Inspired by a posting by hammercock.

[randomness]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/hammercock/418380.html quotes a CNN/Money article on a GMAC Insurance study of drivers. It found Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Jersey drivers doing the worst on a test on driving rules and safety.

Today, I found this little Harpers-index-esque bit on France by the numbers, which included this factoid:

"200,000 people are believed to be driving illegally without licences in France"

That's a lot of unlicenced drivers for a country of 50 million.

Also of interest:

"Expatriate French total 2m of which 500,000 live in the United States."

Comments

[frotz.livejournal.com]

When illegal aliens can't get driving licenses in the US (which, I think, congress just signed into law as part of the generally reprehensible REAL ID act), I'd expect similar numbers here. (This, aside from the growing trend to revoke said licenses as a penalty for damn near anything.)

[agrimony.livejournal.com]

Y'know, looking at the various licenese plates in CT and how people are driving... I'm so not shocked. :)

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Huh. Yeah, I think I'd rather live in Massachusetts anyway, cuz the Jersey drivers piss me off more even if they're a smidge better....

[kessel.livejournal.com]

I think it has to do with the road tests. (I've been looking into this because my Mass. and Jersey friends are the most reprehensible drivers.) In NJ, the road test is done on a closed course, i.e., no traffic, no lane markings, etc. I also recall a Jersey friend telling me that her road test involved driving forward, then driving in reverse. Fini. As for Massachusetts, a dear friend who happens to be a terrible driver and from Mass. tells me that road tests there are done by state troopers, not DMV officials or trained testers or such. And he apparently got off easy because it was the end of the day and the trooper just wanted to go home.

As for Rhode Island, who knows? Maybe they're all just in a hurry to get out.

[holmes-iv.livejournal.com]

Well, it may be that Texas just has a lower liability requirement and less plaintiff-friendly courts. (No knowledge of the question, but neither of those would surprise me much.) That said, I don't think everybody thinks their local drivers are the worst: most people I know think Jersey drivers are the worst, though I'll admit to having had a few bad experiences with New York and Rhode Island drivers on I-95. But considering how few Rhode Island drivers there are out there, they'd have to be really bad to stick in people's minds as much as much as the New Jersey drivers do.