What is the Most Screwed Up Thing About Your State? Check This Chart

[MADem]

10. Boston drivers are like little old ladies from Pasadena compared to

Rome drivers! And India--fuggedaboutit! Iran, Egypt, Iraq--these are "Hang on and pray" places if you take a taxi. And Hong Kong!!! When the car can move owing to the traffic jams, that'll take a few years off your life....

I was out in the LA area a month or two ago, and they can have their moments, too, I noticed!

I went to the "cite" they used to get to the justification for worst drivers, and it was based on accident statistics. The thing they don't consider, though, is that Massachusetts--Boston and many other cities in the rest of the state--are "College Central"--every year we have a massive influx of out of staters coming in to go to school, and they--and their parents who are terrified of city driving--crunch a lotta fenders; plus, we all cross borders a lot up this way, I can go up to NH, down to RI or CT, and I even go to ME on occasion--it's just not that big a deal. I'd want to see more justification to buy their argument.

I also think people hear about "Ooooh, driving in Boston" and they have that self-fulfilling prophesy thing happening. Ever since they depressed the central artery and completed the Tip O'Neill and Ted Williams tunnels, driving through the city is downright....orderly!!

You do have to keep your wits about you in the northeast, because driving in Boston--and NJ and even Philly, last time I was there--is a lot like driving in Europe. I don't find it dangerous at all--the "rules of the road" are kind of intuitive if you came up driving around this area.