Florida Drivers

[MichaelB]

What is it about Florida and bad drivers? Sometimes I think bad driving skills are a prerequisite to permanent residency down here. I've driven in many countries and spent more time behind the wheel in Latin America than the US, but no place I've ever driven is as bad.

Part rant, part wondering.

[Fireup2020]

Worse than DC where drivers are from "everywhere else"?

[aaronc879]

Thanks for making me worry about my trip to Florida next month. I'll be driving in Florida for the first time.

[Moemg]

Florida has the worst drivers in the world . One reason is because it has the oldest drivers and then it has the oldest drivers after they have indulged in two for one martinis . The second reason is in the winter we get all the visitors who live in farm country so they put on their blinker and turn left in front of three lanes of traffic . The third reason is we have visitors who are used to driving on the other side of the road and that adds to the mix . Add in teenagers who are texting and you have the perfect storm of bad driving . When I was working at the surgery center I took a patient out to the front area to wait for his ride and the wife who did not drive a lot just missed hitting us as she approached the covered area . Another time a patient told me her husband had Alzheimer's but he still drove she just gave him directions .

[Westernskies]

Dave Barry one descibed the problem with Florida's drivers as being ~ "the result of a diverse population of people from many different nations, all obeying the traffic laws and driving customs of their home countries."~

[braumeister]

My grandmother, who retired to Lauderhill, near Fort Lauderdale, had given up her license due to failing eyesight, so she relied on her neighbor, another elderly lady, for rides.

She told me about the last time she rode with Leona:
"I thought she had just driven through a red light, so I tried to be diplomatic and asked her "What color was that light we just went through?"
Leona replied "What light?"

[FreeAtLast]

I have live here for the past 35 years and it seems to just get a bit worse each year. I seem to have adjusted to it, however, now being semiretired I try to avoid the rush hour traffic. It really should be an easy place to drive. Everything is flat and most streets go north/south or east/west. No snow or ice but we can get some flash flooding after a heavy rain. We do have quite a few cars on the road with drivers of all back rounds and ages.

[Silver]

If you live in Florida and have white hair, it is your God-given right to back out of any driveway or parking spot without looking.

I live in central Florida.....and people here are very serious about their God-given rights.

[freebird5825]

At least there ARE traffic lights in FL, unlike in the country where I live. We play a modified game of "chicken" at the 4 way stop signs. I usually win.

I drove in FL 3x last year and had no trouble at all.

[Dancer373]

Where I live in north Florida ( near I-75 and I-10 ) we get tourists from all states passing through to the south. Many are from the big cities up north and used to a different kind of driving ( city driving). Add to that mix the older crowd , truckers and teenagers and you see all kinds of different driving. During the holidays I never get near the interstate but take back roads.