+ BMW going airborne and landing on a family of 3 on their way to church one Sunday morning. They all died instantly. The list goes on -- this placed is whacked.

 

I worked in Phoenix for 3 months in the late '80s. Drivers had this strange practice of pulling over into the emergency lane to let cars behind them pass. They would do this in passing zones on two-lane highways with no other cars around and a straight stretch of 20-mile road. The cars in back could easily pass in the other lane but the car in front would bail out on cue sometimes at 70 mph into the emergnecy lane to let cars pass by. Weird.

 

Forget about any drivers in the US to be the worst case scenario: As you know I drive quite a collection of cars and I like to drivebut I would never drive in India! I was a couple of times there this year and what Lugnut described about red lights and left turnd at right is quite normal in India (actually it's left and right turns since the 'official' side they drive is the left side.
But a red light is only a 'recommendation' and a line in the middle of the road a 'navigation help' rather a border for something. Lanes are unknown; at least absolutly unrespected and 4-5 cars parallel riding on a two lane road are normal traffic....
They have only one rule: Take care for yourself!

 

I can only imagine what's it's like to drive in third world country backroads. Maybe I can since I drove alot in DC. It's not as bad as rural India I'm sure, but it and NY (and a few more cities) are melting pots of cultures that bring out the "best" in drivers from all over the planet.

Plus in DC there's diplomatic immunity. It's usually a license to kill. In fact a person with diplomatic immunity was driving under the influence and killed a young girl in another car when I lived there. It took the involvement of some heavy hitters from our government and the criminals government to bring the slime bucket to justice. It was an international incident, but we got him in the end. He's in a US prison now.

In Boston, when the light turns green, you're expected to yield to people turning left coming towards and across you when you're going straight. How are you supposed to know that without almost causing a crash the first time you see it? Somebody wrote a book about driving in Boston. It's just a smallish book, but the only one of its kind I've seen.