In New York City, every part of the state that is not NYC is "upstate." Here in Illinois, the corresponding term—for any thing that is not Chicago—is downstate.
I have friend who lives downstate, and he avoids visiting Chicago because he is terrified of driving in the Chicago area.
I can't entirely blame him. I've lived here for a long time, and I can still see how it can be scary. It's even hard for me to take it in stride sometimes.
There is definitely a big-city style of driving. On the expressways, people drive very aggressively. They change lanes when, rationally, it would be to no advantage, and they will cut in front of you very sharply. No one wants to drive in the right lane, it seems, so when it's time to exit they will just cut across several lanes and cut sharply in front of you.
And people rubber-necking if there's any incident: a car pulled over by cops or an accident or a car on fire, or whatever. I wish people could overcome their desire to gawk and not slow down, because that creates the proverbial "gapers' block."
And of course (as I mentioned in another blog posting), everyone is in a hurry these days. And I find it pretty scary when people follow too closely, and are talking on their cell phones, to boot. If they are not giving their undivided attention to driving, and they have to stop suddenly, they are going to crash right into the rear of some poor schlub like yours truly.
And driving on non-highway streets and roads has its own set of perils. Streets unmarked by road signs, speed bumps, bad pavement, red-light cameras, double-parked cars. Plus, again, crazy drivers, like taxi drivers, who drive very, very aggressively. Last time I used a taxi the driver wanted to use his cell phone while driving. I had to tell him not to. I'm told that's actually common, but I'm incredulous.
Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein
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My car insurance rates went up when I moved to Albuquerque. If anything, driving is worse here than in Chicago, and more of the idiots drive oversized pickup trucks. The DWI rate in New Mexico is high, and law enforcement is unable to keep people with multiple DWI convictions off the road.
ReplyDeleteMy theory is that it's genetic. If you're not a reasonably proficient and alert driver in Chicago, you won't stay in the gene pool very long. In places like Albuquerque, bad drivers are more likely to survive and reproduce.