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Wrinklestiltskin t1_jaol7mg wrote

After driving thru Birmingham, I expect we won't hear a peep from you about how bad drivers in Springfield are for a while?

Not saying you specifically are a complainer, but feels like driving thru Birmingham/Montgomery turns into mad max or a death race at times...

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arcticmischief OP t1_jaopn9v wrote

Au contraire. I have never complained about Spfld drivers. After having lived in five different regions of the country and driven half a million miles of road trips, I actually think Springfield drivers are mostly fine.

The worst are drivers from the Pacific Northwest—5-10mph under the speed limit, in the left lane while not passing anyone, and slam on the brakes for the tiniest hint of drizzle.

Second are slow older pickup trucks in the rural South who are in no hurry to go anywhere.

Third are Florida retirees who shouldn’t be operating cars anymore (either barreling along way too fast for their reaction times and making sudden panic corrections or holding up traffic and driving entirely too slow).

Fourth are Branson tourists from flat states who panic at the hills and curves in the Ozarks and who insist on taking the Strip at 15mph to take in all the sights.

Springfielders (and Missourians at large) are middle of the pack, if not even slightly higher—they (mostly) keep right except to pass, mostly drive at a reasonable speed (5-10 over the limit), mostly use turn signals, etc. They’re mostly predictable. (I have no problem with fast or aggressive drivers, as long as they’re predictable. It’s the unpredictable ones that are dangerous.

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Wrinklestiltskin t1_japlawz wrote

Yeah I wasn't saying you were complaining. I guess I didn't articulate my message very clearly. The point I was trying to make is that the drivers in Springfield are not that bad compared to bigger cities. Birmingham/Montgomery have just been consistently very bad for me. Florida is a very unique hot mess... Unfortunately lived down there for a while.

In Florida it's a mix of crowded roads from tourists and old people, neither of which ever seemed to know what the hell they were doing.. The real accident shenanigans always came on party holidays and obviously spring break/summer.

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PalPubPull t1_jaotj8c wrote

This is so random, as in what does this have to do with driver behavior?

I will say we traveled through Birmingham recently and it was mostly fine, but Florida was a madhouse for me.

I saw an emergency vehicle a few hundred yards behind me and pulled to the shoulder on the highway in October.

Not one single car yielded before or after me. Never seen anything like it. They didn't give a fuck.

My cousin who lives down there blamed it on the vacationers, but there is no way all 100 cars that interacted with this in my vicinity were all vacationers.

We have some bad drivers and decision-makers, but other than the odd occasion of one or two drivers that didn't yield in similar situations, I'd never seen anything like that.

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Wrinklestiltskin t1_japkh1o wrote

Florida is certainly bad too. Lived there for a while. Some of the worst driving I've ever seen tho is driving thru Montgomery and Birmingham. Been very consistent over the years driving between here and Florida.

Just crazy reckless aggressive driving, like one pickup tearing down the grass beside the road and weaving back into traffic wherever he wanted. So many close calls and having to drive so defensively. I've learned to time my drives to avoid rush hour.

I just see people here complain about our drivers, but they're not particularly bad, as far as cities go. Some cities are particularly bad, but I think size is a big factor. Springfield can be frustrating, but it doesn't have big city crazy traffic.

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papa_vein t1_jaqqsnq wrote

Living near Joplin here, and constantly hearing how Rangeline traffic is the absolute worst. I suspect locals will always complain about their own traffic the most because they commute it the most. I have never found Rangeline or any of Springfield to be particularly bad compared to other areas. I have been through Birmingham a few times, and I get what you are saying. Alabama by itself can be scary. Those logging trucks have no chill.

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