Bad drivers in Atlanta long predate Tesla’s existence
I’m guessing you haven’t driven I-4 in Florida. Rated multiple times as the most dangerous stretch of highway in the US. People just change lanes without indicating or even looking. It’s crazy.
https://www.bcmillerlaw.com/posts/interstate-4-in-florida-tops-list-of-deadliest-u-s-highways/
The most frustrating drivers I’ve ever encountered, however, were in the Northern Virginia/DC area. So much entitlement. People stopping their cars in all sorts of places where you’re not supposed to, putting their hazards on as though that makes parking anywhere legal. Driving aggressively. Just generally entitled, crappy drivers (maybe because the population is so heavily made up of immigrants from countries with different rules–just a guess).
I’ve been through most of the US at this point and lived in a handful of states. Those two are the worst. LA sucks, too, but that’s mostly because of traffic.
I lived in LA (admittedly 20 years ago) and the traffic was bad, but the one thing that made up for it was that people who drove like assholes also knew what they were doing. They don’t leave a cushion so if you want to get over, you have to force it, and you have to know exactly how much you can get away with. Don’t get me wrong, there were certainly accidents, but fewer than I would have expected given the population. No data though; this is just my memory. It’s probably different now.
I-4 was much easier to drive for me than I-95 in Miami. I have never seen worse drivers.
Yup I4 is bad but Miami is brutal. In Miami a turn signal is a .25 second warning to get out of the way. (Lifelong central Florida resident)
People just change lanes without indicating or even looking.
Sounds like Atlanta. As does everything else you list. Couldn’t say if it happens at a higher rate elsewhere though.
Tell me you’ve never been to Texas without telling me you’ve never been to Texas. 😉
I have, in fact, been to Texas. Driven through it twice and went to Ft. Worth by plane once. The drivers were not by any means great, but the ones in Atlanta were so much worse.
Maybe those are not the part you’re thinking of?
Florida man here. Driven I-4 many times, can be scary, but not horrible. Miami, yes can be horrifying.
Dallas and Houston, I hate driving in the most. I don’t like Atlanta traffic, but I’d agree with you it’s awful. I was just being coy with my comment. Atlanta is probably top 10 worst drivers in the country. That list probably correlates well with biggest cities too.
Maybe it’s because I drive less since Covid, but I’d seems like everyone has gotten 10x more aggressive. Just in general. Kindness seems to almost be obsolete and decency is a rarity.
For what it’s worth, my mantra when driving is lead, follow, or get out of the way. I try to match speed to about the 80th percentile of traffic so I don’t jam things up, but also not the one that sticks out to get the speeding ticket.
Not OP, but it’s a big state. I went to Texas for the first time recently and I was very uncomfortable on their highways. People speed and tailgate quite a lot. Definitely bad drivers.
Hello from NYC
I don’t get how there’s SO MANY TESLAS. Virtually no one has a garage.
the thing with NYC is thay everyone is moving so slow it stops being driving and starts being walking in a crowded hallway. it looks like a clusterfuck, mostly because it is a clusterfuck, but if you take it easy and be patient it’s very managable. once you cross the throgg’s neck, that’s when you’re in for a really bad time. although that too can be predictable: just assume everyone on the road is going to do the single most malicious thing possible and you’re right nine out of ten times
Well no one in Atlanta is from Atlanta. We blame the rest of you for sending us your bad drivers.
Same with L.A. Which had the second-worst drivers. And I had to live there for 10 years.
So you’re admitting to being a bad driver then.
I’m admitting to not being perfect, but trying to be as good and courteous as I can.
Are you a perfect driver? Do you try to be as good and courteous as you can?
Breathe, breathe, relax. No need to get defensive. I was making a joke based on the fact that you said Atlanta is full of bad drivers because nobody is from Atlanta. Then followed that up by saying that you’ve only spent time in Atlanta. That’s the joke.
Ok so I have a theory. I’m a rare atlien. Born and raised here. Since the recent election especially, but really, going back to the first Trump term and even before… Atlanta has a huge black population and we are proud of it. They are not feeling alright, and I don’t blame them.
If you look at the demographics on the last election, black women especially, but also black men, voted for Harris. I’m as white as the day is long and, even though I voted Harris, none of them know it. I guess I’m saying I feel the shade, both driving and walking through the grocery store sometimes. I’m probably projecting but I’m picking up feelings of betrayal. Sorry to weigh down your shower thought but as a friend and ally to black Atlanta, this place is grieving the choice the country made.
Again, maybe it is just me grieving and projecting it on everything but I don’t think so. It all makes me feel sick.
TL;DR; You came at a bad time.
Everyone seems to think they have, or have just encountered, the worst breed of drivers, but that they themselves are pretty good at it. Change my mind.
Everyone? I’m 41, and never have had a drivers liscense because I know if I do, EVERYBODY gonna die.
I’m “good at it” to the point that I’ve never been in a crash that I caused. I can’t really go much further than that. I’ve made my share of stupid mistakes.
But I also try to be a courteous driver as much as I can. I don’t do shit like cut in front of other people on an interstate where everyone is doing at least 70 without bothering to use your turn signals. Which happened to me twice in the four days I was there.
Fascist mobiles
They sure mostly looked like they were post-“everyone gets that Elon is a crazy motherfucker” era Teslas.
I work at an airport at a job that as you’re exiting the plane, I’M the first person you see as you’re exiting the plane.
I’ve often made jokes, with no context given, that everyone would be better off if Atlanta were just put on a no-fly list. Even without context given I get upvotes for saying that.
Kinda like when I call George Clooney a smug bastard. People don’t question it. They just know it’s true and upvote without backstory needed.
I came to the opposite conclusion after living in Atlanta for a few years.
My experience was that Atlanta drivers are very accustomed to high traffic, so will do things like drive closely packed af 85mph on the freeway, assertively take advantage of gaps or entry opportunities, and not wait around for you to turn and will swerve around you.
But they have the experience to do it fairly adeptly, and once you get used to it, there is very little friction outside of congestion. People use signals, anticipate movements and coordinate to ensure flow, and seem to generally get the “game theory” aspect of making traffic work better.
They also aren’t assholes like in the northeast - if you put your blinker on they’ll let you into the fast lane, instead of speeding up to block you. There’s very little honking or aggressive behavior. I’ve rarely witnessed road rage.
Of course some people suck, but it’s a minority.
That’s called tailgating, and nobody can actually do it adeptly. It is far more dangerous than speeding is. You can’t account for a car in front of you suddenly needing to break if you are tailgating. It doesn’t matter how good of a driver you are. Physics is against you.
if you put your blinker on they’ll let you into the fast lane, instead of speeding up to block you.
It’s about 75/25 in my experience.
Assuming the person behind you in the next lane is not going to speed up when you don’t use your turn signals because you’re “very accustomed to high traffic” explains all the accidents I saw.
I like you. You knew Bill Nye from way back.
“Of the states where Ram dominated, drivers were worst in Massachusetts at 64.44 incidents per 1,000 drivers. Tesla (31.13) and Subaru (30.09) were the only other brands whose drivers had incident rates above 30.00.”
Damn, Ram drivers are more than twice as worse as the second worst drivers. WTH?
Look up the rate of DUIs for Ram drivers
That does not surprise me at all.
I like confirmation.
This is remarkable! BMW drivers are definitely the sponsors od this article.
I am pretty sure that a lot of Tesla drivers just traded in their BMW.
Probably also a lot of sleeping drivers
Eh, major metro areas are always terrible.
Partly because they grew too quick and infrastructure/logistics have a hard time being as dynamic as the populations they serve, and partly because they have diverse driving cultures.
Everywhere has slightly different interpretations of “good driving” and that’s all well and good until they all meet in Atlanta and have to contend with all the other interpretations.
That said, I am a bad driver anywhere I go.
Yep. There’s a maneuver I call “the Atlanta special” which is where you signal in one direction, and slow down a little, and then you floor the accelerator and speed off in the opposite direction to the one you’re indicating.
Bonus points if it’s to get a single car length ahead in slow traffic approaching an already red light.
I see it at least once a week.
Couple of weeks ago I saw it three different times in a single rush hour commute.
Tesla advertises their cars a lot based on the self driving part, so I can imagine a sizeable number of Tesla owners know they suck at driving, and is why they bought into the idea of a car that drives itself.
