With out a doubt the most frightening part of Philadelphia is the style of driving. Philly is a “me first to hell with you” kind of town. At least that’s the impression you get when driving through it. The Philly is a road rage incident waiting for an excuse. The main goal seems to be to get where ever you’re going and only use the break pedal once. It doesn’t matter how long it take you to get somewhere as long as you never had to stop or slow down until you’ve parked your car at the other end of the trip. I always thought the drivers around DC and the beltway were bad, but that was before I spent a month in Philadelphia. Narrow one-way streets and confusing intersections help to produce some pretty fierce drivers. They would destroy the crazies from the beltway in one quick lane change. It’s quite a shock to suddenly find yourself in a place where speed limit signs and traffic lights are less than suggestions; they’re decorations.

I didn’t get really aggravated while driving in Philly until I realized that the city had gotten to me and I was driving like a native. When I first arrived I was timid, I waited for an opening before turning, merging etc. A friend of mine who went to school in Philly was amazed that I stopped at a stop sign (She would have been more impressed if she knew me when I first got my license, but I won’t go into that). Two weeks later the drivers got to me and I went from a mild mannered Virginia driver to an aggressive lead footed road rage incident waiting to happen. I didn’t bother waiting for traffic anymore I just went and people got out of my way. My Camry is rusty enough that people probably figured that I didn’t care about a dent or two (even though there are no dings in my car’s sheet metal). As bad as my driving got I could never match the Philly driver. I never parked in the middle of the road (a very common practice), I never drove on the shoulder of I-95 and I only used my horn once when a minivan nearly merged into my Camry. Even though I wasn’t the worst driver on the road I couldn’t help but think the other drivers saw my plates and said to themselves “Frigging Virginia drivers!” That’s what really got to me. The idea that people would think my adapted driving style was normal and that’s just how people drove in Virginia. Thankfully it doesn’t take long to switch back to my usual non-aggressive driving. So no permanent damage was done, but my advice to any one planning on going to Philadelphia is leave your car behind and use the public transportation system. I hear it’s excellent.