View Full Version : Worst city to drive in the northeast US?
daryn
02-17-2005, 01:01 PM
is washington dc really northeast?
boston is bad if you don't live here. i have driven in new york with no problems. way easier than boston. with boston none of the street make sense, and they're all one way, never in the way you want to go though.
DC isn't particularly northeast, but it's part of the BosNYWash corridor, so I included it. Baltimore is too, but no one is gonna vote for that anyway.
Brainwalter
02-17-2005, 01:12 PM
[ QUOTE ]
is washington dc really northeast?
[/ QUOTE ]
It's not southeast.
sammysusar
02-17-2005, 01:12 PM
i guess washington is not technically in the northeast but it gets lumped in with the big east coast cities. Shocking that someone nitpicks a minor issue in a thread.
New York is probably the most uncomfortible to drive in with all the crazy cabbies and the bridge and tunnel traffic into the city.
scrub
02-17-2005, 01:14 PM
DC is easily the worst.
I think NYC is the worst in the according-to-Hoyle Northeast. I used to have to drive a lot on the BQE when Scrubette lived in Park Slope, though, so I might have an unfairly weighted sample.
Boston isn't terrible, but it can be pretty confusing when you don't know where you're going.
I've never had a problem in Philly.
scrub
[ QUOTE ]
DC is easily the worst.
[/ QUOTE ]
Out of that list, by far. High tourist driving ratio, terrible potholes anywhere but select neighborhoods in NE, retarded roundabouts everywhere, excessively many intersections from the diagonal state-named streets.
bugstud
02-17-2005, 01:16 PM
can I vote for all of them?
meep_42
02-17-2005, 02:51 PM
I love DC, but it is terrible for the majority because of Virginia drivers and tourists. In that order.
-d
turnipmonster
02-17-2005, 02:57 PM
going to have to go with dc also. god I hate driving in dc. although I have limited boston experience, it is very confusing as well.
istewart
02-17-2005, 02:59 PM
Excluding D.C. because I never drive there, it's Boston and it's not close. NYC doesn't compare except for the fact that you're often fighting for your life among the cabs.
OrangeHeat
02-17-2005, 03:01 PM
1.DC
2.Boston
3.New York
4.Philly
DC traffic is atrocious. Boston as others have said doesn't make sense. NY is not as bad as people make it out as. I have never been to philly but I assume it is the least congested of the four.
Orange
Cleveland Guy
02-17-2005, 03:09 PM
My Vote goes to Binghamton, NY.
Why - cause it means you are stuck in Binghamton NY.
droolie
02-17-2005, 03:12 PM
In 15 years in Boston I've never experienced the headache of gridlock like I have in NY in very limited driving. 3 hours to get from the Holland tunnel to Queensboro Bridge gives NY my vote.
jstnrgrs
02-17-2005, 03:17 PM
I have limited experience with New York, and Washington. And much more experience with Boston. I think that boston is the easiest if you konw where you are going. If you don't know wher eyou are going then I can see how it would be a pain.
Rhone
02-17-2005, 03:17 PM
I've spent practically my whole life in either DC or Boston. Boston is a worse city to drive in, and it's not even close to being close. DC is a planned city, laid out in a nice, neat grid. The downtown streets are lettered and numbered, for heaven's sake! It's nearly impossible to get lost.
Boston:
* is notorious for not having street signs
* has streets that developed over the centuries from cow trails and whatnot, no rhyme or reason to them whatsoever, except for the Backbay area.
* has much more obnoxious people than DC, so that when you do get lost good luck finding someone friendly to help you out (sorry but it's true).
* has some of the worst drivers known to mankind
* has much worse winters than DC, making driving there particularly painful for a good part of the year. (though it's true that Bostonians handle bad weather better than DC people)
* has a much higher rate of car theft than DC, which is something you have to take into account.
daryn
02-17-2005, 04:04 PM
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In risposta di:</font><hr />
Shocking that someone nitpicks a minor issue in a thread.
[/ QUOTE ]
i was just asking a question, not nitpicking, and i did actually respond.
FU
meep_42
02-17-2005, 04:27 PM
NY was nothing. But, then again, I've lived in DC my whole life...
-d
scrub
02-17-2005, 05:19 PM
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My Vote goes to Binghamton, NY.
Why - cause it means you are stuck in Binghamton NY.
[/ QUOTE ]
I used to date a girl who went to Cornell. I was going to school in New Jersey at the time, and I didn't have a car on campus so I had to take the bus to visit her in Ithaca.
Twice, the bus company decided there was too much snow to keep driving us, and left everyone on the bus stranded at the Binghampton bus station.
The only thing that sucks more than driving in Binghamton is walking in Binghamton.
scrub
Jake (The Snake)
02-17-2005, 05:39 PM
The answer is Boston.
I am 18, grew up in Jersey 35 mins from NY, have driven in Philly twice, have driven in Boston 3 times, and currently go to school in DC.
Philly is pretty easy. New York is only tough because of the other drivers. DC is easy to get lost in, but it's not that bad. Boston is hell. One way streets everywhere, complicated turns, impatient drivers... If you aren't from Boston, you WILL get lost and it is scary.
crownjules
02-17-2005, 05:57 PM
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If you aren't from Boston, you WILL get lost and it is scary.
[/ QUOTE ]
Especially if said person is wearing Yankees paraphenalia. /images/graemlins/grin.gif
Boston easily. Ever had the pleasure of driving through the Big Dig sections of town when it was at its worst? I wasn't even driving and I hated it. NY is a breeze compared to Beantown (kills me to say it, but oh well). Never driven in Philly or DC.
BottlesOf
02-17-2005, 05:59 PM
I love driving in NYC. The taxis which so many complain about are all my prags.
The only problem is when you are runnning late or need to be somewehre at a definite time and have not planned in enough time for traffic. In you're in a congested area and are stuck bumper to bumper (this is not all the time or even close to that despite what the popular perception is) that SUCKS. Otherwise, I love it, it's a unique experience driving by while the city goes on all around you. Jane Jacobs would approve.
I haven't driven in DC, so I can't speak to that. My surface street driving in NYC has been limited to getting from a bridge/tunnel on one side of Manhattan to a bridge/tunnel on the other. That was dead easy. Merging from 6 lanes into 1 to go through the lincoln tunnel was mildly annoying, but not nearly as bad as a similar situation would be in Boston.
I went to school in Worcester, and we'd all make excuses to get someone else to drive when we went to Boston. If you know exactly where you're going, its not bad. If you don't, you're totally screwed. One time we were going to MIT for the flea, and thought it'd be a snap because we'd gone several times before. This time, however, memorial drive was closed for recreational activity. Trying to get somewhere in Boston when the road you know is closed is nearly impossible.
Driving in Philly is easy. The Schuylkill Expwy can be a mess sometimes, but its no worse than a busy NY Parkway. Surface streets in center city are no problem; I usually don't even have a problem finding somewhere to park.
Macdaddy Warsaw
02-17-2005, 06:54 PM
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My Vote goes to Binghamton, NY.
Why - cause it means you are stuck in Binghamton NY.
[/ QUOTE ]
I used to date a girl who went to Cornell. I was going to school in New Jersey at the time, and I didn't have a car on campus so I had to take the bus to visit her in Ithaca.
Twice, the bus company decided there was too much snow to keep driving us, and left everyone on the bus stranded at the Binghampton bus station.
The only thing that sucks more than driving in Binghamton is walking in Binghamton.
scrub
[/ QUOTE ]
I had to take a bus from NYC to Ithaca for a similar reason, and there was a transfer at Binghamton for the Ithaca bus. Of course, the Binghamton bus makes a "rest stop" 5 minutes before Binghamton, so now I can't get to the transfer station and the bus leaves in like 3 minutes. I called a taxi on my cellphone and he was like 10 minutes late, but fortunately he made up for it by going about 100 mph.
That was sweet.
/hijack. I only have experience driving in NYC and it's not bad but I live there. South of Houston gets kind of hairy though if you're talking about the city. Rectangles are easy, SOHO is not.
Although, going to school in Amherst, I swear to God nobody here can drive.
scrub
02-17-2005, 07:47 PM
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My Vote goes to Binghamton, NY.
Why - cause it means you are stuck in Binghamton NY.
[/ QUOTE ]
I used to date a girl who went to Cornell. I was going to school in New Jersey at the time, and I didn't have a car on campus so I had to take the bus to visit her in Ithaca.
Twice, the bus company decided there was too much snow to keep driving us, and left everyone on the bus stranded at the Binghampton bus station.
The only thing that sucks more than driving in Binghamton is walking in Binghamton.
scrub
[/ QUOTE ]
I had to take a bus from NYC to Ithaca for a similar reason, and there was a transfer at Binghamton for the Ithaca bus. Of course, the Binghamton bus makes a "rest stop" 5 minutes before Binghamton, so now I can't get to the transfer station and the bus leaves in like 3 minutes. I called a taxi on my cellphone and he was like 10 minutes late, but fortunately he made up for it by going about 100 mph.
That was sweet.
/hijack. I only have experience driving in NYC and it's not bad but I live there. South of Houston gets kind of hairy though if you're talking about the city. Rectangles are easy, SOHO is not.
Although, going to school in Amherst, I swear to God nobody here can drive.
[/ QUOTE ]
The Binghamton cabbies, all 3 of them or whatever, were charging $100 a head to take them back to Cornell the second time I got stuck.
scrub
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