Then let me re-word it. Your experience was prior to moving to LA so you were not able to accurately compare. Kind of like people that move here from NY or MI, decide they hate it and move back home only to realize that they actually like LA a lot more.

I've driven in Paris and i'm still alive.

I'm in LA.

The main thing is the "Thanks Wave" or the "I Fucked up and I'm sorry wave"

thx for rephrasing, but that's not an accurate summary of my view/feelings/thoughts on the matter.

fact is, i love los angeles. i love the roads, highways, views, places- everything.

i think the level of thoughtfulness with drivers here is no greater or worse than anywhere else i've driven/ridden. is it the same as it was 30 years ago, of course not. there are a lot more people on the roads these days, makes a big difference.

That just might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard anyone say.

Ever.

The Worst Drivers in the U.S. Live in...

1. New Jersey
2. Washington, DC
3. New York
4. Massachusetts
5. Georgia
6. Mississippi
7. Hawaii
8. Lousiana
9. West Virginia
10. Maryland

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com...-U-S-Live-in-/

http://tinyurl.com/2346ddd

What part?

Knowing the rules and following them are not exactly the same thing.

I grew up in the LA area, I drove a 1970 dodge pickup 4x4 with a 440 magnum, home made bumpers, during the 80's . I loved driving it because is scared people.
Remember all the freeway shootings? For a while everyone was a nice driver, LOL

50 thoughtful drivers :)

rethinking the title, the word i was looking for was courteous, not thoughtful.

are you a courteous driver

If you're talking watching your mirrors and paying attention to the traffic movement around you, etc, then I think "attentive" would be the word.

To me courteous implies things like are you the type of driver who lets someone in who's trying to make a turn or get into your lane. Do you give a courtesy wave when someone lets you cut in, etc.

I'm both attentive and courteous. :D


Re: worst drivers --- I don't know what country or city has the worst drivers (I'll gladly stack Winnipeg up against anywhere else though), but the absolute worst cut-throat whiteknuckle driving I've ever done was on that long N-S tollway going through Chicago at rushhour. Every ten miles or so your three or four lanes open up into roughly twenty lanes, you go through the toll booth and throw your change into that little catch basket, then it's Indy 500 time as everyone in those 20 lanes races to where the highway narrows back into 3 or 4 again. It's utter insanity for like a hundred miles or more.

I've driven it twice and lived to tell about it. :D

if you're not, get the fuck off the road and let the rest of us drive in peace.



fuckers.

I like to think so,always gotta watch or think ahead for the other driver what he/she might do

this is what i had in mind

That's a pretty popular assumption nationwide.

Thing is, it's not that NJ drivers are bad, they just don't suffer fools gladly.

Pay attention, use your turn signals and, most importantly, don't hog the left lane and you'll do just fine cruising through the garden state :)

You did not read the article, I guess.

best advice - always watch others

I've never met anyone who said they were anything other than a "Good" driver.

I got pulled over by a cop who told me he "feared for his life" when I came around the turn towards him. I told him he had nothing to worry about because "I am an excellent driver."

He let me go without a citation. Daniel was with me, was 10 maybe. He would say, "I am fearing for my life" every time we drove down that street together.

Q for everyone -- do you use your blinker to signal when you're making a lane change in traffic?

Or do you do what most idiots do, and just move on over into any lane you please with no signal, no nothing, just you going wherever you want on the road with no thought to other drivers?

On the driver's test they dock you a couple of points every time you fail to signal a lane change yet for so many people, once they get their precious license and have earned the PRIVILEGE to drive they immediately drop all those little annoying good driving habits and just do what they please. Cops rarely if ever write someone a ticket for failure to signal so what's the point, right?

I'd say upwards of 4 out of 5 drivers right now DON'T signal when lane changing. The question is are you one of the four or are you the one?


/rant.

Btw, relating what I just said above to motorcyclists (Daddog's ilk) I'd have to say the numbers are nearly polar opposite. 3 to 4 out of 5 bikers DO signal in some form, at least in my experience, either with their blinker or, if they're moving left they often use the extended arm point a second before making thier move. I know that in the 5 years I rode back in the 80's I always signaled religiously. On a bike you really tend to become more aware of the traffic around you. You have to, or chances are good you're going to eventually get shmooshed.

In all likelyhood they (bikers) drive so responsibly because they know full well that upwards of 80% of the larger vehicles on the road around them are being driven by incompetant idiots (as I outlined above) and are thus more conscious of protecting themselves. :D

i'll be completely forthright- i am not a good driver.

i get frustrated driving the car. i think this is a result of riding my motorcycles a lot. on my bikes, i don't have to deal with other drivers the same way, i can accelerate out of situations, brake out, steer clear of inattentive drivers, shitty drivers, situations, etc.


now if i am the only one on the road, traffic is light, etc., i find my driving is much much better.

I read it, but like someone else said, it's how people actually drive and not how they do on pop quiz's that really matters.

That's what I was addressing.