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Colorado drivers are "among the worst"?

François Pugh

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Masshole is a defined word in the Oxford English Dictionary. Grew up listening to my Dad curing those damn Masshole's as he drove our family around. My sister would ask but Dad aren't all our relatives from Mass? But before he could get an answer out he would be cut off by another one of those idiots who don't know how to use a blinkah.
In some locals, signalling an intended lane change is a sure fire way to get the guy behind you, currently traveling slower than you, to speed up and "shut the door" on you.

It's important to know the driving habits where you happen to be. There are exceptions, but here's the generalities: Montreal, easy to predict - driver will floor it. Toronto, you never know if someone is going to slow down or speed up for any given situation, be ready for everything, the only predictable thing about Toronto traffic is that drivers will gravitate to the passing (far left) lane, often making the far right lane the easiest way to pass (under-taking :O ). Sasketchawan driver in BC mountains - crawl around every corner, speed through the straight stretch. North Bay ON - drive faster than their reflexes should permit once moving, but take an extra 2 seconds when the light changes. Guelph ON slow and will yield the right of way to let you in first. Manitoba - super-obedient drones - won't drive 1 mph over the limit.

BTW there are two types of drivers:
 

Varmintmist

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Ohio. Hands down. There is not any one thing that stands out, but there is no flow, just a lot of "I am the only person here.". You can run up behind someone 10 under the limit while being tailgated in the fast lane. You pass the 10 under guy, the tailgater passes you, you move to the middle lane, the tailgaiter moves to the middle lane, then slows down to 5 under. Coming back from Camp Perry I passed the same guy 5 times and never bumped the cruise off. I have been the ONLY vehicle on the highway at night and had a driver come from behind, miles behind, to tailgate me. I kept bumping the cruise down about once a min just to see how low we would go and he passed at 47mph, down from 68. You have to be on your game because you dont know what is going to happen next.
I worked in Joisey for years driving a service vehicle. They are arrogant and do bizarre stuff but as long as everything is normal, you will get there in a hurry. It is the only place in the US that I have ever driven in that has a "glare delay" in the morning. That means the sun came up in the east in the morning. SURPRISE!!! and if a feed tub falls out of a horse trailer and is on the side of a 3 lane highway, all forward motion is cancelled.
 

JeffS

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My pet peeve is drivers who go slow when the road is one lane , and then speed up for the short stretches with 2 lanes. I can imagine them thinking "Whew. That scary bit is over, I can go faster now!"
I didn't even know this was a thing until coming to Oregon, the state where everyone drives like they have nowhere to go.

It's either 40-80-40, or a whole line of cars straddling the lanes because that's where the tracks are.
 

chilehed

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From a Denver Post article
According to Nationwide's study - they used telematics data to determine that Colorado Drivers are among the worst...
Anyone who thinks that Colorado drivers are bad has never been to Miami. Not EVEN close.

I've driven in LA, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, SLC, Chicago, NYC, Philly, North Jersey, and everywhere between Michigan and Florida. NO WHERE have I seen the kind of lunacy that goes on every day in Miami.

Except for maybe the cab ride I took from LaGuardia to the Port Authority. The driver was originally from - you guessed it - Miami.
 
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slowrider

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Looks like it's a close tie for first. Boston, LA, Denver, Florida, Montreal, ect.......Driving is like coloring. Some people can't stay inside the lines. I've got 4 million miles of driving and have seen airplanes land on freeways.
 
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noncrazycanuck

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I've driven in every state but 4 and I think the drivers everywhere are tied for worst in the US. We can all be thankful we're not driving in Bangkok, though. Bring on the self-driving cars!

I found once you got in to the Thai method of only focusing ahead and dodging what ever was immediately in front of you it then became pretty easy.
No one ever pays any attention to stop signs lights lanes speed limits signaling or whats coming up behind but the traffic always flows pretty well.
Amazing amount of road rash on foreigners, probably a lot of it was from driving on the wrong side of the road. Easy to forget.

For the worst drivers in North America I nominate a few suburbs of Vancouver. There you never know what a vehicle ahead of you may do. If they start turning left it could be is just the initial move of a right turn. Left turns generally start in the right hand lane and often take 4 lanes. Signals may or may not be used and rarely correctly indicate direction.
Parking lots are best avoided. It could take an afternoon to get out of one if your behind more than one car attempting to park.
 

Dave Marshak

All Time World Champion
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doc

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*(Looks in closet to see if he has 99 old phones.)*
 

wyowindrunner

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From a Denver Post article
According to Nationwide's study - they used telematics data to determine that Colorado Drivers are among the worst.

Colorado drivers aren't the worst according to my personal observation, as someone who's driven in a lot of different states.

Snip from article:
Insurer Nationwide said that it analyzed data from its SmartRide telematics program, which installs a small device in cars, tracks a user’s driving habits, including hard braking, fast acceleration and nighttime driving.

The results?

Colorado drivers have a high frequency of suddenly speeding up – an indicator of dangerous behavior, said Larry Thursby, Nationwide’s vice president who oversees the telematics program.
Ahah. I was already pretty sure I didn't want such a device, but this clinches it.
Worked for several years with a company that used monitors plugged into the OBD ports on all the vehicles,both company owned and rented. Ambulances made up the majority of the fleet. The companies enforced a driving technique called " Low Impact Driving Forces" which dictated smooth acceleration and braking, no sudden turns or lane changes and speed monitoring. Damn thing would squack at you if it sensed anything it did not like. Generated a monthly report and you didnt want the high score.
Have a good friend who spent many years working and living in Europe, primarily Hungary and Italy. Bought a BMW while there. His opinion was that Americans can't drive period. Told me once I drove like a farmer. ( I had been living in a very rural area for many years at that time). Had another friend living in Italy and working in Africa. He could not pass the Italian driving test. The company he worked for provided him a chauffeur.
 

DanoT

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Worked for several years with a company that used monitors plugged into the OBD ports on all the vehicles,both company owned and rented. Ambulances made up the majority of the fleet. The companies enforced a driving technique called " Low Impact Driving Forces" which dictated smooth acceleration and braking, no sudden turns or lane changes and speed monitoring. Damn thing would squack at you if it sensed anything it did not like. Generated a monthly report and you didnt want the high score.
Have a good friend who spent many years working and living in Europe, primarily Hungary and Italy. Bought a BMW while there. His opinion was that Americans can't drive period. Told me once I drove like a farmer. ( I had been living in a very rural area for many years at that time). Had another friend living in Italy and working in Africa. He could not pass the Italian driving test. The company he worked for provided him a chauffeur.

After reading the above I thought back to my days working for a logging
contractor driving long distances to work, a lot of it on logging roads. If we had those monitoring devices in the crummies (slang for log company worker transport vehicles) it would immediately be game on among the crummie drivers to see who could get the highest monthly score.:ogbiggrin:
 

DanoT

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In Kamloops, B.C. drivers don't use directional signals as they just assume that everyone knows what they are doing when in fact, no one knows what they are doing.
 

martyg

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This is true. It's caused by all the drivers going 60 in the left lane who speed up to 80 once you get frustrated and start passing them on the right.

So true! I was shuttling a bit between Durango and the I70 corridor early winter.

I’m driving an S-series Audi with studded snows. Inevitably some douche-bag in a beater pickup will be going 10 below - a prudent speed on snowy roads for that vehicle. We come to a safe passing area - either designated lane or long straight away with great line of sight. I go to pass, and they speed up.

In one instance, a guy wanted to race, and the next thing I know his pickup is in my rear view mirror, with a cloud of smoke coming from it.
 

Posaune

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I drive the speed limit in the right lane on multiple lane highways. I rarely get passed by someone in my lane and rarely pass anyone. I usually can stay on cruise control most of the time. I get there every time.

On two lane roads I also drive the speed limit. If you don't like it, tough for you.

Mostly, I don't experience the bad drivers everyone complains about. Tailgaters sometimes, but that's their problem, not mine.

If this makes me a bad driver, too bad.
 
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djetok

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I've driven in every state but 4 and I think the drivers everywhere are tied for worst in the US. We can all be thankful we're not driving in Bangkok, though. Bring on the self-driving cars!
Or Jamaica. Honk honk honk go for it, we made it let's try to die again. Honk honk go. Rinse repeat
 

martyg

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I drive the speed limit in the right lane on multiple lane highways. I rarely get passed by someone in my lane and rarely pass anyone. I usually can stay on cruise control most of the time. I get there every time.

On two lane roads I also drive the speed limit. If you don't like it, tough for you.

Mostly, I don't experience the bad drivers everyone complains about. Tailgaters sometimes, but that's their problem, not mine.

If this makes me a bad driver, too bad.

I saw a photo of a work truck. The owner had welded a huge pipe wrench, highly visible and just on the edge of the rear number. He said that it totally took care of tailgaters. Love that!
 

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