I read an article in today’s paper. Allstate published driving data for the 200 largest cities in the US. Baltimore was 3rd worst, followed by DC. The worst? You know it, Boston. No woder insurance is expensive here.
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If anyone has experienced Boston traffic compared to other places, this is no surprise. I have as a driver and in mid town in a taxi. It is intense!
Never been to Baltimore and DC only in a taxi many years ago.
I’d be curious how Detroit stacks up. Seriously aggressive, fast and heavy…But fairly skilled drivers.
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I’m more familiar with Baltimore now than DC, where I grew up. I-95 goes through the city on the east side. Before and after the two tunnels there is ample opportunity to speed. I-83 goes from the beltway (actually Pennsylvania) to downtown on the west side. Lots of speeding there and many accidents. There is also a lot of aggressive driving on the beltway. I haven’t seen a lot of speeding on city streets, but in the past local TV news has reported speeding on wide streets with traffic lights. There used to be lots of pedestrian injuries.
In DC, I-95 skirts the south end of the city and connects to DC295, which goes through town on the east side. It cuts about 5 miles off the trip on the east side of the beltway. There can be speeding on DC295, except during daylight hours when it’s a parking lot. Frustration might add to the hazards. Lots of aggressive driving on the beltway too.
I’m glad I’m out of the commuting rat race. That was the only thing I disliked about working at NASA and especially NRL.
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And proud of it! 
You get used to anything. The real issues come when someone completely unfamiliar with the local driving is thrust into the fray…
Here’s the kind of guy you’re up against in Boston traffic (if you’ve never seen this movie, watch the whole thing):
Detroit wasn’t in the top 10. But if you look at the best 10 cities, they are all “cities” that most folks don’t think of as cities. That says to me, it’s about population density. Boston is the 3rd most densely populated city, behind New York and San Fransico
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I use to work just north of Boston and live in Southern NH. Drivers in this area are a special kind of idiot. They don’t care for your safety or even their own. When I moved to the largest city in Southern NH from Syracuse NY my insurance TRIPLED. Same company same coverage. I avoid driving in Boston as much as possible. At least their T system is good and the city is small enough that it’s very walkable.
But, did Charlie ever get off the MTA?
On one of our trips to Boston, we had a motel in the southern part. The restaurant we wanted was about half a mile up the road so I said let’s just walk. Like taking your life in your hands crossing a couple streets.
Another time we just walked to the stadium from our hotel. No problem following the crowd but on the way back we just called an uber. Safer that way.
Another time our hotel was right next to that famous coconut grove fire. Poo poo spirits all you want but there was still something there.
Leaning the place made the mistake of driving out the Friday befor Columbus Day. Bumper to bumper for at least a hundred miles. Who knew everyone tried to leave town on a three day weekend.
So yeah nice place to just visit but wouldn’t want to stay there.
I had to explain to younger Bostonians who ride the T why the T card is called a Charlie Card.
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I wonder how much is bad driving vs just heavy traffic or tricky roads.
When you see someone repeatedly zig-zagging from lane to lane, cutting people off each time, it is not the result of heavy traffic or tricky roads.
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The interstates aren’t tricky roads. It’s BAD inconsiderate driving.
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You reminded me of when I first moved to the North Shore area of Boston. I was renting at the Residence Inn and thought I’d go visit my relatives in CT for the weekend. I left early to beat the traffic. Who knew it would be like this? Anyone who lives there. But I was naive. Back in the midwest, once you hit the expressway, you’re pretty much home free. So I thought things would ease up once I hit the “Pike”. How wrong can one be? It was worse than the regular streets!
Anybody driven through Nashville lately?, With 3 major interstates going through and around it can be very tricky especially trying to get from onramp/offramps to the other side of 5+ lanes in a short distances, and when they keep CHANGING it, it can really be tricky if you hadn’t been down that way in a while…
Last September my daughter and I went to a wedding, it was on a stretch of interstate that I had driven many years ago but was all different this go around, I had here watching GPS (MapQuest) and telling me what lane to get in next about about how soon, if I had been by myself it would have been even more crazy, and traffic was terrible and it was on a Saturday, I can only imagine rush hour traffic during the week…
So I have to disagree, some interstates can be very tricky at times…
But i also agree that it is mostly drivers in most cases,
Going to the Jersey Shore during the summer months, via the Garden State Parkway, is an exercise in extreme frustration. What might normally be a 1 hour drive turns into a 3 hour (or more) nightmare.
When I travelled to LA far too often I figured out that using the freeways was a bad idea. I worked and stayed in the beach communities around LAX. If I wanted to go to Santa Monica I always used surface streets and arrived at least 15 minutes before my friends using the freeway.
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As a bicyclist I learned to use surface streets, found it valuable when I drove.
Minnesota now allows lane splitting for cycles. They didn’t say if that includes bicycles or not. A friend just died riding his fat tired bike so there comes a time to convert to machine powered.
Lane splitting is intended to allow air cooled motorcycles to move through traffic jams so that the engine won’t overheat. A bicyclist can ride on the shoulder without getting a ticket, but a motorcyclist can’t.
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I can’t imagine a bicyclist splitting a lane.
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