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[–] 2 points 12 hours ago* (5 children)

For a place with such ridiculous amounts of suburban sprawl and thus utter car dependency (a phenomenon which I am given to understand a significant cross section of Lemmings have views about), you'd think that wouldn't result in New Jersey also being the nation's leading exporter in inept and belligerent drivers. But they handily retain the number one spot on that list and have done for decades.

My theory is that New Jersey is unintentionally specifically structured to foster incompetence in its drivers. Forbidding motorists from pumping their own gasoline as well as turning left results in them failing to develop several basic yet critical skills required to exist on the roads of civilized nations. This results in New Jersey drivers traveling to other states and routinely becoming baffled by complex traffic concepts such as four way intersections, parking lots, traffic lights with turn arrows, bollards, etc. to such a degree that they will routinely stop dead in the middle of the road and refuse to move until they no longer have right of way, at which juncture they will finally timidly creep out directly into oncoming traffic. This exists in a curious counterpoint to New Jersey native's innately held conviction that it is their god given right to thunder down the middle lane of the turnpike at 100+ MPH while flashing their high beams at everyone in front and throwing half empty water bottles at anyone they have decided is "in their way."

Given that the infestation of New Jersey drivers has taken firm root as far as three or four states away, it's clear that the containment effort of forcing them to pay a toll to leave their state has, alas, failed.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 hours ago (2 children)

    Driving discussions in the northeast always remind me of that Spider-Man pointing meme. PA drivers think NJ and NY drivers suck, NY thinks NJ and PA suck, and then Jersey thinks everyone else sucks. I feel like it’s a bit of selection bias because people tend to drive worse when they’re in an unfamiliar place. Add on the fact that when a bad driver had the same state plates as you one tends to just write them off as an asshole versus lumping them into the out of state tribe of morons.

    All I know is whenever someone in Philly tries to tell me us NJ drivers suck, I ask them if they’ve driven on 76 recently. That shit feels like Mad Max.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 child)

    I76 is just constantly backed up, especially that stretch right near the 30th street exit. That area is just not capable of handing all the people commuting to downtown. It can take me just as long to get from the Delaware line on I95 to I76 as it does to go from the Platt Bridge where 76 starts to the 30th street exit for when I'm working out of Philly for the day.

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