Nov 09
Minnesota drivers suck
Posted: under Fun Stuff, General, Rants, WTF is wrong with people?.
Tags: driving, minnesota, tailgaiting
I’ve been living here for about a year and a half and I have to say that unequivocally that Minnesota drivers have to be the worst drivers in the United States. Seriously, it’s a very good thing that I don’t personally own a car and that I don’t drive on a daily basis here, because I think that I would kill myself or more than one person around me in a fit of road rage. When I do drive around the Twin Cities on the weekends, my blood pressure comes close to a boil within about 10 minutes of leaving my driveway. Which is why Lori does most of the driving…
Driving in Massachusetts, I thought, would expose me to what I thought would be the absolute worst drivers ever to be assembled on a road, ever. That thought was destroyed over the past 18 months of living here in MN. I bet that drivers in the Dominican Republic (known as the worst drivers in the world) would have a few choice words if they had to navigate the highways of Minneapolis.
Couple of pointers for those of you with the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” on your license plates:
- Driving 2 feet off the bumper of the car in front of you is not safe, especially at speeds of 70+ MPH. This would seem to be a basic skill that one would be taught in driver’s ed, but apparently it is not one most Minnasota drivers wish to follow.
- Turn signals are something that are imperative to helping other drivers understand what your intentions are. Are you about to cut me off in a gridlock situation? Who cares? It’s all about you, right?
- True “defensive driving” rules say that you should leave a safe distance between the car in front of you so that if they have to stop quickly, I won’t suddenly become a passenger in their backseat. When I leave that 3 seconds between cars, it is not an invite for you to fill that “gap” and make me and everyone behind me susceptible to a 40 car pileup.
- The left hand lane is for PASSING! Minnesota drivers have the need to go all the way to the left at the very first opportunity, and then just travel at the same speed as the car to their right. The result? Three or four lanes of cars traveling the exact same speed, much like an entire linebacking corps holding back the backfield. Traffic flows much better when the faster traffic flows with speeders on the left, grandmas on the right.
A couple of other observations about the way that Minnesota goes about their transportation regulations:
- Why are we not required to do an annual inspection of our vehicles? I have seen some real pieces of shit driving down the road. Some of these cars and trucks don’t look safe enough to drive in a cornfield, much less a public road. Today, I swear I saw the brand of shoes of the guy beside me because of the rust holes in his door.
- To go with the above, if one is not required to maintain their cars, how does the average joe-blow know when it is time to say, replace their brakes, or get new tires, or fix their obviously unsafe chassis components?
- How is it that we have one of the hardest to pass licensing programs in the US, but yet have some of the worst drivers I have ever seen? Seriously, we have driven from here to the East Coast through both the US and Canada several times, and it is uncanny to watch the downgrade of driving etiquette as you pass across the Minnesota border.
- Considering 1 & 2 above, why would I EVER buy a used car in Minnesota, knowing that the previous owner wouldn’t ever have done one iota of maintenace to their car or truck that wasn’t forced on them?
Bah! Enough ranting for now. Last sentiment – Minnesota drivers suck! Wisconsin drivers, you have my props, at least you get it.
Learn from it!
