Dallas/Fort Worth drivers 2nd most aggressive and angry in US

[gchrisbailey]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090616/lf_nm_life/us_driving_roadrage

NYC is first...

I thought I was imagining things, but the road rage is, in fact, getting worse here...

[Mena]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090616/lf_nm_life/us_driving_roadrage

NYC is first...

I thought I was imagining things, but the road rage is, in fact, getting worse here...
Wow! This surprises me. I used to live in California and commute to the Bay Area.......often thought of taking Rosary beads with me. Doubly surprised that Sacramento was rated one of the most pleasant........

[Random Traffic Guy]

Ohhh, a telephone survey. How very scientific. :rolleyes:

[slfunk]

Well you also have to include in there some where the day dream drivers that clog up the roads especially in the uptown area. You know the ones taking a Sunday drive on Wednesday -- making a right from the left hand lane, driving 5 - 10 mph below the speed limit, the ones chatting on their cell phones, and the people from the burbs not knowing where to go when coming down downtown / uptown.

[Mena]

Ohhh, a telephone survey. How very scientific. :rolleyes:
This reminds of posts I see on the political threads I frequent on another message board. :D

[gchrisbailey]

Well you also have to include in there some where the day dream drivers that clog up the roads especially in the uptown area. You know the ones taking a Sunday drive on Wednesday -- making a right from the left hand lane, driving 5 - 10 mph below the speed limit, the ones chatting on their cell phones, and the people from the burbs not knowing where to go when coming down downtown / uptown.

As I purposefully speed past those slow drivers, I envy their life where they can obviously just cruise around town not really needing to get anywhere...

[downtownguy25]

As I purposefully speed past those slow drivers, I envy their life where they can obviously just cruise around town not really needing to get anywhere...

The worst is dfw around the holidays. You get people that have no idea how the streets there work, make last min lane changes, dont yield, stop in the middle of the road to read street signs to figure out what lane though should be in, stop in the middle of a road to drop someone off or pick up someone, etc.

[eirin]

Yeah, Houston wasn't even on the list. And everytime I go there, I am constantly looking over my shoulder. God forbid you don't know where you're going in Houston because if you aren't where you are supposed to be...nobody cares. Not that it's much better here, but I'm just saying Houston is just as bad if not worse.

[ksig121]

Minneapolis/St. Paul????

Anyone who has ever driven there knows that they are some of the most courteous drivers on the planet.

How does Boston and Salt Lake City not make the list?

This thing has to be flwaed.

[eirin]

How does Boston and Salt Lake City not make the list?

Case in point. I recall the last time I was in Boston, I saw a driver in an SUV turn completely perpendicular to traffic and cut across from the left lane all the way to the shoulder lane...4 lanes distant. And this was in completely stopped traffic.

[TheMapman]

That's because no one down here knows how to drive. Texas drivers drive as if they have never been on this street before - don't know which lane to be in, don't know what exit to take or how far away it is, don't know what the light cycles are......

That said, Dallas isn't half as bad as Chicago or Cincinnati. Seattle is close but only because they drive way too slowly.

Ohhh, a telephone survey. How very scientific. :rolleyes:

If you know a better way, please share with the class.

[totheskies]

I'm up here this weekend and have literally been criss-crossing the Metroplex for my friend's wedding... hotel in Dallas, church in Grand Prarie, parent's house in Arlington, run errands in Mesquite... JEEEEEEEZ! But I haven't really noticed too many angry drivers up here. At least not in comparison to the last time I was up. Traffic seems to be moving well.

[saxman66]

Here's a couple rather stupid things I've seen from drivers in the last couple week. On the 183/121 split in Euless, a guy missed the 121 exit, so he backed up on the freeway (on the shoulder) to make his exit. I was hoping a cop was around.

On the airport, where two one-way roads merge together, a person decided to turn the opposite way on the merge. Guess they were lost. Hope they didn't cause a head on collision.

Saw the same thing at Cincinnati airport. Why would you do that!?! Is it not obvious.

[NThomas]

Here's a couple rather stupid things I've seen from drivers in the last couple week. On the 183/121 split in Euless, a guy missed the 121 exit, so he backed up on the freeway (on the shoulder) to make his exit. I was hoping a cop was around...
That's the only time I wish I was a cop. Seeing dumb people do that kind of stuff and get away with it piss me off (only because if I did it, I'd get a ticket).

[Random Traffic Guy]

That's because no one down here knows how to drive. Texas drivers drive as if they have never been on this street before - don't know which lane to be in, don't know what exit to take or how far away it is, don't know what the light cycles are......

I see that inexperience, and alot from out-of-state plates too. Part of being such an attractive place to live with the huge migration here.


If you know a better way, please share with the class.

I suppose it's a fine way to make a news story, but it's nothing more than an opinion poll. Telephone surveys just get people who a) have a home phone, b) answer their home phones, c) talk to surveyors... i.e. old people... who are apt to be more sensitive to "crazy driving" :D I'd like to see the questions asked, half the article seems to be about the activities that they perceive to incite road rage, not the amount of road rage that actually occurs.

Better options may be reckless driving convictions per million miles travelled adjusted for enforcement, things like that. Fund some grad students to experimentally antagonize drivers and see what percentage react. Deploy microphones to record horn honks per thousand passing vehicles ;). You can accomplish anything given sufficient quantites of money and slav^H^H^Hgrad students.


edit: Post 666 :Banana09: :not_ripe:

[TheMapman]

^^Unless you have some quantitative ways to measure human emotions, I think "opinion surveys" are the only way a study like this is going to happen.

[Spjz]

^^Unless you have some quantitative ways to measure human emotions, I think "opinion surveys" are the only way a study like this is going to happen.Opinion surveys are fine, so long as you are measuring something that is measurable. Is "anger" measurable? After reading the above story, there's no indication as to how they define or measure anger or rage. Pretty vague and speculative if you ask me.

[downtownguy25]

Suppose the best way would be to average the amounts of tickets written for aggressive driving and incidents of road rage. Both of which should be an easy thing to get from cities pd.

[Random Traffic Guy]

Measuring human emotions = bull$#!^ = not news. But fun for lazy reporters to talk about and get on TV to talk to each other.

[totheskies]

It seems to me that D/FW just has way too many freeways. Afternoon rush hour can be really frustrating up there b/c there's a million different freeways, but every single one of them is bumper to bumper. To me it would make more sense to have a more consistent access road system on the main arterials (so that the access roads can essentially serve as additional lanes during peak usage times), and then toll some of the "lesser used" freeways.

[trolleygirl]

It seems to me that D/FW just has way too many freeways. Afternoon rush hour can be really frustrating up there b/c there's a million different freeways, but every single one of them is bumper to bumper. To me it would make more sense to have a more consistent access road system on the main arterials (so that the access roads can essentially serve as additional lanes during peak usage times), and then toll some of the "lesser used" freeways.

Lemmie see if I get this logic: Dallas has too many freeways but all of them are bumper-to-bumper.

Soooo..... how is that "too many"? Wouldn't it seem like it's not enough?

[trolleygirl]

Ooh, I have one more to add to the list of stupid things stupid drivers do (keep in mind, I am a self-proclaimed terrible driver- I admit, I just don't pay attention): MERGING.

When there is a sign that indicates a lane is ending, so merge into the other lane, people insist on maintaining the lane that doesn't exist. Happens ALL THE TIME when I am turning from Greenville Ave to get onto 635 west to get onto the High Five to merge onto 75 south. The two left lanes are for 75 south. Of those, the far left lane is the lane that has the bent line on the sign, meaning the lane next to it (middle lane, or right lane on the exit) is the dominant lane; it doesn't merge, you merge into it and yield to the people already in it. Yet people constantly maintain the far left lane as if it is the dominant lane.

Last week, I was driving my usual 80 mph as I merged onto the High Five, and a chick in an SUV next to me in the far left lane saw me and sped up to match my speed. Well, her lane was ending but she wanted to fight with me, as if she owned the High Five because she was "there first" or some such. Then she tailgated me on the High Five.

But then, once onto 75 where the very far right lane ends to merge with all the other traffic, the b!tch swerved around me to pass me on my right (in yet another lane that ended) and, as she passed, she slowed down to mean mug me and flip me off. Of course, she probably saw my mouth running but the point is, she was wrong on two counts.

Each time, she tried to maintain a lane that no longer existed and yet she's the one who flipped me off. This is not a courtesy- this is a rule and if an accident occurred because of it, the fault would have been hers. I just wonder if she understood that she was in the wrong since she was so indignant. And judging by the number of people who do this, it seems like a) nobody pays attention to the sign or, b) nobody knows what the sign means or, c) people really are selfish jerks.

I think it's a combination or all the above but my fear is that the middle answer is the truest. I bet you my yearly salary (hahahah!) that if you did man-on-the-street interviews with people and held up a yellow, diamond-shaped sign with a black crooked line and a black straight line next to it and asked people what it meant, the overwhelming majority would be clueless.

[Random Traffic Guy]

99% of the time I am freakin' amazed at how well we do with a few stripes of paint and some colorful lights. 1% of the time I still despair.

Really though, if cars were invented today, would the average citizen be allowed to drive? Hell no... we've nerfed the society so much that the expectations are so low. I do alot of work with roundabout and there are always comments about people having to learn them, and judge the gap and make the merge. I like to think I expect more of drivers, that such simple things should be second nature (and mostly are). But it's hard sometimes when the ignorant or a$$$&$&# does something bad that can lead to me losing my license or a huge civil suit.

Jerks nothwithstanding, some recent research indicates that merging at the last opportunity is actually better for traffic flow. Look for a book called "Traffic" by Tom Vanderbilt, it's a pretty accessible account of traffic psychology. For me, I'm not convinced. In theory merging at the last second will work the best, but with humans the accumulated "friction" from decisions just a smidge off of perfect will cause shockwaves and eventually congestion. I would prefer that drivers merge very early, where that friction is so diluted that it never builds to a critical point. That has its own set of detractors who say it just moves the congestion farther back, to whom I say "well you're not doing it early enough".