The 25 Rudest States in America

[47of74]

I just saw this on CNN / Moneywise about the 25 rudest states in the country.

Quote

Lifestyle magazine Best Life released a list of all 50 states ranked from the nicest to the rudest in late 2020. It looked at indicators from other surveys, such as those for rudest cities and drivers, unfriendliness and impolite behaviour with customer service employees.

I wasn't particularly surprised to find CovidKimIsStan, excuse me, I meant Iowa was up to number 4 on the list as I know what a giant crock "Iowa Nice" is.  Or what certain east coast state with a big ass city was number one on the list.  I don't know that I would agree though with Massachusetts being so high up on the list.  Most of the people there seemed pretty friendly when I visited in October.  And Wisconsin, yeah I agree about the drivers.    

[nokidsmom]

Well I wasn't surprised at the assessment of Chicago drivers.  Born and raised there and believe me, it wasn't always that bad.  These days I never drive into the city anymore (live in waaaay far north suburbs) now that I sold my parents' house on the northwest side.  I prefer taking the train into the city, much easier IMHO.

Sort of agree with Arizona but it's in the Phoenix metro where it's crazy but everywhere else, it's been fine IME. 

[47of74]

20 minutes ago, nokidsmom said:

Well I wasn't surprised at the assessment of Chicago drivers.  Born and raised there and believe me, it wasn't always that bad.  These days I never drive into the city anymore (live in waaaay far north suburbs) now that I sold my parents' house on the northwest side.  I prefer taking the train into the city, much easier IMHO.

Yeah driving into or out of Chicago was never the fun part of any trips over there.  It's been a few years since I've done much in Chicago outside visiting various airports but I generally preferred to leave the vehicle parked at the hotel and just take public transportation (busses, trains, etc) around.

[nokidsmom]

1 hour ago, 47of74 said:

Yeah driving into or out of Chicago was never the fun part of any trips over there.  It's been a few years since I've done much in Chicago outside visiting various airports but I generally preferred to leave the vehicle parked at the hotel and just take public transportation (busses, trains, etc) around.

If we have to get through to anywhere south of the city, we take the I-294 or I-355 bypasses.  The rare times we have opted to drive through the city it's been super early in the AM before rush hour.  

We are lucky to have 2 Metra lines with stations within walking / biking distance from our house.

 

 

[zee_four]

Super interesting, thanks for sharing! I always love any geography based lists like this even if its random categories and totally subjective, it always it fun to go through and talk about the places you know, have been, have lived in or are there now.

The whole Idaho, Utah and Wyoming thing is ridiculous since their rank seems to stem form "rude driving" but is apparently just that they run stop signs at a high rate...  I've lived in SE Utah and am from Western CO and have spent tons of time driving around from Wyoming to Idaho to Utah then back into Colorado.  No one is there that's why no one stops lol! And the comments from Reddit who I assume were tourists complaining about being tailgated and cut off.... when you have to drive up to 300 miles round trip for your job or 200 miles round trip to the closest Walmart and you're out on the highway on cruise control going 85 (80 mph is the posted speed limit in some places in Utah and Wyoming, then you come up on a tourist going 40 in the right lane boxing you in with a semi, worse when its going up a mountain pass and the person won't get over grrrrr. Having to get around someone who is the one violating the law about being in the left lane and or impeding traffic because they're afraid of snow and mountains or are just gawking along is frustrating.  Its honestly worse in Colorado especially I-70. But yeah that's not really bad driving. Except Colorado but that wasn't on the list, but really should be lol.

I've also lived in RI and NYC/NJ and spent a lot of time driving in MA and CT and I agree with the assessment here. Definitely bad drivers and fairly rude over all to strangers. Its more of a, I'm nice to people who are my friends or give me a reason as opposed to the nice to everyone until given a reason not to, attitude that my friends local to the Northeast explained to me. With so many people so densely populated qnd such bad traffic I get that. I worked service industry in RI and NYC too and I saw unprovoked nastiness or just outright lack of care (like stopping a half made sub to go on your break) 

I'm surprised Hawai'i isn't on the list with the factors they used. Its not NYC,  Boston, Denver or LA with the worst traffic, roads and drivers its Hawai'i hands down. From the 20 miles of dead stop traffic on the H1 in Oahu to potholes the size of cars on the outer islands to all sorts of very.... creative driving, the few tourists who see this are always amazed in my experience, expecting everyone to be laid back and in no hurry to go anywhere from our grass huts on the beach. Honolulu is an eye opener for that and in the past few years especially, there's been a lot of anti tourism anger.  Like worse than the norm and COVID only intensified it. Definitely not most people's views of Hawai'i. 

[47of74]

8 hours ago, nokidsmom said:

If we have to get through to anywhere south of the city, we take the I-294 or I-355 bypasses.  The rare times we have opted to drive through the city it's been super early in the AM before rush hour.  

We are lucky to have 2 Metra lines with stations within walking / biking distance from our house.

 

 

What my brother and I would do if we were heading out east of Chicago would be to go down to Davenport then take 80 east since that just brushed the southern tip of Chicago.  It was quicker to do that instead of trying to navigate the other interstates around Chicago. 

[AnywhereButHere]

NYers love to complain about NJ drivers. I realized I'd been in NY too long when I got cut off by some guy randomly swerving across three lanes just to barely make his exit, and my only thought as he went screaming by me was "Figures - freaking NJ..." I was very happy to realize when I was driving around MA during Thanksgiving that I've still got it. Once a Massachusetts driver - always a Massachusetts driver. And it took me about 15 years before I realized the speed limit here is 55. My husband started yelling at me one day that if I didn't slow down, I was going to get a huge ticket. I'm arguing with him saying, I'm barely 15 over the limit. They won't even bother pulling me over. He's like you're 25 over! Do you not read the signs!!! Well, no. No I did not. I just assumed NY would be normal. 🤷‍♀️

I've been living in NY for over 20 years, and I was born and raised in MA. so you think I'd be used to "creative" driving, and NJ drivers are their own kind of special, but nothing prepared me for Chicago. What is up with the double sided highway entrances? I've seen the usual right sided on ramps. I've seen left sided on ramps. But seeing both left and right at the same time with crazy ass drives trying to merge from both directions at speed. Nah - that's just messed up, Chicago. 😂

[nokidsmom]

On 12/27/2021 at 6:44 AM, 47of74 said:

What my brother and I would do if we were heading out east of Chicago would be to go down to Davenport then take 80 east since that just brushed the southern tip of Chicago.  It was quicker to do that instead of trying to navigate the other interstates around Chicago. 

My company is headquartered in the Detroit area and when driving to / from, I usually opt to take I-355 down to I-80 and east.   I-294 does same but there can be more traffic depending on time of day.   I usually assess up to the last minute what route to take. 

Sometimes, it's not a matter of time but just to avoid the hassle.  A couple of months ago, Mr. No and I were traveling north on I-57, and as we have to go around Chicago to get home checked the traffic reports on the bypass interstates. Traffic was all bad due to weather and the weather was bad enough along 57 way south of the city.  We actually swung out to I-39 to get around it, then took backroads east from Rockford.