So that’s what lead-footed means
MIAMI — Is there a connection between bad driving and bad football playing? Do the math.
The Miami Dolphins finished 1-15 in 2007, and drivers in that city were voted the least courteous drivers in America — for the third year in a row — by an organization called AutoVantage, which conducted a survey of commuter habits across North America.
Not that we’re advocating road rage or anything, but how grumpy would you generally be (and the editor of this website has been a ‘Fins fan for 27 years) if your team was one missed field goal away from a winless season last year?
But perhaps the gridiron and gridlock connection in Miami is just a coincidence. That’s because the football analogy quickly falls apart when you consider that the second-least-courteous drivers in the USA, according to the survey, are in Boston — home of the Patriots, who went 16-0 and have won three Super Bowls this decade. (Under suspect circumstances? — editor’s note).
Other theories?
to make a road rage cocktail?
With tongue firmly in cheek, one local columnist speculated that Miami’s Latin culture and anti-Havana work ethic suggests that Miamians are hot-blooded and they mean business.
According to the survey, the primary reasons drivers get their shorts in knots are because people are "in a rush to get somewhere," "people leaving too late and being in a hurry," and "other drivers not going by the speed limit."
Other road-rage triggers include drivers talking on cell phones, eating, drinking, texting, putting on makeup, and — get this — emailing or reading while behind the wheel.
New York City has the third most aggressive drivers in the country. Whoddathunk? The Big Apple has one team that just won the Super Bowl, and the other that, well … they’re the Jets.
The politest drivers in the nation were found in Pittsburgh. (Steelers: 10-6 in ’07.) We have no idea how that record translates to the city’s driving culture.
Then there’s the Canadian angle. The last time the Canadian Automobile Association published statistics about Canadian road rage, the highest reported incidences were in Alberta.
The Stampeders and Eskimos shared the basement last year.
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