Rankings of Cities By Reported Road Rage Incidents

[Ivan Seeking]

Cities ranked in order from most reported cases of road rage to the fewest:

1. Miami

2. New York

3. Boston

4. Los Angeles

5. Washington, D.C.

6. Phoenix

7. Chicago

8. Sacramento, Calif.

9. Philadelphia

10. San Francisco

11. Houston

12. Atlanta

13. Detroit

14. Minneapolis-St. Paul

15. Baltimore

16. Tampa, Fla.

17. San Diego

18. Cincinnati

19. Cleveland

20. Denver

21. Dallas-Ft. Worth

22. St. Louis

23. Seattle-Tacoma

24. Pittsburgh

25. Portland, Ore.
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/05/15/miami-remains-no-1-city-for-road-rage/

The Pacfic Northwest is known for its laid back atmosphere, and to a large degree that is a well deserved reputation but this showing by Portland surprises me. Portland is one of the most difficult cities to navigate that I've ever seen. When we have had visitors they have often mention this, and I have a buddy who has traveled extensively throughout China, Africa, and the Middle East - he has even canoed for many miles to remote villages in developing nations back when they weren't yet developing - and even he says that Portland is the most confusing city that he has ever seen. I may not be prone to road rage, but driving in Portland is still a nightmare for me if I don't know exactly where I'm going.

 

[BobG]

I guess they don't list Kensington (next to Calgary).

Talk about an example of road rage!

Male motorists tosses food out of car window while driving. Female cyclist tosses food back in car through open window. Motorist dumps coffee on cyclist. Cyclist scratches car with key. Motorist proceeds to throw cyclist against car (which is when cyclist claims car was scratched by key), stomps on bike, and eventually is restrained by several pedestrians as he tries to mangle cyclist.

No charges filed by either party.

 

[devil-fire]

road rage can be a vary scary thing. the trouble is that when people are in their cars, they are in an isolated psychological bubble where the world just wizzes past around them, where their actions have no consequences as long as they obey the rules. when someone else breaks those rules, suddenly the rules don't apply any more.

if someone cuts you off on the road, it is a vary bad idea to go and cut them off. its like walking up to someone who has a gun in their hand and without saying a word, pushing them. they might just let it go, or you might have a fight on your hands.

 

[Astronuc]

. . . , and I have a buddy who has traveled extensively throughout China, Africa, and the Middle East - he has even canoed for many miles to remote villages in developing nations back when they weren't yet developing - and even he says that Portland is the most confusing city that he has ever seen. I may not be prone to road rage, but driving in Portland is still a nightmare for me if I don't know exactly where I'm going.

I guess your buddy hasn't been to New Jersey. :rofl: One has often has to go right to go left.

 

[FredGarvin]

I guess your buddy hasn't been to New Jersey. :rofl: One has often has to go right to go left.

We call those "Michigan lefts" here.

 

[George Jones]

I guess they don't list Kensington (next to Calgary).

Only off by a couple of thousand miles or so.

 

[George Jones]

Here's a http://www.thestar.com/article/212433" from Toronto. This time, the cyclist made two mistakes:

1) stopped for a yellow light;

2) tried to get out of harm's way.

 

[Integral]

I guess your buddy hasn't been to New Jersey. :rofl: One has often has to go right to go left.

Jug handles are a wonderouse thing indeed... as long as you know about them!

 

[Astronuc]

Even without jughandles - which I didn't know about until I got to NY/NJ when I moved from Texas - I found one way streets in Newark that made no sense. And what gets me is one streets that T-intersect with oneway streets in either direction. If you're on the wrong side of the street you're screwed because you end up going back the way you came for quite a distance.

The other thing I found in the NY/NJ area, was the lake of signage.


As for Portland - it's probably outsiders.


Around our area - you look both ways when the light turns green to be sure someone is not speeding through a red light. I've seen too many people do that - like the event last week.

 

[Cyrus]

Only #5, we can do a lot better than that...

 

[Moonbear]

The other thing I found in the NY/NJ area, was the lake of signage.

On my first read, I thought that was a typo, and was going to say, "What do you mean lack of signage?" But then I realized you probably really do mean LAKE of signage, as in so many signs you can't possibly read them all. When I first moved out of NJ, I did a LOT of grumbling about the LACK of signage elsewhere. I was used to having 3 or 4 signs announcing every exit for miles in advance.

Jughandles are great, and I keep wishing they'd introduce them around here. We just have too much traffic for left turn lanes, especially when idiots drive for several hundred yards in the left turn lane when you want to get into it to make a left turn long before they do. :grumpy: But, the students are gone for summer, so I can drive happy again.

 

[Ki Man]

It hope all the drivers who are prone to road rage or drive carelessly get into some type of light crash that doesn't injure anyone but totals their car because that's the only way they will ever learn. coughing up their money to the insurance company.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I guess your buddy hasn't been to New Jersey. :rofl:

Sure, in fact Integral and I were just talking about this. I got lost in New York after about one exit, but this wasn't long after 911 and the roads were still a mess. I don't remember having any trouble navigating Newark though...

The trouble with Portland is that it's a river city and in the hills, so, for example, going East by no means implies that you will continue going East. Roads seemingly end or change names with no rhyme or reason, and off-ramps are not necessarily associated with a respective on-ramp. And in the beginning, for me the worst thing was that I could never see the signs for cross streets until after entering the intersection. Then getting back to where I just was is another thing. I have often suspected that parts of Portland exist on their own separate branes. That would explain things: Indeed, you can't get there from here!

 

[Moonbear]

The trouble with Portland is that it's a river city and in the hills, so, for example, going East by no means implies that you will continue going East. Roads seemingly end or change names with no rhyme or reason, and off-ramps are not necessarily associated with a respective on-ramp. And in the beginning, for me the worst thing was that I could never see the signs for cross streets until after entering the intersection. Then getting back to where I just was is another thing. I have often suspected that parts of Portland exist on their own separate branes. That would explain things: Indeed, you can't get there from here!

:rofl: Sounds like where I live now. If I can get Zenmaster back on here, he'll attest to this. He was a bit nervous when I was driving him around and would take a turn and he didn't see a road where I was turning. You have to have "faith" around here that when someone tells you to turn left onto a road, there really is a road there, and it's the one they told you to take. And, yep, he saw the whole 3 blocks of straight roads downtown too...everything else winds. One night was cloudy too, so he joked he couldn't even astronavigate to find his way home if I abandoned him somewhere. :rofl:

 

[Astronuc]

I've driven in Portland - but first I checked the road map.

New York City is a river city as well. It would seem like so many big municipalities - planning comes after the development - as in, we should have done . . .


Anyway, this morning I was parking my car, and had to pull to the left of the spot because the SUV on my right was parked with the left front wheel across the yellow line. I turned of the engine and was stepping out of my car, when the lady in the SUV asked if I would move my car further to the left so she could have more room to get out her SUV. When I mentioned that she was parked across the line and that she should move her car - she gave me a dirty look and a "HMPF!" as in why should she have to move her car in order to comply with the rules, which apply to everyone! :grumpy:

Rather than make a scene, I inched my car further to the left. I really wanted to roll her SUV over. I was also thinking of taking a picture of her car, or should I go find a police officer and have him/her write a parking ticket?

 

[Evo]

I was also thinking of taking a picture of her car, or should I go find a police officer and have him write a parking ticket?

Scratch the heck out of her car.

 

[turbo]

I'm surprised that Boston didn't top the list. Of all the cities I have visited, their drivers are the rudest and the quickest to anger. The city is a tangle of streets with very poor organization. The main arteries come in like spokes on a wheel and the connecting streets are a confusing maze. Often, the streets are one-way, and unless you know the city well, it might take you several attempts to get to a certain location, especially if you are hemmed in by traffic and will not attempt cut-off maneuvers to force your way into the lane you need to use. I'll take Manhattan over downtown Boston any day.

 

[Huckleberry]

I'll agree with turbo-1. I lived several years only a few miles from Boston and never drove there. I've driven a little through NYC and Portland and haven't had many problems. The traffic in NYC was pretty bad, but I could manage to get where I needed to go. In Boston I just took the train or subway to wherever I needed to go. It's much easier that way. If you aren't an aggressive driver in some of these cities you will wait forever and nobody will let you in. And they will be angry when you push your way into traffic, but they are always angry anyway. San Franciscans seemd mostly angry about parking.

I don't think any of these places compare to Mexico D.F.

 

[leright]

We call those "Michigan lefts" here.

true.dat. The only other state I have seen such a thing in was Florida.