Call it offensive, obnoxious or downright dangerous. Whatever you call it, weaving in and out of traffic, laying on the horn, and saluting with an upright digit is universally regarded as rude. So who is most guilty of this offensive behavior? Insure.com surveyed 2,000 drivers nationwide to find out. It found that roadway rudeness reached the maximum madness in the following 10 states.
According to the survey, Number 10 was Utah; Ninth was Nevada, Eighth was New Jersey, Delaware was in Seventh Place, lead by Vermont as Number Six, Massachusetts received Fifth Place, Fourth was Wyoming, the Third Rudest was New York, running Second was The District of Columbia, and at the top of the list, or bottom, depending upon how you look at it, as having the Rudest Drivers in America was Idaho.
Some of the comments recorded during the survey were illuminating, if not funny. Recent Utah resident Matt Stubbs said it appeared the state’s motorists are all in a race. “But nobody knows where it ends or how to get to the finish,” he adds.
“So everyone drives 5, 10 or 15 miles per hour over the speed limit. They tend not to signal, because they wouldn’t want anyone to know their next move. They don’t let people merge. They just keep looking straight ahead and pretending not to see that car trying to squeeze in next.”
“They often blow through yield signs as if they don’t exist. And be careful in that parking lot, or you just might get clipped by someone barreling across the parking lanes to shave 10 seconds off their drive time.”
From lifelong New Jersey resident Jason Fischbach, “People in our state love to try and pull onto the road with far less space than they should, never like to let the other car merge in, and don’t seem to realize that yellow means slow down.”
“And then there’s the ‘Jersey Slide’: cutting across two or more lanes with the same blinker–if they use one at all. A favorite phrase of one of my female acquaintances is, ‘Learn to [expletive] drive!’ which she learned from an aunt who [nonetheless] loves to text, email and Facebook while on the road.”
And from the winning (or losing?) state, according to the survey results, the roadways of Idaho present a dichotomy of drivers: Those who are moving so slowly that they’re judged to be rude, and the aggressive drivers who speed around them and flip them off. Together, with their opposite yet equally vexing styles of driving, they pushed Idaho to the top of the rankings.
To see the complete list, and to check out what which state’s drivers were found to be most hated by which other state’s drivers, read the full story.