Driving Us Mad


For the first time in a long, long, long while, we agree with the Boston Globe editorial board. (You’ll remember these are the same people who brought us classics like video games are the devil’s work and txtng sukz.)

But like us, and like most self-respecting Bostonians, the Globe is properly pissed off by last week’s AutoVantage survey on road rage. The Hub came in second on the list of least courteous cities.

Naturally, everyone is @^$&! irate that we weren’t picked as the biggest (m)assholes.

Inexplicably, Miami claimed the top spot. What do they have to be mad about? It’s sunny and warm there all year long. They have beautiful beaches, scantily clad women and, for the drug abusers among them, a steady supply of high-grade cocaine. Er, wait — maybe that last bit is why they’re so on edge when they get behind the wheel.

Still, Boston should have won going away. Between Storrow, the Big Dig, the endless winter and our natural East Coast attitude, this should have been a no-contest. Even the staid Globe agrees.

But Greater Boston is a hotbed of more workaday forms of aggression, as time-pressed drivers jockey for space in tight quarters. For safety reasons, Boston is better off not being the hub of the aggressive-driving universe, and yet this reputation is a point of perverse local pride. One almost wants to honk at the club’s researchers and shout out, “Hey, what’s wrong with you?” – the same question that echoes from intersections metrowide.

If you’re curious, you can take an individual road rage survey on the AutoVantage site.