dougmc

In Texas, drivers will pull onto the shoulder (and drive there at 50+ mph) to let faster traffic pass.

It's considered polite, but it's still a bit weird as I've never really experienced it anywhere else.

(It's also a bit concerning if you're a cyclist who rides on shoulders ...)

Daves_Not_Here

Thanks, I try to be. I subscribe to the Republican Reptilian School of Driving, as chronicalled in "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and not Spill Your Drink" --> https://www.heretical.com/miscella/reptile.html

genec

With the closing thought...

nelson249

Classic. Sounds like South Ontarians dealing with any snowfall.

Spld cyclist

Yes, that's another example of questionable MA driving behavior.

Chitown_Mike

Chicago (been here my whole life):

• Drive with their brights on at night........on extremely well lit city streets

• Once you get west of I355 or any 2 lane highway, you ride 2 abreast at 5-10 UNDER the limit

• Within the city limits we all know there are few State Troopers to catch speeders, so it becomes a competition to be recruited by NASCAR scouts

• You must hate taxis and make their life miserable for they will do the same to you

• If you get a rain drop on your windshield, you are to immediately to forget how to drive

• Turn signals and stop signs outlined in white are optional

• Speed limit on Lake Shore Drive is 88 miles an hour, unless there is a cop visible, then it's 10 under the posted limit of 45.....suddenly
• Working headlights and taillights are optional, especially if your vehicle burns several different fluids at once because you can be smelled before seen

• If you learn how to roll up fast on a speed bump and pop your brakes, you can coast over them with not really having lost any momentum....older cars with crappy suspension may experience a wheelie

• The parking lane at lights is actually an optional lane for passing......includes the boost strip as seen in Mario Cart in a form of prematurely running the light

• The father you creep into an intersection on red, the faster the light will change

• Winter time means snow, and somehow drivers forget the correlation between the two

• A second note on snow in Chicago: It takes 6 months to remember how to drive in snow, but at that time it is coming up on summer which means driving in rain, takes the next 6 months to remember how to drive in warm weather and rain......see the vicious cycle here?

DC (In-laws live there):

• Drive like you don't know where you are going, but you actually do and make that apparent at the last minute with lanes changes, turns, and merges

• If you have a government department plate, Consul plate, or anything that means you have some affiliation with the US government or a government entitles you to use of shoulders, parking lanes, and sidewalks as areas to pass traffic

• If said plates are on your vehicle, traffic laws need not apply

Wisconsin and Indiana:

• Drive at a normal pace unless faster traffic is about to pass you, speed like hades to not let them pass, return to normal speed when they relinquish

• Slow down for all the gory deer road kill sites

• 18 wheelers aren't actually moving, it is a figment of your imagination, feel free to cut them off (applies in southern Illinois as well)

• It is OK to try to swerve to miss the millions of bugs that are flying around the roadway

And these are over-generalizations......have a funny bone peoples!

JonnyHK 

Hong Kong drivers:

- merging. It's like a zipper people. Really.

- roundabouts. Where do I start, just about everything is messed up.

- as one car looks like changing lanes (or actually indicates) the car behind in the next lane accelerates to block the space. Thanks pal.

- you are in the correct lane for the turn you have to take in 200m, but the cab driver insists on forcing his way into the next lane (which is moving), overtaking the bus in front of you, then forces his way back into the lane you started in - disrupting traffic flow in the process. Seriously dude, I'm not in that much of a hurry.

- overtaking on blind corners on steep winding roads, only to find a safe straight around the corner - or even a place like a bus stop that I'll happily sweep into so you can overtake.

- cars turning off the road and across the sidewalk to enter buildings and presuming that the pedestrians with their backs to you will see you and stop for you. Then as you push your white Ferrari into the pedestrians leg, looking surprised and upset when they slap your car (my wife wishes she'd hit it harder).


Hong Kong pedestrians:

- wandering across a seemingly empty street without even a glance. Bikes at 45km/h are quiet (you've got your headphones in anyway), but a glance is enough to save your iPhone from being dropped as I flash past your back and scream "WATCHOUT" in your ear. I actually felt guilty for a moment when I heard the clatter of phone on concrete...

- coming to a halt at the top of escalators. I just pick them up and move them forward.

- walk in a straight line. No really, it will help my 220lb not lay you on your backside.

- take your head out of your effing smartphone.

- don't try to get on to the subway until I get off. Yes, I can make myself wider when needed.

Myosmith

I actually got this advice when I first moved to Minneapolis:

Don't signal a lane change or people will speed up to close the gap you were aiming for. Just drive like a total moron and veer into the lane you want. People are used to it and expect it so they will get out of your way.

The sad part is it's true. If you signal a lane change you will never get to move over as people will accelerate to keep you from getting "ahead" of them.

corvuscorvax

Been there, done that. Experienced the joy of doing 110 mph down Route 50 in Nevada with a tallboy between my knees, and making it from Whitefish, MT to Rapid City, SD in 10 1/2 hours.

I love P.J. O'Rourke, really I do. But that schtick gets old fast as soon as you look at the fatality rates. I don't do it any more.

illdoittomorrow

Perfectly describes Calgary in the '80's. Also, back in the day, it was illegal to get your car's fan belt tightened, otherwise no one would hear you coming, amirite?

Here, the further you creep into a crosswalk, the more likely the senior citizen with a walker will re-discover their athletic abilities and run to get out of your way.

Classic, and describes Calgary drivers since probably the introduction of wheeled vehicles to the area.

Also, racing at 200+ km/hr on the highway is cool, owners of diesel pickups are required to run a mixture of bunker oil and coal tar as fuel (and to exhaust it through vertical pipes as big around as your thigh), and when passing, always come as close as possible to hitting the car being passed.

Daves_Not_Here

One of my fonder memories is blowing the doors off a Beech King-Air on final to land at Bishop airport as I blasted north on CA-395.

In seriousness, I agree with you. I think as younger men bathed in testosterone, many of us engaged in activities that upon more mature reflection turned out to be less than prudent to say the least. I'm grateful that I left minimal collateral damage, but it was due to luck more than any skill or judgement I exhibited at the time.

Bikes and Jeeps

Ottawa

-When stopped at a red light and making a left turn, do NOT move forward one inch when the light turns green.
Sit there untill there are NO oncoming cars.

-It's ok to be terrified to merge into traffic from an onramp.


Montreal

-By far, at least on the highway, the best drivers i have experienced.

-They drive fast, but it's ok because they all do it. There are few slow drivers to get in their way.

-They don't signal but they leave lots of room so it's not really necessary.

- They back off when you want to change lanes.

iheartbacon

Deary ID: Bicyclists are targets. They're Un-American, Socialists, tree hugging, ******s that want to destroy the logging industry. Inflict maximum terror on any cyclist you see. Bonus points if you can make them fly off the road into a ditch.

Bovill ID: Same as Deary with the addition that you will be crowned "Redneck King" if you can make a cyclist "squeal like a pig boy".

flipped4bikes

Maine: Drivers from Massachusetts driving like their from Massachusetts.

Blinkie

VERY true! I saw a blue Lotus in rush hour traffic the other day, and this morning I watch a Bentley hit 75 North from Buckhead (I merged on the same ramp) being driving horribly, nearly hitting other cars, and finally exiting around Smyrna.

The people whose cars can't go so fast, or can't afford any damage without being totaled seem to have a lot more respect for everyone else on the road.

But you forgot some things:
Don't drive down a narrow lane without your tires completely outside the lane.
If there are cars parked on the side of the road, brake hard and take two lanes to be sure you don't hit anything.
Road construction on West Paces? Is THAT why I just ran over fifty orange cones?!
Taking both lanes for a half mile.
Taking twenty seconds to ooze over to the next lane.
Bike lane in a curve? hug the right side and gun it!
Merge to the right lane, then whip through the left to the far turn lane twenty feet from the intersection.
Using a turn signal assumes traffic will magically part and allow you to move over, so why not just start merging despite the car directly beside you?
Turn-only lane is full? Speed past it, signal at the last second, nearly side-swipe someone, merge behind them, and harass them on 20 for the next five miles.
Turning onto a 45mph road? Take ten seconds to do so, and take both lanes!

Outside of Atlanta (additional items):
After dark is the best time to repeatedly test your high beams.
Speeding is also an excuse to use your high beams, so everyone else sees you coming.
Tailgating is a common greeting. Can you see my headlights in your mirror? Oh; I must not be close enough.

Something else I don't miss about Alabama.

Daves_Not_Here

I love these circular statements. Kind of like saying the problem with Texas is that it is positively infested with Texans.

Daves_Not_Here

Sounds like California drivers. How are they in the rain?

Bikes and Jeeps

In rain or snow, they don't slow down as much as they should, but i still feel reasonably safe.

mtbikerinpa

OP's analysis of Philladelphia was accurate enough. Lack of turn signals are being increasingly ticketed in an effort to help the issue, though in NYC I recall a there-native saying turn signals are even worse. On a highway you do not tip the other driver off as to what your next move is. Worse yet- signal opposite.

Lancaster-north and Lancaster-south seem to be drastically different. South we get a lot of Amish and other SMV type vehicles and the drivers insist on passing ANYWHERE, regardless of oncoming cement trucks or not. North they seem more suburban/athlete types and much more respectful of other people.

Raliegh, NC. Every time I go down to visit my sister the traffic scares me more. Oddly not so much when I cycle as when I drive since the idiocy/distraction is on the super highways. 4-5 lanes each way and the Expeditions on phones can quantum leap to any lane at any time.

Daves_Not_Here

I've also noticed that odd driver reaction to turn signals in Oregon, which surprised me given their hidebound, law-abiding natures. Then I realized -- there's probably no law against directional signal psychosis.

I have to confess that when I drive around Philly or Portland, I randomly activate my turn signals just to watch people zoom up to close the gap. What's funny is to get the same person 2 or 3 times and they realize you're screwing with them.

flipped4bikes

Amended- Maine: Drivers from Massachusetts driving like they're still in Massachusetts.

Monster Pete

I've noticed a lot of places have this weird custom of driving on the wrong side of the road. They even buy their cars with the steering wheel on the wrong side as well. Whenever I've driven there, I just go along with their madness rather than try to correct them.

B. Carfree

Come to Oregon. The motorists here are only half-mad in that they happily use either side of the road as well as that narrow lane between the two yellow lines.

Looigi

In MA, using the brakes rather than the accelerator to merge onto major highways, to the point of coming to complete stop and getting rear ended.

Never mind about turning into a parking lot and immediately coming to a stop. MA drivers come to a complete stop in the road and then contemplate turning into the lot.

Daves_Not_Here

Speaking of madness, try verbally communicating with a Brit. I don't what language they're talking, but it sure ain't English.

It's not only their speaking, there's a comprehension problem. For example, if you say, "Gimme a plate of the most delicious food you got", the only thing they get right is the part about the plate.