Bad driving habits in places that I have lived
This comment is occasioned by a bad driving habit in the North Shore area of Long Island that I live in. In thinking about this, it seemed to be an opportunity to choose one or two exceptionally clear examples of this in each of the places that I have lived for an extended period of time. So here goes, starting with the example that led to the thought, and then going in chronological order.
---North Shore of Long Island - there is an ingrained habit here to swerve gently out, or sometimes not so gently, when making a turn, especially right hand turns for some unknown reason, taking a sort of semi-circular route into the turn. Young people, old people, and women here seem to be the prime offenders but many men and middle aged people participate as well. This is totally unnecessary unless one is turning into a very tight parking space or a very tight driveway due to piles of snow. It can be dangerous in many ways, lanes of traffic affected or someone seeing the signal and thinking that it's the right time to pass. Despite that, you can see on people's faces that they think that this is the clever way to drive. It certainly is annoying.
---Hometown Danville, VA - there is one double laned highway that runs through part of town and over the river on the major bridge. It has ramps to get on as expected everywhere with this type of road. Merging is required to get on, and for many Danvillians that is some kind of violation of their space. Drive up a ramp and see a normal merge opportunity but in Danville that will not be allowed. Seeing the probable merge, most drivers on the highway will speed up, sometimes dramatically, to block you. Sometimes just as you want to get on they will slow down to do the block. It's another world. Maybe it's a manifestation of the intense Nascar following there, with the Martinsville Speedway and it's Nascar sanctioned races nearby and the VIR(Virginia International Raceway) just outside of town.
---Washington, D.C. - this city has many circles, called roundabouts in other countries, that deal with the normal grid of streets being broken by large diagonal avenues. Locals and those familiar with D.C. driving, and I was once one of them, speed up as they enter the circle in order to get to the correct turn off as expeditiously as possible. The practice is sort of exciting in its own way. To out of towners or occasional drivers, it is a huge challenge to meld in with the experienced D.C. driver, almost impossible at times. I am now an out of towner.
---Louisville, KY area - it's difficult to think of some exceptional example of a bad driving habit in Louisville proper as my last visit there was maybe 1987. Living in the no stoplight country town of Goshen for a few years, the biggest fear was high speed driving on narrow winding country roads, but that was mostly done by those who lived there and familiarity made it almost normal. The other more common and accepted real bad habit in the seventies was drinking and driving and that no doubt is dated and probably not such a ubiquitous issue now. But THEN, as an example, the gracious and wealthy parents of a girl, maybe 21 so that's not an insult, who I was seeing had a "to be explained" game party for maybe about 20 of us in the 21 to 25 year old age range. We went to their estate out in the near Louisville country, near a town called Prospect, and had a reception of sorts with lots of fine snacks and an open bar with everything. Everyone chatted and enjoyed the wait for the game. When the game was explained it was a scavenger hunt divided into five teams, and each team was given a list of addresses to which they needed to drive to pick up proof that they had been there. While some of the locations were nearby, others were in Glenview or other neighborhoods of the well-to-do, not so nearby. The first team to complete the hunt won. It turned out that many of the locations were the homes of the elderly who had been certainly told of this and that were thrilled to have a group of young people stop by. Some had prepared more snacks and drinks and being the winner was less important than being polite. One could always make up the time by driving faster. I don't remember who won, but you the reader of this get the picture. This was not safe game. Of course I was all in, but it was a way life there at the time. I do have many stories from those great days there but...
---Glendale, AZ, a suburb of Phoenix - often in Phoenix to go to clubs and hang out with my girlfriend at the time, the major bad habit was speeding into intersections to run lights. Phoenix has many big roads going through it, just roads and not highways, where the speed limit at that time, 1979-1980, seemed to be unenforced, or maybe unenforceable given a somewhat rough independent Western mentality in many parts of the area. Major intersections were often the scene of terrible crashes, as cars speeding along these roads would hit an intersection and fly through yellow or lights already turning red. Don't know if that is the case now and last was there at a banking conference in 1996 or so, but caution had to my rule there and would be now.
---New York City - never owned a car when living in Manhattan but often rented them since my coverage area of clients was for several years Westchester County, NY and Fairfield County, CT. The unequivocal bad habits of Manhattan drivers were tailgating and forced merging. By forced merging I mean just moving into a lane and making someone else give in. Cab drivers are reliably using this tactic at all times but not necessarily expert. The only accident that I have ever had was when I lived here on the North Shore and was driving our Volvo wagon in Manhattan and a cab driver making a "forced merge" just ran into the side of the car. Police, yelling, insurance claims, it was a mess but not important because no one was hurt.
That's it. Drive carefully.
---North Shore of Long Island - there is an ingrained habit here to swerve gently out, or sometimes not so gently, when making a turn, especially right hand turns for some unknown reason, taking a sort of semi-circular route into the turn. Young people, old people, and women here seem to be the prime offenders but many men and middle aged people participate as well. This is totally unnecessary unless one is turning into a very tight parking space or a very tight driveway due to piles of snow. It can be dangerous in many ways, lanes of traffic affected or someone seeing the signal and thinking that it's the right time to pass. Despite that, you can see on people's faces that they think that this is the clever way to drive. It certainly is annoying.
---Hometown Danville, VA - there is one double laned highway that runs through part of town and over the river on the major bridge. It has ramps to get on as expected everywhere with this type of road. Merging is required to get on, and for many Danvillians that is some kind of violation of their space. Drive up a ramp and see a normal merge opportunity but in Danville that will not be allowed. Seeing the probable merge, most drivers on the highway will speed up, sometimes dramatically, to block you. Sometimes just as you want to get on they will slow down to do the block. It's another world. Maybe it's a manifestation of the intense Nascar following there, with the Martinsville Speedway and it's Nascar sanctioned races nearby and the VIR(Virginia International Raceway) just outside of town.
---Washington, D.C. - this city has many circles, called roundabouts in other countries, that deal with the normal grid of streets being broken by large diagonal avenues. Locals and those familiar with D.C. driving, and I was once one of them, speed up as they enter the circle in order to get to the correct turn off as expeditiously as possible. The practice is sort of exciting in its own way. To out of towners or occasional drivers, it is a huge challenge to meld in with the experienced D.C. driver, almost impossible at times. I am now an out of towner.
---Louisville, KY area - it's difficult to think of some exceptional example of a bad driving habit in Louisville proper as my last visit there was maybe 1987. Living in the no stoplight country town of Goshen for a few years, the biggest fear was high speed driving on narrow winding country roads, but that was mostly done by those who lived there and familiarity made it almost normal. The other more common and accepted real bad habit in the seventies was drinking and driving and that no doubt is dated and probably not such a ubiquitous issue now. But THEN, as an example, the gracious and wealthy parents of a girl, maybe 21 so that's not an insult, who I was seeing had a "to be explained" game party for maybe about 20 of us in the 21 to 25 year old age range. We went to their estate out in the near Louisville country, near a town called Prospect, and had a reception of sorts with lots of fine snacks and an open bar with everything. Everyone chatted and enjoyed the wait for the game. When the game was explained it was a scavenger hunt divided into five teams, and each team was given a list of addresses to which they needed to drive to pick up proof that they had been there. While some of the locations were nearby, others were in Glenview or other neighborhoods of the well-to-do, not so nearby. The first team to complete the hunt won. It turned out that many of the locations were the homes of the elderly who had been certainly told of this and that were thrilled to have a group of young people stop by. Some had prepared more snacks and drinks and being the winner was less important than being polite. One could always make up the time by driving faster. I don't remember who won, but you the reader of this get the picture. This was not safe game. Of course I was all in, but it was a way life there at the time. I do have many stories from those great days there but...
---Glendale, AZ, a suburb of Phoenix - often in Phoenix to go to clubs and hang out with my girlfriend at the time, the major bad habit was speeding into intersections to run lights. Phoenix has many big roads going through it, just roads and not highways, where the speed limit at that time, 1979-1980, seemed to be unenforced, or maybe unenforceable given a somewhat rough independent Western mentality in many parts of the area. Major intersections were often the scene of terrible crashes, as cars speeding along these roads would hit an intersection and fly through yellow or lights already turning red. Don't know if that is the case now and last was there at a banking conference in 1996 or so, but caution had to my rule there and would be now.
---New York City - never owned a car when living in Manhattan but often rented them since my coverage area of clients was for several years Westchester County, NY and Fairfield County, CT. The unequivocal bad habits of Manhattan drivers were tailgating and forced merging. By forced merging I mean just moving into a lane and making someone else give in. Cab drivers are reliably using this tactic at all times but not necessarily expert. The only accident that I have ever had was when I lived here on the North Shore and was driving our Volvo wagon in Manhattan and a cab driver making a "forced merge" just ran into the side of the car. Police, yelling, insurance claims, it was a mess but not important because no one was hurt.
That's it. Drive carefully.
posted by John Borden at 6:30 PM
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