(some humor for this weekend)
From the Daily Record:
Rules of the road: Few driving geniuses in N.J.
Reading about the study ranking New Jersey 48th in the nation for driving knowledge, my first reaction was amusement.
Yet another thing people will use to poke fun at the state, I thought.
Then I saw that New York, where I grew up and learned how to drive, came in 47th.
It can’t be so! Or, just maybe, the truth hurts.
Here we are, New York and New Jersey, battling over the Jets, Giants and Statue of Liberty, archrivals throughout the decades –and it turns out we just might be soulmates when it comes to obnoxious, ill-informed driving.
Which is not to say the results of the second annual GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test, released Friday, should be taken too literally. The state with the most knowledgeable drivers, according to GMAC, is Oregon.
No offense, but we are we really supposed to believe that drivers in Oregon are that much better than us?
Let them try to navigate a Jersey jughandle, Route 80 in rush hour, or a back road in Mendham Township at night, and see how well they do.
…
An uniformed driver is a bad thing anywhere, but the risk rises in more populated areas. As the nation’s most densely populated state, New Jersey can ill-afford motorists unsure when to use their headlights or how to handle a sharp curve (such as at the nasty exit ramp from Route 287 North onto Route 80 West in Parsippany, scene of numerous rollovers).
Grim,
You said it best, “scene of numerous rollovers”…
oh, I learned to drive in NY/NJ so I can poke fun at myself.
Funny article. I truly learned how to drive when my girfriend (now wife) taught me how to drive offensively in Northern NJ. If you don’t, you have no business on the road. The people up here drive like maniacs. The only way to get anywhere is to push your way through, otherwise you’re gonna wait for 5 minutes at stop sign. I first learned how to drive in South Jersey. Much different experience.
-frustrated with Hudson County Corruption, bloatedness and greediness
Rob Jennings said it, not me.
:)
Saw 2 car accidents last night as drivers had their heads out their windows looking at the fireworks! More action for the kids to see, add a few dozen police lights and sirens to the mix.
What the hell does this mean. I find most Jersey drivers to be middle of the road.(no pun intended) We have the most unusual road types to traverse and we have outsiders who do not know how to drive them.
Speaking as a jersey driver who has driven elsewhere in our wonderful country, NJ is about average (but again our road are difficult) I have found MA and GA to be the worst in terms of signals, and they are always in a hurry. Close behind are PA plates in NJ, to get home 2 hours away.
Hey, those PA plates in NJ are NJ drivers that moved to PA.
The real PA-ers like me are shocked at the dangerous moves made here.
It wasn’t PA plates I saw overturned tonight with stretchers on 195 coming back from the beach.
If I had a dollar for every occasion where I saw a driver in the left lane of the turnpike, the parkway, or I-80 suddenly cross all lanes of traffic in one fell swoop to exit, I’d be a millionaire!
I’ve also never seen so many drivers run red lights and so many sit still at green lights (I guess running the reds helps to compensate for sitting at the greens?????).
I grew up and learned to drive in Michigan and I think NJ drivers are attrocious. It doesn’t surprise me that we have the highest auto insurance rates in the country.
Metro, you make a good point though. Many of the roads around here, especially in Hudson county, are very old and I don’t think were designed to carry the volume of traffic that they actually do. To make matters worse, signage is often non-existent or poorly placed, thus inviting sudden moves that can cause accidents.
Definately true in NJ!
I wish people knew that the left lane is for passing, not for cruising. If you are not passing anyone and you are in the left lane, get out of the way!!
ugh!
MA drivers are still the worst, regardless of what any poll says.
As a PA driver, I wish NJ drivers new what safe driving distance means.
One of the first things I learned was that you need to leave a distance between you and the car ahead of you of 3 seconds based on passing a stationary object. When the car ahead passes a pole, count “one-one thousand, two one thousand, three-one thousand,” then your car passes. Safe at most speeds.
When I try to do this in NJ, drivers honk and shake their fists at me, and then pass me and cut in front into the space.
As an NJ driver who was rear ended by a PA driver (which totalled my car 5 days after paying it off), I strongly wish PA drivers knew what a safe driving distance means…
Whether those folks driving cars with PA tags are PA bred, NJ/NY transplants to PA, or non-PA residents committing insurance fraud…I am certain (and was certain even before the accident) that putting a PA license plate on a car sucks all of the common sense from its driver. By far THE WORST.
-Cultural Infidel
I moved here from Oregon State this year. New York/New Jersey has the worst drivers i’ve ever seen. I have to honk almost everytime i’m out driving. But, NY/NJ is all squished together, you have small lanes, and foreigners that do not have any idea what they’re doing.