TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Arizona has a distinction we would be better off without. A national survey says Arizona is number one for confrontational drivers.
We’re all about Operation Safe Roads at KGUN 9. But there are drivers around here who say, “Operation Safe Roads? How about Operation MY Road? You need to get out of my way!”
People button up in their cozy steel cocoons and they don’t want to yield an inch to what you might want to do and where you might want to go.
Elizabeth Davis knows to watch her back, and everywhere else.
“They’ll come up right behind you and try to make you move so they can get ahead of you. Yeah, you have to be on your toes in Arizona. I'm sorry to say that.”
Forbes Magazine polled drivers about what they experience in different states.
Arizona drivers scored number one in confrontation.
Some bad behaviors carry more weight than others to add up to Arizona’s perfect—-or perfectly terrible score of 100.
That’s worse that other relative islands of calm like Texas, number 9, New York, number 12, California, number 13, or Delaware, number 50.
In Arizona, 22.5 percent of drivers asked said someone forced them off the road. That’s actually second worse.
For tailgating, Arizona tied for third with Oklahoma. 70.5 percent of drivers say other drivers won’t get off their tails.
31.5% of Arizona drivers polled said another driver actually got out of the car ready to fight. That’s fifth in the nation.
In the nationwide stats, drivers said they ran into road rage on city streets 29.18% of the time, on freeways 26.59% and in parking lots almost 15 percent of the time.
For people who spend a lot of time on the road we talked to rideshare drivers at Tucson International.
Jeffrey Bennett says he just moved from San Diego a month ago.
From day one, when I got into Tucson. I saw a noticeable difference on how people drive here, pulling out in front of you, cutting you off. If I'm going five over the speed limit, they're coming by me like a train. And it's actually pretty reckless out there. And I see accidents every single day that we have to maneuver around.”
Alfons Cetrusi says when he uses his turn signal, most other drivers basically say, “yeah, right”.
“Yes, some people will (yield). Some people might, but not all the time. You know, you might be like, want to get in and you have to wait for one, two, three, four, five cars to pass or even ten. Nobody seemed to let you in.”
But why do drivers act this way?
Heavy traffic ranks number one, but drivers’ lives outside their cars rank high too: they were stressed and angry before they got into the car, they’re running late or they’re just tired.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
