Southern Cali drivers....nightmare!

[andrewg]

Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
The lack of turn signal use in California is widespread. People cannot be bothered. Showing courtesy to others might be construed as not being nearly important enough, or perhaps it is just the narcissism that is proudly cultivated here like nowhere else.

What I find most appalling is how people drive when it rains here. They speed up and tailgate and generally act like they have to get where they are going even faster lest they get stuck in a traffic jam due to an accident.

All while holding their phone to their face as if they are eating a Pop tart, after all it is illegal to drive without a hands free device.

I think you've nailed it regarding the narcissism. It infected the entire country with LA being the epitome.

 

[oilboy123]

The Washington state drivers are maniacs in an unintentional idiotic way..... Like the one on the way home tonight putting his brakes on at times for no reason. Then when he sees his exit he mildly cuts in front of me. There was no one behind me for blocks either. To which I high beam him. He then punishes me by putting his brakes on 2 or 3 times, but I'm far enough back it does not bother me.

California drivers are much more aggressive maniacs then around here, but Washington is catching up.....

 

[65cuda]

I have to admit that my drive through Ca. changed my mind of the worst drivers. CA. has the rest of them beat hands down. Turn signals who needs them? Merging? Just another waste of time, just change and everybody will move out of your way. Room between cars? Only a fool needs more than a few feet, afterall anything more than that is a opening for someone to dive into and hopefully you miss them. The most surprising was the law that allows motorcyle riders to use the white line between lanes as their own lane to move to the front. I guess it didn't occure to anybody that CA. drivers like to change lanes without warning. As for Washington drivers I had much better luck with them. Generally they actually know what a turn signal is and will generally know how to merge onto the interstate. However I do admit that their highways weren't very good.

 

[HTSS_TR]

CA drivers are not the worse, they are mostly very aggressive drivers, more aggressive than most other states drivers.

When I was on local highways, I drove mostly within 5 MPH of the speed limit on the right lanes but not the rightmost lane which is for on/off ramps. But when I went to Vegas then my cruise control was set at 85-90 MPH and occasionally accelerate to 100+ MPH when traffic permitted. Even cruising at 85-90 MPH I tent to stay on right lanes as much as I could.

 

[andyd]

I 95 south of Providence, RI is avoided . I cross the Hudson well north of NYC and head across NJ to Harrisburg PA where I pick up I 81 .

 

[JHZR2]

Ive never really noticed anything that out of the ordinary in my driving in the LA area. Granted, I drive the Boston to DC corridor all the time, so it is no better on the other coast.

I have gotten stuck in some horrible traffic in LA though. Makes the NW corner of the DC beltway look fast.

 

[oilboy123]

Washington drivers don't know how to merge. They use no signal and expect you to vacate the slow lane so they can move into it.

 

[PandaBear]

Californian drives FAST when there is no traffic, because you need to save time when you get stuck in traffic. Most people drive aggressive but the key is to stay where you are when people are driving as a maniac around you, by keeping the same distance and let the maniac pass. Also not blocking people if they are driving faster than you, not trying to pass someone if you are not planning to drive faster than them, not driving at the right lane if you are not planning to exit the highway, not keeping too far of a following distance (space is valuable because others may need them to pass). Think of a school of fish, that's how driving should be done.

If you follow the above, you should be fine. Nothing personal, just people trying to avoid getting caught by cops or stuck behind a slow poke.

 

[01rangerxl]

I'd almost rather deal with mostly speeding and aggressive drivers than the dangerous mix we have here. Charlotte has 1/2 aggressive fast drivers, and 1/2 extremely slow drivers who don't seem to have any particular place to go and certainly aren't trying to get there quickly. The two groups clash, especially on the interstate, resulting in wrecks and traffic jams that turn everything into a parking lot. There are times of the day when I-85 and many surface streets are simply impassable. If I leave work 15 minutes too late, my commute time can easily double or even triple. It's very frustrating.

I think part of our problem here is a lot of people who are not Charlotte residents come into the city during the day for various reasons. In many of the more rural outlying areas, it's perfectly fine to have no particular place to go and just putter around town. When they start doing that in the city, it causes all sorts of problems.

 

[CivicFan]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Californian drives FAST when there is no traffic, because you need to save time when you get stuck in traffic. Most people drive aggressive but the key is to stay where you are when people are driving as a maniac around you, by keeping the same distance and let the maniac pass. Also not blocking people if they are driving faster than you, not trying to pass someone if you are not planning to drive faster than them, not driving at the right lane if you are not planning to exit the highway, not keeping too far of a following distance (space is valuable because others may need them to pass). Think of a school of fish, that's how driving should be done.

If you follow the above, you should be fine. Nothing personal, just people trying to avoid getting caught by cops or stuck behind a slow poke.


Sounds similar to Chicago - I enjoy driving there whenever I visit there. What looks like insanity at first is really a well executed chaos.

When I was in LA, driving in the city or on the highways was not something memorable.

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: CROWNVIC4LIFE
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That is exactly how people drive in Miami-Fort Lauderdale every single day of the week on I-95,826,836,874,395,195,Fla Turnpike and other roads down here.

I agree. I've been in Florida a few times over the years and I thought the worst were in the Orlando area! I've had more "near misses" there than all the years (decades) I've lived in Southern Ca.

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: 65cuda
The most surprising was the law that allows motorcyle riders to use the white line between lanes as their own lane to move to the front.

Useless info: This law goes back to the 30's when the CHP rode Harley Davidson motorcycles. Since air cooled bikes need to be moving to be cooled the CHP got this law passes to stop their officers from melting engines.

 

[65cuda]

Interesting, I never would have thought that the law went back that far, but in a way it does make sense. Howwever it was kind of a surprise to see a motorcycle to go cruising past me while I was stuck in traffic. Some of the big bikes we cutting it kind of close on clearance. Of course I was also always taught not to ride between cars and in fact had a friend that did and had someone open their car door.