I though you all would get a good kick out of this column:

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/local/a ... 591db.html

To put the fear of god in those Utah drivers....suggest they drive from Ashland, Maine to Ft. Kent. The frost heaves will rip the bottom out of anything going faster then 25 mph....

Drive through New York City during rush hour if you want an experiment in fear. When I was working for the government- my last of many jobs- we had some people from California that moved here, and were complaining about Utah drivers. I did some research, and found that statistically, California drivers are considered the worst. In my research, I found a poll of interstate truckers that also rated California drivers the worst, but I think you should take it with a grain of salt. Californians spend more time on the road per driver than any other state, so the likelihood of something negative happening is greater.

I live in Northern Utah and spend a good part of my summers in Idaho, camping and fishing. I tend to agree with you as far as Idaho versus Utah. I feel a lot more relaxed driving up there than I do here. The law enforcement also seems a bit more relaxed, but Idaho seems to have a lot more "wide open" to the spaces than Utah.

I haven't been to New York City, but I can just imagine what the roads must be like there. The worst I have encountered are the drivers in Massachusetts and in California.

I've encountered all of them, even done some driving in Maine. Trust me, New York City tops the list. It isn't so much the ridiculous lack of road maintenance as it is the aggressive nature of the drivers.

New York City is tuff...tell you true, driving the Lincoln tunnel can make you wet your self. However, there's another road nearby, the Jersey Turnpike which can also put the fear of god in ya..

What I find about California driving is not that the drivers themselves are crazy. It's just the sheer volume of traffic. It always seems to be rush hour time. I think it's the lack of extensive public transit. But you kind of have to be aggressive in order to actually get anywhere.

Ditto on the Jersey Turnpike. People out here see a traffic jam and don't realize what the difference in population density can make. The thing I hated about the turnpike was getting on and off, which back in the day was like playing Russian Roulette. The other thing was the lack of "comfort stations" along the way. If you haven't lived on the East coast, you've never truly experienced fear.

Another nightmare on the East Coast is the DC Beltway...it just keeps getting worse as the years go by.

In California, folks may complain about the 405, but for sheer fear it'll be 99 from the Grapevine, all the way to Sac when the Tule Fog is thicker than pea soup. Start to get around Bakersfield, would kill the radio, and drive with the windows down to listen for crunching metal. Saved my bacon once by keeping me out of a major pile up involving nearly a 100 vehicles....

Washington DC traffic is by far the worst, California and NYC come close, but driving 95 from Richmond to DC for 5 straight years on a daily commute is sheer terror..I bought a series of " winter rats" over the years and left the family car at home. The odds of getting hit were 16 : 1 on a daily ride. I went through six of them and only lost $4000 over the 5 years. I knew I was going to be hit, rammed from behind, forced off the road, everything! Like the Mel Gibson movies but without gunfire! If I'd have been driving something like a Toyota Prius, I'd be down to only 3 lives out of 9!

HP

Oh, my gosh, yeah. I forgot about DC. Man, at 3:00 a.m., the traffic is still bumper-to-bumper. I had people swearing at me, honking at me, yelling, "Foreigner go home!" Yikes! I wanted to go home too, after that. LOL But that was my temple until we finally got one.

Hey Rainfeather, you mentioned the DC temple. I had a friend who was a state cop that rode 495, the outer loop towards Hagerstown and back 3-4 times on a shift. You can see the temple in both directions before you hit the CIA complex around I66 interchange. He mentioned to me that on many occasions when he would investigate minor accidents around that area, many people said they were distracted because they kept taking another look at the wierd white buildings in the distance. I've only been to that temple once and it rates a 9 on the "ugly" scale.

HP

I don't know how much the trees have grown up since I was there years ago, but it sure did stand out at the top of the hill when you drove past it on the Beltway. Back then it looked quite futuristic, so it did make you look up at it.

I remember sitting in my car in the temple parking lot, listening to the radio, when the announcer said, "Things are backed up on The Beltway around the Mormon Temple." My ears perked up and I went, "Huh, what?" LOL It was startling, but funny. The traffic guys even used it as a reference point.

Well, a couple more nightmares to consider, then I'll shut up

The first is the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel http://www.cbbt.com/
heavy truck traffic, and weather. Been a few 18 wheelers blown off by winds, and ending belly up in the Atlantic.

The next one is in New Mexico - the infamous 666 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_491 lots of drunk NDN's headed into, or out of Gallup. Driving during daylight hours is somewhat safe. But, for night driving, best to let someone back at home base know you're out there...

btw...you guys are right, that temple DC temple is one ugly building sucking up the power to stay nova....