Re: Calif drivers are OK

["David Ross" <ross@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Every time I've moved over the years (from IL to PA to OH to WI to IA
to the UK to MN to OR to HI) I've felt the the drivers in my new locale were
worse (or at least more annoying) than at the last.  Now I've been in IL for
a couple of months and I feel this way *again*!  I think that what has actually
happened is that there are more bad drivers everywhere.  Part of this is that
there are more *people* everywhere, part is that many states dropped or at least curtailed drivers ed some years back, and we're
seeing some of the consequences.

BTW, apropos of Jay Mackro's original post, when I lived in Iowa my definition of a traffic jam was 4 people at a 4-way stop each
trying to yield the right of way to the others.  I was once stuck at a parking ramp on a Sunday, because the person at the front of
the line refused to believe that parking could be free (sign said so, and the arm was up), so was off trying to find someone to pay.
There's something warm and fuzzy about this kind of annoying behavior.

I'll be back in Iowa City next week, and will try to verify whether or not
the traffic is as I remember it - of course, as I recall it the real problem in
Iowa City (I don't know if this is where Jay is now) was mainly kids from the Chicago 'burbs.  I'm also going to try to track down
my old mechanic, since
of all my Italian car mechanics he had the highest ratio of doggedness/price (he once spent 3 full days tracking down an electrical
glitch, and only
charged $40).  Oops - Alfa content.  Sorry:-)

- - David R.

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