12-22-2013, 03:12 PM
I do think Utahns are the worst drivers in town. Stopping at red lights and stop signs seems optional to most. They routinely stop in the crosswalk or even protruding into the intersection. Staying within only one lane at a time seems real challenging to many. Our pedestrians and bike riders are also equally impaired. But we're looking at the wrong stats. This shows up in pedestrian and bike rider deaths. I remember at study a few years back where SLC ranked second with only Fort Lauderdale worse. If you've been to Fort Lauderdale it's pretty obvious the average age of someone behind the wheel is like 85 years old so I'm sure that's their issue. And beside Utah with relatively uncrowded streets most of the time, that are very wide, on a grid and few geographic barriers is about the easiest city in the world it's size to drive in (if drivers bothered to try). When I moved to Utah 15+ years ago I was perplexed why pretty much all Utah cities were like this. After a few years a realized it's because there's basically a 0.001% chance of getting a ticket for breaking traffic laws in town. Elsewhere sure you'd get away with it most of the time but if you drove how people in Utah do for a year you'd have a few dozen tickets and suspended license. I've seen more enforcement of trash/recycling and parking violations each in the past month than I've seen of traffic violations in the past year. We all know how many people are killed and injured from parking in a spot too long (or backed in rather than pulled in) and putting their garbage in the wrong bin compared to from vehicles, right[crazy].
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