10 "most drivable" and "least drivable" cities

[MrDingleDangle]

http://houseandhome.msn.com/move/mostdrivablecities2003.aspx

why was I not surprised LA was #1 least drivable...thats the number one reason i'm glad to be out of there

 

[Fausto]

Overall, cities in the Northeast rank poorly, with Philadelphia at #44, followed by Hartford at #53 and New York at #70. Meanwhile, Southern cities enjoy high rankings due to low gas prices, little traffic, short travel times, and fair climate. The most drivable large city is Atlanta, which ranks 20th overall.

I'm sorry, but that is titanic bullshit. Atlanta's traffic is horrible and our commute times recently exceeded LA.

EDIT- I did some digging. We officially have the nations LONGEST average commute time. 31.2 minutes each way. Thounds thuper!

 

[Hoober]

Heh, Springs traffic is worse than Denver's.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Originally posted by: Fausto1

Overall, cities in the Northeast rank poorly, with Philadelphia at #44, followed by Hartford at #53 and New York at #70. Meanwhile, Southern cities enjoy high rankings due to low gas prices, little traffic, short travel times, and fair climate. The most drivable large city is Atlanta, which ranks 20th overall.

I'm sorry, but that is titanic bullshit. Atlanta's traffic is horrible and our commute times recently exceeded LA.

I was in Atlanta about a month ago on business, and I agree with your comment.

 

[Spooner]

the way they derived at this list seems retarded to me

"driving climate" WTF? shouldn't traffic be 80% of the determination?

 

[brtspears2]

Keep the AC on when driving in San Bernardino, Austin and San Diego, which take the top spots for warm weather climates.

Yup, sounds about right in my location, Riverside, CA .. a few miles out of San Bernardino. But then its only for a few months of the year.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Spooner
the way they derived at this list seems retarded to me

"driving climate" WTF? shouldn't traffic be 80% of the determination?

Not to mention they're completely discounting other ways to get arounds. Cities like SanFran may have gnarly traffic, but they also have decent public transportation. Denver has bike paths everywhere. Atlanta has none of that in addition to crappy traffic. The only thing we have going for us is low gas prices. If anything, I'd like to see gas prices go way up as that seems to be the only thing that will get people out of their stupid cars.

/rant

 

[Thegonagle]

Chicago is worse than NYC?

I've never been to NYC (going later this summer), but I've heard that it's much worse than Chicago. I've never had much trouble driving anywhere in Chicago, although I do know that if you need to go downtown at certain times, it's best to take the train.

 

[PatboyX]

wow.
that doesnt seem right at all.
DC is ten times worse the NYC any day of the week, any minute.

 

[amnesiac]

Originally posted by: Hoober
Heh, Springs traffic is worse than Denver's.

I25 sucks.

 

[Whisper]

Haha...Fausto beat me to it. I had that same phrase copied and ready to paste for criticism.

Obviously this author has never driven anywhere in Georgia during or after a rain storm. Hell, or anytime at all for that matter. Georgia must have, per capita, the largest number of idiotic drivers in the nation. Of this I am quite certain. What we may not deal with in traffic (which, as Fausto said, is pretty bad on its own considering we have a joke of a mass transit system), we more than make up for in the lack of intelligence of the average commuter here.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: Thegonagle
Chicago is worse than NYC?

I've never been to NYC (going later this summer), but I've heard that it's much worse than Chicago. I've never had much trouble driving anywhere in Chicago, although I do know that if you need to go downtown at certain times, it's best to take the train.

Chicago is terrible especially at the 80/94/294/90 junctions. The last time I drove up there I spent 2.5 hours travelling 18 miles from where 80/94 are together to where they split.

 

[AstIsis]

They did get it right about Austin being hot. You have to keep your AC going or risk melting.

 

[PatboyX]

Originally posted by: Whisper
Haha...Fausto beat me to it. I had that same phrase copied and ready to paste for criticism.

Obviously this author has never driven anywhere in Georgia during or after a rain storm. Hell, or anytime at all for that matter. Georgia must have, per capita, the largest number of idiotic drivers in the nation. Of this I am quite certain. What we may not deal with in traffic (which, as Fausto said, is pretty bad on its own considering we have a joke of a mass transit system), we more than make up for in the lack of intelligence of the average commuter here.

hey!
im from new jersey and just want to make it clear that everyone knows where the largest number of idiotic dirvers in the nation reside.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Whisper
Haha...Fausto beat me to it. I had that same phrase copied and ready to paste for criticism.

Obviously this author has never driven anywhere in Georgia during or after a rain storm. Hell, or anytime at all for that matter. Georgia must have, per capita, the largest number of idiotic drivers in the nation. Of this I am quite certain. What we may not deal with in traffic (which, as Fausto said, is pretty bad on its own considering we have a joke of a mass transit system), we more than make up for in the lack of intelligence of the average commuter here.

No kidding. Two raindrops or snowflakes = instant massive pileups all over town. :disgust:

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: Fausto1
No kidding. Two raindrops or snowflakes = instant massive pileups all over town. :disgust:

Snow anywhere in the south leads to massive traffic issues. Back when I lived in SC, we got two days off of school because we had a 1/2" of snow.

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: Fausto1

Originally posted by: Spooner
the way they derived at this list seems retarded to me

"driving climate" WTF? shouldn't traffic be 80% of the determination?

Not to mention they're completely discounting other ways to get arounds. Cities like SanFran may have gnarly traffic, but they also have decent public transportation. Denver has bike paths everywhere. Atlanta has none of that in addition to crappy traffic. The only thing we have going for us is low gas prices. If anything, I'd like to see gas prices go way up as that seems to be the only thing that will get people out of their stupid cars.

/rant

I agree that that article is pretty one-sided. I suppose that to the author, pedestrians, bicyclists, busses, and train stations just make a city less drivable. OK, when I'm driving, sometimes I feel the same way, but the fact is, sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, and public transit make a city more livable.

 

[Codewiz]

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: Fausto1
No kidding. Two raindrops or snowflakes = instant massive pileups all over town. :disgust:

Snow anywhere in the south leads to massive traffic issues. Back when I lived in SC, we got two days off of school because we had a 1/2" of snow.

And you are bitching??? I loved that as a kid growing up. Let it snow now, I will still get to where I need to go. Let all the idiot drives stay at home scared.

 

[zixxer]

In the past year I have taken many road trips all over the west US. I live in atlanta. we have THE WORST drivers/traffic/ etc. of anywhere I've EVER been. The roads are nice though.. usually..

ohio had the worst drivers ever. I swear to god I'm suprised I made it out alive. On the way back from michigan i went AROUND ohio..

bleh

 

[Dulanic]

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: Thegonagle
Chicago is worse than NYC?

I've never been to NYC (going later this summer), but I've heard that it's much worse than Chicago. I've never had much trouble driving anywhere in Chicago, although I do know that if you need to go downtown at certain times, it's best to take the train.

Chicago is terrible especially at the 80/94/294/90 junctions. The last time I drove up there I spent 2.5 hours travelling 18 miles from where 80/94 are together to where they split.

I won't even get much into this but... Chicago is TERRIBLE. I was a field tech in IL for quite a bit of time until I recently moved to TX. Chicago is bad.... it has gotten a BIT better, atleast they fixed the Hillside Strangler. The problem with Chicago is there are only 2 real ways in or out.... 90/94 or 290 and 290 only goes one way out. I am not shocked at all it is #3 on the list. And had they done this list a few years ago Chicago would have been #1 when our gas prices were INSANELY high... I remember paying 2.70 for premium in the city.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Thegonagle

Originally posted by: Fausto1

Originally posted by: Spooner
the way they derived at this list seems retarded to me

"driving climate" WTF? shouldn't traffic be 80% of the determination?

Not to mention they're completely discounting other ways to get arounds. Cities like SanFran may have gnarly traffic, but they also have decent public transportation. Denver has bike paths everywhere. Atlanta has none of that in addition to crappy traffic. The only thing we have going for us is low gas prices. If anything, I'd like to see gas prices go way up as that seems to be the only thing that will get people out of their stupid cars.

/rant

I agree that that article is pretty one-sided. I suppose that to the author, pedestrians, bicyclists, busses, and train stations just make a city less drivable. OK, when I'm driving, sometimes I feel the same way, but the fact is, sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, and public transit make a city more livable.

Good planning keeps the car/bike/pedestrian interactions to a minimum. I hate that I'm in the way sometimes on my commute but with almost zero bike lanes or paths there's not much I can do about it. Hell, half of Atlanta doesn't even have freaking sidewalks for pedestrians so no wonder we're so car-bound.

 

[Parrotheader]

Wow! My city, Birmingham, got 7th most drivable. As much as I might disagree with that during a particularly bad traffic jam (which we get far more than any other part of the state seeing as how it's the biggest city) I would have to agree that we're a lot better than most cities I've been to. Unlike most other cities setup in flatter areas, our roads are determined more by the geography of the rolling hills so there's TONS of side roads that go in all sorts of winding directions that can get you where you're going instead of the usual grid-like roadways. Even though there's roughly 1 million people in the metropolitan area it's spread out over a very broad area. The city of Birmingham proper has actually had a steady population decline since the 50s, but the surrounding areas are booming. My commute of about 17 miles each way only takes about 20 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. Other than rush hour, it really is pretty easy to get around most areas.

Fausto is right though, about discounting the amount of rain we get down South. Our warm temperatures and the daytime heating effect coupled with our heavy humidity make afternoon/rush hour thunderstorms (and the resulting wrecks) a VERY common occurrence here. I realize driving in the rain isn't near as dangerous as driving in the snow. But then again, most cities don't have idiots who assume they can still drive 80+ mph in the snow whereas a lot of people apparently think that's a possibility in the rain.

 

[murphy55d]

DC is definitely horrible...nothing like beltway rush hour traffic!

 

[Dulanic]

Originally posted by: Parrotheader
Wow! My city, Birmingham, got 7th most drivable. As much as I might disagree with that during a particularly bad traffic jam (which we get far more than any other part of the state seeing as how it's the biggest city) I would have to agree that we're a lot better than most cities I've been to. Unlike most other cities setup in flatter areas, our roads are determined more by the geography of the rolling hills so there's TONS of side roads that go in all sorts of winding directions that can get you where you're going instead of the usual grid-like roadways. Even though there's roughly 1 million people in the metropolitan area it's spread out over a very broad area. The city of Birmingham proper has actually had a steady population decline since the 50s, but the surrounding areas are booming. My commute of about 17 miles each way only takes about 20 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. Other than rush hour, it really is pretty easy to get around most areas.

Oh god I envy you... when I worked inside chicago it took me an hour and 30 minutes to go 30 miles each way. One day when it snowed extremelly bad it took me almost 5 hours.

 

[LakAttack]

New Worst Cities to Drive In List:

1. Atlanta
2. - 10. Any City touching Atlanta