Portland Drivers

I live in Portland, Oregon. Some would call the average Portlander courteous. I call them pansies. Their general fear of offending anyone manifests itself in their passivity and indecisiveness. This is particularly evident in their driving.

The number one most irritating driving habit of Portlanders is their predilection to come to a complete stop at an intersection if there is another vehicle, bicycle or pedestrian within 100 feet of the same intersection. This is irregardless of whether they have a green light or the right of way, even if they are turning right. I have been stopped in my car at a stop sign countless times in which the cross traffic with no stop sign comes to a complete stop from both directions to let me go. When turning left, it is commonplace for the vehicle in the oncoming lane to come to a stop to let you turn in front of them instead of just assuming you will do it yourself when there is a clearing in the oncoming traffic. Consequently, traffic jams are constantly being created where there are not that many vehicles.

This same passivity prevents Portlanders from being able to merge. I have almost been killed on at least two occasions when the car in front of me comes to the end of an on-ramp to an interstate and suddenly brakes to a complete stop- while I am going 50 mph two seconds behind them. I have heard many Portlanders actually complain when the drivers on the interstate don’t slow up to let them merge instead of speeding up to the flow of traffic to let themselves in. Traffic comes to a stop on the interstates every time it approaches an onramp, then speeds up to the speed limit until it reaches the next onramp.

I will admit it is sometimes humorous. One of my favorite pastimes in this town is watching people try to Parallel Park. But my normal response to these idiots has become to flip them off and scream curses at them until they give up trying to be polite to me and just follow the rules of the road.