By SARAH LARIMER, Associated Press Writer <i>2 hours, 33 minutes ago</i>
MIAMI - For the second straight year, rude Miami drivers have earned the city the title of worst road rage in a survey released Tuesday.
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Miami motorists said they saw other drivers slam on their brakes, run red lights and talk on cell phones, according to AutoVantage, a Connecticut-based automobile membership club offering travel services and roadside assistance.
Other cities near the top of the rude drivers list were New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
South Miami resident Erik Pinto told The Associated Press he’s probably seen every bad driving habit on Miami’s roads.
“You don’t want to know what I’ve seen,” Pinto said. “I’ve seen everything. I’m from L.A., and we don’t see the crazy drivers that you see here.”
Portland, Ore., drivers were the least likely of the cities to see other motorists tailgating on the roadways, and St. Louis motorists were the least likely to swear at another driver, the survey found.
Minneapolis-St. Paul was rated the most courteous city in 2006 but slipped to the middle of the list this year.
The most frequent cause of road rage cited in the survey was impatient motorists. Drivers also cited poor driving in fast lanes and driving while stressed, frustrated or angry.
“The best piece of advice is to take a deep breath. Slow down, be aware and be careful,” AutoVantage spokesman Todd Smith said, adding the aim of the survey is to increase driver safety across the nation.
More than 2,500 drivers who regularly commute in 25 major metropolitan areas were asked to rate road rage and rude driving in telephone surveys between January and March. The survey was conducted by Prince Market Research has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
The list, ranked from those reporting the most incidents of road rage to the fewest:
Wow. Last week I was driving south on 19 between Cranberry and Wexford, passed a guy on the right (he was going below the speed limit). He actually got out of his car and wanted to fight when we got to the light. If this city is 24, I will never go to Miami.
P.S. For the inevitable question: no I didn’t get out of my car, no good can come of it. I had my 6 months pregnant wife in the car with me as well, so I took off. The guy had problems.
I heard that on the radio, and it pissed me off. I was in in LA last week, and let me tell you, driving there was nice. Sure it’s hard to change lanes sometimes because people are in a hurry, and they don’t leave big gaps, but I sure as hell didn’t get caught behind anyone going under the speed limit.
80 is the speed of traffic on the freeways there, and no, that is not the flow of traffic on the parkway. It is for a few small sections, then everywhere in between (like tunnels) it’s 45-55.
So my definition of “courtesy” varies greatly from the people who came up with those crackpot statistics. If you add “check rear view mirror more than once a week” to courteous driving requirements, Pgh might be the worst city on the planet. And that would be mostly due to the fact that half the old-ass retirees here can barely see the rear view mirror, let alone the objects in the mirror.
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