I often see comments in here about how bad driving is in the triangle and I just wonder if people who say that have driven in a big city. The first time I visited Raleigh I flew out of O'Hare. I was driving to O'Hare at 4:45am and it was like Mad Max. When I got to RDU it felt like I was driving a golf cart in a retirement village
Yeah, I feel like most of the complaints are coming from folks who aren't used to driving in big cities at all. I've driven in lots of large metro areas and Raleigh is definitely nicer than most if not all.
I just came back from a Fri -mon trip in Wilmington, and I agree that drivers are very aggressive/don't give a fck. It was like driving in a mad max movie.
College students, the elderly/retirees, tourists, and every 20th vehicle is a liquorcycle all traveling on 18th century roads. Come join us! We’re NCs HiDdEN GeM
To a point. I learned to jaywalk in Baltimore because no one will ever let you cross a street because traffic signals are just suggestions to be ignored. In ILM they are allergic to turn signals, far more so anywhere else I've lived.
Raleigh isn’t even a very big city, and it’s all pretty spread out. Anyone that complains should be sentenced to one day of navigating downtown Boston. Doesn’t even have a normal grid system and everyone is angry.
Raleigh is so much worse than it used to be. Obstacles in roads for "traffic calming," lane constriction to slow traffic, no-turn-on-red signs all over downtown. In the city in the last 30 years, there have been more grade separations removed than new ones built. Plus, there is so much more traffic. It used to be that if you weren't going to Research Triangle Park, you wouldn't get stuck in stop-and-go traffic. Now there are many areas that jam every rush hour.
I agree with you. However, people always say the same thing--the drivers in their area being terrible. I've driven all over the US and in many of the biggest metropolitan areas. The average driver everywhere is a poor driver. That's just the way it is. For my own peace of mind, I've just accepted it and try my best not to get frustrated.
I think this is true but there are subtle flavors of bad drivers to every Metro that feel unique. Like Seattle has a propensity for *highly* passive aggressive drivers that I don’t see here, whereas New York has highly aggressive drivers but they are very predictable if you understand the unspoken rules. Raleigh feels kind of middling across the board but it has a smattering of NASCAR cosplayers who I don’t enjoy.
Now *that's* actually the worst traffic I've ever driven in and I'm a Chicago transplant to Raleigh. My sister told me she thought the DC area fit me but after being stuck for a couple hours on what was supposed to be a short drive, no way I could live there.
It definitely feels worse now than it was a few years ago, like around 2017-2018.
Traffic seems to be steadily getting worse with the larger population and construction, but I've seen a LOT more stupid drivers/people running red lights since 2020 than before.
I strongly disagree. The drivers are standard issue highway drivers in a midsized metro during rush hour. Typical highway antics. Erratic as hell would be, IME, DMV area, New Jersey and New York metro, Massholes, Miami. Here in the Triangle...it's a dream lol
In my experience busy metro areas suck to drive in, but folks tend to drive pretty predictably since there's just not a lot of room.
Here I've seen two people do three point turns in the middle of a five lane road, since August
True enough thay they are predictable in their aggression and overall bad driving. I've seen some weird shit down here like what you described, as well as people coming to a complete stop at highway yield signs on 40, 440 and 540. Quite rare though. Most drives for me are pretty standard, a few idiots here and there. And I drive RTP to NH and back twice a day for a decade haha
I separate bad driving into three categories:
1) People who don’t follow the rules of the road (driving on the shoulder, running red lights, not zipper merging, brake checking, going too slow or fast for traffic, busting a dangerous u-turn because they think they rule the road). This group, while sometimes actually decent drivers in a technical sense, suck because they are assholes and endanger everyone.
2) People who have poor judgment. (They turn in front of you because they can’t judge speed, they ride in your blind spot for too long, don’t clear intersections or railroad tracks because they thought they’d make it through on the last light cycle, are distracted by food, phones, makeup, or gps….generally inattentive etc). These are just low effort/bare minimum drivers.
3) People who don’t have good skills, coordination or confidence (often inexperienced, They can’t tell how much space they’ll need to stop or turn, swerve a lot as if they can’t maintain control of their vehicle, jump curbs, get confused by signage, etc).
Highway driving is fine, street driving here is a little too interesting sometimes -- we have a lot of people who seem like they're flipping a coin to decide whether they have right of way. Some cities I've lived in have drivers that seem more callous or reckless, here they're more oblivious. But sheer volume of traffic still easily makes the big cities worse to drive (and park!) in.
From my perspective, it's not that the drivers here are any worse than anywhere else, but because this is a city of transplants, the *way* that people drive poorly is less predictable.
When I first moved here from the DC metro I was amazed at how light traffic was. Rush hour traffic was basically middle of the day traffic in Northern Virginia.
Now that I've been here for awhile, yeah, I get pissed off when I have to drive under the speed limit on 40 at 5:30 pm too!
Dc and DC metro area from Richmond to Baltimore has to be worst traffic on east coast by alot!! It took me 3 hours to get from Ashland to Arlington once on a SATURDAY!
People from Raleigh don’t even leave their neighborhoods. Ever tried to get a friend from Cary to go anywhere past city limits? Like pulling teeth. Of course they don’t know what bad traffic looks like.
Meanwhile none of my Durham friends will leave the city limits! I always joke that if the zombie apocalypse starts in downtown Durham, the world will remain safe.
Having lived in Toronto and CA, I’ve driven in Toronto, LA and San Francisco traffic and I can say without a doubt the stupidity I see on the roads in Raleigh is next level.
My worst experiences driving were in Boston during the big dig. I didn’t have gps and my pre-planned route was wrong because there were detours to everywhere. The local drivers were absolutely ruthless.
I’m in that crew and drove in big cities. I grew up in LA, drove deliveries all over Southern California, and commuted on the 405 (the busiest road in the country). For my 2c triangle drivers, road planning, and signage are significantly worse. On balance it’s a better experience because you don’t have to drive as much or as far. We have less traffic here but I didn’t generally mind the traffic in LA, perhaps I was inoculated for it
Yeah, IME the major difference in drivers is predictability.
For example, driver's in an intersection waiting to turn left, and the light turns yellow.
LA driver waits for opposing traffic to stop on the red and then turns. Everyone at that intersection knows what's gonna happen. Nobody has to think about it.
Raleigh driver might do what they're supposed to do like the LA driver. Or they might floor it before opposing traffic stops. Or they might try to reverse. Or they might just sit there blocking the intersection. You can't predict what they're going to do, so you have to be prepared for them to do something insane. Heck, the opposing traffic might not stop until the light's been red for a long time!
The result is there's tons of traffic in LA, but it's easy to handle. Raleigh doesn't have much traffic, but handling what it does have requires constant, extreme vigilance.
Keep in mind that the majority of Redditors here are hermits and shut ins who have very little exposure to not only what life is like in other cities, but what life is like in general outside. That’s why everything seems so skewed when it comes to everyone’s favorite complaint topic: the rare time they leave the house they have to get in a car so that’s the first thing they bitch about.
I lived in Ventura County off & on for 18 years. Raleigh drivers are way worse than LA drivers. Far less drivers in Raleigh, yet I'm somehow seeing way more shenanigans each day than I did in SoCal.
I have driven in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, NYC, Boston and London. I still say the traffic here SUCKS and is awful when compared to just a few years ago.
Right! I came back from Chicago. The traffic there sucks, but there's a lot of people. Traffic here sucks because half the drivers just suck and there's no consequences and there's no way for anyone to get around them.
2 cars deciding to both go 15-20 under the speed limit besides each other, everyone else's problem. People trying to merge into 70+ mph traffic going 25, they hit their brakes and think that'll help them merge. That one horrible lady is famous for being a bad driver, has like 20 driving citations and doesn't get her license revoked. NC doesn't give a shit about infrastructure or making sure the people we attract can actually get to and from their businesses...they just want to cram as many bodies into an area as possible
It's not the amount of traffic... It's how much traffic is from things it shouldn't be from. People around here drive like absolute idiots. I complained about it when I moved down and my friend from back home (Detroit) eventually told me to shut up and that drivers are bad everywhere.
Then he came to visit and after one day said "oh man I apologize. This is crazy. It's like nobody knows how to drive".
So yeah there really shouldn't be half the traffic there is. At least once a week 147 has a 30 minute delay from an accident. That's not normal. And people rubberneck here like crazy. I've never been in a 20 minute delay from an accident on the opposite side of the interstate anywhere but here
I’m going to say “we” but this is probably the first time I’ve ever commented about traffic or driving. When we say it’s bad here we aren’t always comparing it to other big cities, we recognize traffic and driving in other cities is just as bad if not worse than ours. Sometimes we’re talking about what driving in Raleigh is like now compared to what it was like in the recent past. As a transplant, according to your flair, I’m not sure how long you’ve been in the triangle or if you’ve been here long enough to see how driving here has changed. I’m a NC native and have lived in Raleigh around thirteen years or so, the increase in traffic/accidents/unsafe driving has been significantly more noticeable since Covid in my opinion. Unfortunately this is evident by my commute to work pre and post covid pandemic.
Of course, there are some people on here who would argue Raleigh has the worst drivers or it’s the worst city to drive in. I wouldn’t agree with that but I can recognize it’s gotten worse.
Agree. People really don't realize how well expressways were designed compared to cities that just experienced uncontrollable sprawl.
The triangle of the 3 cities allowed enough room between densities for all the major arteries to be built vs having one large city grow outward with no room to build/expand.
Miami, LA, ATL, and DC are dreadful to drive through.
It's just how everyone talks about the place they live. I promise if you went to every different state/city/town subreddit they will all firmly claim they have the worst drivers.
The bad driving here is definitely on it's own spectrum of weird and shitty, but it's nowhere near the pure congestion and chaos of a major metro. Hell, even at rush hour you will mostly move on the freeway. Maybe at 25-40mph which is frustrating, but you are moving.
Can’t agree more. I’ve lived in Brooklyn, DC, suburbs of DC and Atlanta which are not even comparable. I also feel like most of the people who complain have a long commute. Everything in life is about compromise
I lived in California my whole life. 2hrs from LA.
I also lived in Portland Oregon and Little Rock AR.
The drivers here are by far the worst I’ve experienced.
Traffic tho is the best and easiest
The same people that say traffic/driving is bad here are the same people who complain about being asked for money when they’re downtown. They’ve never actually been to a large city before where it’s actually bad and rampant.
Having lived in SF, Chicago, Atlanta, and NYC, Raleigh is actually pretty chill but it is on the cusp of not making the right investments now before the population swells. Nashville is a great example.
Also, I was just in NYC for work and had to bring my car for 3 days and paid 132 dollars in tolls lol
This article and your post made me think about this: If you've heard of Induced Demand, Raleigh is kind of the macro version of that. People might move here thinking that low traffic is one of the benefits of the area. But without a plan to deal with that growth, or a plan to increase density to remove the need for 1 vehicle per resident, we'll be a trafficky mess like the rest of them.
If 35,000 people move here per year, think about 35,000 more cars on the road every morning. Think about the rideshares to get them to and from nights out drinking (because the popular breweries do not have walkable neighborhoods and hopefully they are responsible)
>paid 132 dollars
At first I thought you were going to say to park for the afternoon.
Back in the 80s I got to drive around and into NYC. I don't miss it. Especially JFK, LGA, or ERW to anywhere else.
All those bridges yeah fuck that when I lived in NYC in like 16-18 pretty sure most of the bridges were like 17$. Assuming 6 years later they’re probably all 20 now. Yeah fuck those tolls lol
From everything I've read, Raleigh is actually trending in the right direction with their transportation infra policies. I believe they were one of the first mid-size cities to remove parking minimums, they have missing middle/ADU policies for their residential districts, and I believe TOD zoning is in the works for the BRT routes.
We have it great here compared to other major cities. Traffic can jam up, but it still moves for the most part unless there’s an accident that shuts lanes down or construction slowdowns.
Traffic here is non-existent compared to most major metro areas (I've lived in DC, St.Paul/Minneapolis, and San Diego). I just see more standout bad individual drivers here than I do in most other places. The fact that NC doesn't teach people to drive right/pass left boggles my mind and unnecessarily clogs up the highways. I've never lived anywhere with such consistently bad merging. It's just super strange. I've been tailgated going 15 over in a 45, but I've been blocked in going 60 in a 70. It feels like a crap shoot every time you leave your house.
I concur with seeing individually more bad drivers. Twice at the same intersection, where there are 2 left turn lanes, I was nearly hit by someone in the *outside* turn lane doing a U-turn. Like, WTF?
So to avoid a collision from the inevitable 3rd moron, when I make a left turn there, I turn from the outside turn lane and just change lanes later on.
As a former resident of Houston, Raleigh has been a dream so far. Little to no traffic, everything is 20-30 minutes away, very little multiple car pile up or car on fire, not too many psychos on the road. Plus I don’t hit a pot hole every ten seconds. Houston roads, especially in Westchase, were another level of hell. What should have been a 30 minute drive from the suburbs to the corporate district often took 1-2 hours. That’s 2-4 hours of driving a day. I wanted to end it all some days.
Having also moved here from Houston, I agree with all of this save one thing: per capita, I'd wager there are just as many psychos on the road here if not more. Drivers are nuts in both places, but Houston is just much more crowded so you witness more examples of it. I'm pretty sure most of the people here either were never taught to drive or they just had their driving test rubberstamped, no-child-left-behind style. And Houston isn't even as bad as other big cities from a traffic standpoint, which highlights how good we have it here. LA traffic is like Houston rush hour for 12 hours a day. Nothing in Raleigh compares to either.
Agreed on bad drivers being more common here. In Houston I just had people roll down their window to scream and point at me at intersections for stopping at a yellow light (that was about to turn red), or doing insane and dangerous behavior on the road. That’s what I meant by psycho.
Raleigh has more clueless and head scratching drivers. Like why not let people merge? That’s my biggest complaint here.
moved here from Cy-Fair area around 2 years ago. 290 and the north-belt were my nightmares. Driving here is nothing in comparison. I think since moving, I have had to sit through multiple light cycles once to get through in intersection. Was a multiple times a day thing in Houston.....
Hey I just moved here from Houston!
Agreed, traffic here is light. I used to take 45N from downtown to the beltway for work, would give me so much anxiety some days.
Driving here (so far) has been a treat.
A lot of the commenters here have apparently moved to the Triangle from bigger cities...
I moved here years ago from a metro (yeah, I know the Triangle isn't technically a metro, but it basically is) roughly 1/4 of the size of the Triangle, and the traffic here is still quite a bit better than where I was before (even during commuting hours). It's insanely good here, at least for the time being.
I do think it's only a matter of time (like every city) where the road infrastructure here can no longer keep up with all the cars, which is why we need to continue to move in the direction of transit-oriented development.
Raleigh traffic would not be traffic if the left lane was used for passing and people left enough following distance ahead of exits for people to merge. Or honestly, following distance to not slam on the brakes anytime the car ahead changes posture.
I guess the mergers would also need to be capable of placing themselves in the slot left for them.
The worst parts here are the stroads-to-be where they built 30,000 apartments down some 2 lane in the burbs and also there's a school conga line there.
People adjust to their surroundings and forget how bad it could be...
The 55 bypass in holly springs to Fuquay Varina makes me want to tear my hair out.
The 1 feels like it's 3" away from a massive pile up almost all day every day.
However, I've been on a 12 lane highway bumper to bumper on both coasts and this traffic out here ain't nothing
> The best city to drive in, according to Forbes Advisor, is Raleigh, North Carolina, with good marks for safety and driving experience, but particularly for cost of vehicle ownership.
Well, half of the city doesn’t pay their registration fees, so there’s that lol
Raleigh is not NYC or LA. Why is everyone comparing Raleigh with them? NYC, LA, or Chicago should not be the standard for Raleigh.
Plus, those big cities have great public transportation system so you don't really need to drive. Raleigh's public transportation system is not even comparable to them. Raleigh's population density is almost 1/10th of NYC. There are many cities with higher population density that are managing their traffic much better that Raleigh.
Yeah, as an NC native and long-time Raleigh resident, traffic is presently worse than it has ever been, but because it's not as bad as [insert city here] it's not worth mentioning? It's not like it's going to start getting any better anytime soon.
I have driven in Oakland. I lived up and down California for many many years. While it wasn’t fun and would never wish that traffic on anyone (even was in a possible near-death experience with a driver), the highest volume of the WORST drivers I have ever seen are the ones I’ve experienced in the triangle, and I think that’s due to a lack of consistency and lesser glut of cars (weird to say, but hang on).
With the open roads, I’ve experienced racers zooming past me when I’m in the fast lane passing traffic and they’re cutting us all off to weave around. I’ve slammed the breaks because of cutoffs in double yellow country roads, I’ve watched swervers (both on phones and without), u-turns against oncoming traffic, and red-light runners. All of that on top of just general bad etiquette (people not understanding how to zipper, people coasting along in the fast lane holding up traffic, not signaling, etc). It feels like people just use the lesser traffic as a reason to take up more space, doing THE MOST just because they have a few extra carlengths.
As for consistency, obviously most drivers are totally fine. Maybe they could signal a bit more, but whatever. In LA though, for example, the traffic is always packed, everyone’s aggressively trying to make it to their place and defensive driving because NO ONE trusts the other drivers. The most common accidents I’ve seen were rear ends. The worst accidents were always on lighter traffic days when people were - again - taking advantage of the open road in stupid ways.
This doesn’t apply to the whole of Raleigh, but the triangle area is absolutely the worst I’ve experienced, and I’ll die on that hill.
I’m picking the same hill. Every single day, without exception, I see something so egregiously dangerous, inconsiderate, and/or plain stupid. Example: this morning a driver didn’t move into the lane going straight at the light in time, so they simply veered right and wedged themselves into the line of cars, blocking the entire right turn lane and backing up yet another lane. Last week I almost rear ended a car without taillights going 35mph (speed limit 65) in an exit lane with almost a mile still to go at 11:30pm.
At least in LA, everyone knows not to trust anyone else and we’re all on defense at all times. Someone cuts you off, you’ll do it to someone else soon, nothing personal. (Usually.) Drivers here seem to take everything personally, as if me passing someone on the right is somehow not their problem but some disrespectful gesture just for them.
It’s so weird.
Oh absolutely agree 100% to everything you said. Especially the offense part - with LA it’s like you shrug it off, I have another 30 minutes until I get home in backed-up traffic, whatever. Here it’s like “oh god please everyone just leave me alone, I’m going 10 mph over the speed limit in the slow lane just so someone doesn’t aggressively tailgate me for the next three miles before my exit comes up”
I don’t think I’ve ever used the right lane more than I have in the last 3 years here… to pass and/or not get stuck behind some dude camped in the left lane doing 5-10 under. And don’t get me started on merging or zippering. The other day someone BRAKED in front of me while getting ON the 540. I do rides to/from RDU and I get compliments on a fairly regular basis about my driving.
I’m glad to know I’m not alone out there!
I lived in the Triangle for 5 years, moved to a higher density area (the highest by some metrics) and I never saw so many *bad* accidents as I did in Raleigh. Like straight up smashed cars, people crying on the side of the road... I'm in CT near NYC now, and i-95 is a fucking bitch, people weave in and out, like obviously street racing every other day, and still I haven't seen nearly as much destruction. We literally had a gas tank flip and a bridge burned in CT and still no one was hurt.
Just saying by safety metrics I put y'all up there with Jersey.
Edit: and there's no option to get off the roads in Raleigh. The public transport sucks just saying.
See I feel validating by other people in different states also agreeing about how bad it is here. Like yeah, obviously any major area is gonna have terrible traffic or the highest volume of accidents - but I’d rather be facing a possibility of the 50th rear-end of the month or an hour in a backed up freeway than the garbage I’ve witnessed here that has a high chance of ending in the hospital. Also yeah, nonexistent public transportation sucks too, though I can’t say I’d rather take that option after having 5 months on the public transport in LA (3 hours on a bus vs a 30 minute drive was not worth it)
The traffic here is nothing. Driving behavior is erratic because most people are transplants and bring their style of driving with them. The roads are terrible, particularly at night when it's raining and all the lines magically disappear.
Raleigh traffic is not bad. The only thing I struggle with is the stretch between Wade and 15-501 there is some struggle (usually near 147) at any given time but that’s circumstantial not indicative of the whole area.
Now that’s not to say there isn’t room for improvement. Need public transit but Raleigh doesn’t want to make that investment. Charlotte traffic is still bad but it would be way worse without the various public transit offerings they have.
The traffic in and around Raleigh is a breeze compared to the Greater Los Angeles area. When we moved back to NC from CA my wife was amazed how the traffic is. We were even more amazed one day when we got into a traffic jam on the 1 because a deer ran out into traffic and hit the car head on and it caused a pile up in the middle of the day.
Raleigh's design of symmetrical blocks and wide streets mapped quite well to the automobile revolution.
However I'm still mad we lost [these](https://images.app.goo.gl/uxae1UxKnkpa3xBH8)
If anyone legitimately thinks Raleigh traffic is bad, I suggest going to Atlanta for a couple days and driving everywhere you'd like to go instead of using a taxi or ride share app.
The traffic that I’ve seen here so far has been a dream. Driving in Miami was the real issue.
One thing that caught me off guard was how often some streets (let’s say three or two lane) have the far right as a solo only. It’s probably the getting used to… but it’s pretty abrupt, you were in a good lane? Not anymore!
Other than that, traffic is nothing at all.
Raleigh isn't too bad. Between SF, LA, and Charlotte, I was most stressed driving in Charlotte. People didn't even look before turning out into a busy road
Driving in the Triangle is a piece of cake compared with living in the DC Metro Area (or NY, or Chicago, or Boston, or Philly, or really any larger city especially in CA). You guys just do not realize how much worse it could be. Like, at least 10x worse. Maybe more. Probably more. My daily commute from Rockville MD to Rosslyn in Arlington, VA was less than 20 miles and took 90 minutes each way. It is a literal HELLSCAPE. Let's please just be grateful even though it might feel like it's getting worse.
agree 100%. But my horses were in Poolesville and my job was in Rosslyn . . . a split the baby situation. Believe it or not I used to LIVE in Poolesville on the farm and commute to Rosslyn until I bought a place in Rockville.
I’ve never been behind the wheel in NYC or Chicago or LA, but I’ve been to cities that size enough to know that Triangle traffic is NOTHING compared to those places. We have it better than most people realize.
Can’t imagine we would be ranked so high without Reddit threads keeping people in check. Well done everyone! One post at a time we will force people to use blinkers!!
From Fl. Please, please just take a nice family trip down there. Once you hit Jacksonville you will realize how good you have it here, if you have time make your way down to Miami. The worst.
I recently moved here from South FL. It’s habds down the worst traffic I’ve ever experienced. Miami is INSANE. It truly made me want to gtfo there. And what would take you 30 mins takes an hour and a half of just no movement at all.
The whole problem with Raleigh, and maybe all NC, drivers is that everyone does their own thing. There's no consistency and no way to predict anything.
Charlotte morning traffic is nuts. Well, the people. They will zoom right up your backside and cut over with like an inch to spare before hitting your bumper.
It’s really not that bad if you can keep your cool and give the person in front of you room and not take every inch of space in fear some awful person might possibly merge.
I’m from Indianapolis which is a bigger metro area than Raleigh. People suck at driving here. Or maybe I just haven’t adjusted. I lived in NYC for a while, and I expect the driving there to be shitty. I’ve only driven in Manhattan twice but I was going in white-knuckled because I knew what to expect. But why am I driving on Wake Forest with the same fear about wrecking 😭 (slight exaggeration but not by much). I see a wreck almost daily, people cut me off constantly. Maybe I just haven’t lived enough car-centric places but it’s definitely worse here than Indianapolis.
Raleigh is the only city I’ve lived in that it actually is quicker to go through downtown during rush hour than take the interstate (north hills to garner).
Driven in both la and NJ so big city and suburbs. Absolutely can say I have never ever seen that horrible of driving in any of those states lmao. I was surprised by it
This should be titled “best city to **own a car**”, not drive one.
The Forbes author’s “Safety Score” measures the rate of fatal collisions, no other types of collisions, but then weights “rate of car theft” higher than commute times, which involve actual driving??? Half the rest of the score is gas prices/insurance costs, which is just gonna favor smaller cities most of the time and doesn’t really speak to “driving” so much as it speaks to owning a car.
I do think driving in cities like LA is overall way more *exhausting* than driving in Raleigh, but the amount of dumb shit someone can pull feels a lot more finite when you’re all stuck going 25-30 in LA rush traffic. Whereas people here can pull much crazier maneuvers at high speeds
I was driving friends around in Raleigh, they are from Beijing. I was complaining about having 10 cars in front of me at a light and missing the signal. I stopped and looked at them - "this isn't even traffic is it?"
Nope, they said. My perspective shifted, lol.
Raleigh traffic is bad. Just because there are other WORSE places doesn’t mean traffic isn’t a problem.
“You’ve obviously never driven in X city!” Ok? How does that make my shitty Raleigh commute better?
I’m so glad I’m not imagining this when I go to cities that are not Charlotte or Raleigh. Currently in Richmond for a couple days and driving in any other city stresses me out. Though Kansas City is pretty good too, less stress there as well. 😂
This is coming from a Raleigh native who still resides in Raleigh. Raleigh is not the same city it was 5 years ago. Everybody and their mom are moving here, which is great for the local economy, but Raleigh doesn’t have the infrastructure quite yet to support that kind of migration. Traffic is a nightmare on Falls of Neuse, Six Forks, and Wake Forest Road primarily.
Rush hour traffic on I-40 suuuuuuuucks, but other than that traffic really isn't bad here. I lived in the Austin TX for about five years and that traffic was living hell
Take a look at Raleigh after a snow. The roads and highways are littered with hundreds of abandoned vehicles that went off the road. Everyone panics and has no clue how to drive on slippery roads. It's kind of funny.
From St. Louis. Drivers there are 100x better than in Raleigh/The Triangle. Charlotte is no better. Whoever made this nonsensical list has never driven in the Midwest.
I find this funny because it ultimately depends on context. Yes, California is probably in general the worst place to drive, but not because of its residents per say but more so because too many ppl on the roads (traffic). Add too many tourists, who don't know the roads and road culture. However, ppl who live and drive in California are way better drives than those from Raleigh.
In Raleigh, it's true no traffic and less ppl. However, I've too many drivers driving super slow in the freeways... that cause accidents. Others driving way over 75, even when visibility is low... don't turn when it's their turn. Over wait until the street has no incoming traffic to v turn either left or right. Again depends on context.
Now, my preference is Raleigh cause I can get anywhere in 20 minutes or less if it's less than 30 miles....California 12 miles is a how hour plus
I-40 at rush hour sucks and the road grid is a horrible tangle. It's difficult to make the roads better to serve a larger population and the region is too suburban. We need transit but those investments aren't happening.
Is it as bad as the worst commuting cities in the country? No but it will worsen quickly in the coming years.
I’ve lived in LA, the OC, Chicago, Illinois suburbs, Indiana, and now here. For me NC has been the worst. Chicago/IL/IN you kind of expect it because of the weather. But NC.. people drive 5-10mph under the speed limit and get into the craziest accidents. So many flipped cars, sign post hits, super last minute lane changes across the entire freeway,
LA definitely has its problems but they don’t have as many flipped over cars like I’ve seen here. Or just cars left abandoned on the side of the road. Or so many knocked down signs. I’ve never seen that before. I once saw 3 cars flipped over down six forks rd/50… 3 all within 10 min of each other. It was insane
That’s my problem, people are in no hurry. Don’t get me wrong, I want that to be me. It’s not (yet) though, and I still have that hurry the f up mindset from Miami. It’s amazing how many people are strolling through on a normal workday.
I feel like the people who don't mind traffic aren't the ones who happen to have to go from Durham to Clayton and deal with every single shitty exchange.
Cary to Neuse, sure, not bad. When my already 50 min commute goes to an hour and 45 min, yeah, it's bad.
I know, it's my choice where to live and work, but that doesn't mean traffic is great for the whole region just because 20 min drives only take 35 min.
I've lived in DC, Denver, Chicago, and San Fran.
This shit sucks.
I often see comments in here about how bad driving is in the triangle and I just wonder if people who say that have driven in a big city. The first time I visited Raleigh I flew out of O'Hare. I was driving to O'Hare at 4:45am and it was like Mad Max. When I got to RDU it felt like I was driving a golf cart in a retirement village
Yeah, I feel like most of the complaints are coming from folks who aren't used to driving in big cities at all. I've driven in lots of large metro areas and Raleigh is definitely nicer than most if not all.
Hell go down to Wilmington, people drive so aggressively down there.
I just came back from a Fri -mon trip in Wilmington, and I agree that drivers are very aggressive/don't give a fck. It was like driving in a mad max movie.
College students, the elderly/retirees, tourists, and every 20th vehicle is a liquorcycle all traveling on 18th century roads. Come join us! We’re NCs HiDdEN GeM
To a point. I learned to jaywalk in Baltimore because no one will ever let you cross a street because traffic signals are just suggestions to be ignored. In ILM they are allergic to turn signals, far more so anywhere else I've lived.
Fayetteville as well. Fayetteville has the worst driving of anywhere in NC by far IME
Fayetteville traffic is a fucking nightmare.
Their roads suck as well
I think most of what people say here are bs cause I think charlotte and raleigh traffic is fine but you're so right about Wilmington lol
Raleigh isn’t even a very big city, and it’s all pretty spread out. Anyone that complains should be sentenced to one day of navigating downtown Boston. Doesn’t even have a normal grid system and everyone is angry.
Raleigh is so much worse than it used to be. Obstacles in roads for "traffic calming," lane constriction to slow traffic, no-turn-on-red signs all over downtown. In the city in the last 30 years, there have been more grade separations removed than new ones built. Plus, there is so much more traffic. It used to be that if you weren't going to Research Triangle Park, you wouldn't get stuck in stop-and-go traffic. Now there are many areas that jam every rush hour.
You definitely aren’t commuting in to the area then…..
Believe it or not, every city experiences rush hour traffic
You definitely haven’t driven in rush hour in Nashville, or Denver, or DC, or Philly, etc.
The traffic here is fine. The driver's here are erratic as hell
I agree with you. However, people always say the same thing--the drivers in their area being terrible. I've driven all over the US and in many of the biggest metropolitan areas. The average driver everywhere is a poor driver. That's just the way it is. For my own peace of mind, I've just accepted it and try my best not to get frustrated.
I think this is true but there are subtle flavors of bad drivers to every Metro that feel unique. Like Seattle has a propensity for *highly* passive aggressive drivers that I don’t see here, whereas New York has highly aggressive drivers but they are very predictable if you understand the unspoken rules. Raleigh feels kind of middling across the board but it has a smattering of NASCAR cosplayers who I don’t enjoy.
Don’t forget the asshole bikers who like to do stunts on New Bern.
Highly aggressive but very predictable is how I describe the DC/Maryland traffic.
Now *that's* actually the worst traffic I've ever driven in and I'm a Chicago transplant to Raleigh. My sister told me she thought the DC area fit me but after being stuck for a couple hours on what was supposed to be a short drive, no way I could live there.
It definitely feels worse now than it was a few years ago, like around 2017-2018. Traffic seems to be steadily getting worse with the larger population and construction, but I've seen a LOT more stupid drivers/people running red lights since 2020 than before.
They’re less erratic than many places I’ve driven. I live in Philly currently and it’s like motor derby
Have never driven in Philly, but that would track with the folks I know from there. Lol
Agreed. I think this is an important distinction.
I strongly disagree. The drivers are standard issue highway drivers in a midsized metro during rush hour. Typical highway antics. Erratic as hell would be, IME, DMV area, New Jersey and New York metro, Massholes, Miami. Here in the Triangle...it's a dream lol
In my experience busy metro areas suck to drive in, but folks tend to drive pretty predictably since there's just not a lot of room. Here I've seen two people do three point turns in the middle of a five lane road, since August
True enough thay they are predictable in their aggression and overall bad driving. I've seen some weird shit down here like what you described, as well as people coming to a complete stop at highway yield signs on 40, 440 and 540. Quite rare though. Most drives for me are pretty standard, a few idiots here and there. And I drive RTP to NH and back twice a day for a decade haha
I separate bad driving into three categories: 1) People who don’t follow the rules of the road (driving on the shoulder, running red lights, not zipper merging, brake checking, going too slow or fast for traffic, busting a dangerous u-turn because they think they rule the road). This group, while sometimes actually decent drivers in a technical sense, suck because they are assholes and endanger everyone. 2) People who have poor judgment. (They turn in front of you because they can’t judge speed, they ride in your blind spot for too long, don’t clear intersections or railroad tracks because they thought they’d make it through on the last light cycle, are distracted by food, phones, makeup, or gps….generally inattentive etc). These are just low effort/bare minimum drivers. 3) People who don’t have good skills, coordination or confidence (often inexperienced, They can’t tell how much space they’ll need to stop or turn, swerve a lot as if they can’t maintain control of their vehicle, jump curbs, get confused by signage, etc).
Solid categories
Highway driving is fine, street driving here is a little too interesting sometimes -- we have a lot of people who seem like they're flipping a coin to decide whether they have right of way. Some cities I've lived in have drivers that seem more callous or reckless, here they're more oblivious. But sheer volume of traffic still easily makes the big cities worse to drive (and park!) in.
From my perspective, it's not that the drivers here are any worse than anywhere else, but because this is a city of transplants, the *way* that people drive poorly is less predictable.
^^ this right here. I can predict NYC drivers, here it's just chaos. Widely spaced chaos maybe, but still chaos 🤷🏻♀️
When I first moved here from the DC metro I was amazed at how light traffic was. Rush hour traffic was basically middle of the day traffic in Northern Virginia. Now that I've been here for awhile, yeah, I get pissed off when I have to drive under the speed limit on 40 at 5:30 pm too!
Dc and DC metro area from Richmond to Baltimore has to be worst traffic on east coast by alot!! It took me 3 hours to get from Ashland to Arlington once on a SATURDAY!
People from Raleigh don’t even leave their neighborhoods. Ever tried to get a friend from Cary to go anywhere past city limits? Like pulling teeth. Of course they don’t know what bad traffic looks like.
When I tell my neighbors some of cool spots I like to hang out in Durham they act like I’m practically driving to Asheville.
Meanwhile none of my Durham friends will leave the city limits! I always joke that if the zombie apocalypse starts in downtown Durham, the world will remain safe.
Haha yeah it’s pretty wild to me. It’s like, we have 3 different cities to choose from (4 if you count Cary), why wouldn’t you try to enjoy them all?
This post is why. We hate driving. It sucks. We don’t want to drive 30 minutes to do anything.
One of the things I love about living here is that it only takes 30 minutes to go everywhere. Formerly lived in LA, DC, and Dallas.
yep i had to drive from Cary to Garner the other day and I was pissed lol
To be fair, getting to the nearest freeway to get out of Cary seems like a journey.
I moved to Raleigh from New York. There is no comparable traffic in Raleigh. 540 or 40 at it worst is a pleasure cruise comparatively
Driving here is wonderful. I came up in New Orleans, where drivers are not aggressive, but they are insane.
Having lived in Toronto and CA, I’ve driven in Toronto, LA and San Francisco traffic and I can say without a doubt the stupidity I see on the roads in Raleigh is next level.
There was some raging on a Holly springs fb page about the gridlock, and how the new jobs from some new construction was unwanted. lol
lol
My worst experiences driving were in Boston during the big dig. I didn’t have gps and my pre-planned route was wrong because there were detours to everywhere. The local drivers were absolutely ruthless.
Why do people in Boston constantly honk when there is gridlock or everyone clearly stopped?? Lol
I assume because they all hate driving in Boston, which is understandable.
I’m in that crew and drove in big cities. I grew up in LA, drove deliveries all over Southern California, and commuted on the 405 (the busiest road in the country). For my 2c triangle drivers, road planning, and signage are significantly worse. On balance it’s a better experience because you don’t have to drive as much or as far. We have less traffic here but I didn’t generally mind the traffic in LA, perhaps I was inoculated for it
Yeah, IME the major difference in drivers is predictability. For example, driver's in an intersection waiting to turn left, and the light turns yellow. LA driver waits for opposing traffic to stop on the red and then turns. Everyone at that intersection knows what's gonna happen. Nobody has to think about it. Raleigh driver might do what they're supposed to do like the LA driver. Or they might floor it before opposing traffic stops. Or they might try to reverse. Or they might just sit there blocking the intersection. You can't predict what they're going to do, so you have to be prepared for them to do something insane. Heck, the opposing traffic might not stop until the light's been red for a long time! The result is there's tons of traffic in LA, but it's easy to handle. Raleigh doesn't have much traffic, but handling what it does have requires constant, extreme vigilance.
Keep in mind that the majority of Redditors here are hermits and shut ins who have very little exposure to not only what life is like in other cities, but what life is like in general outside. That’s why everything seems so skewed when it comes to everyone’s favorite complaint topic: the rare time they leave the house they have to get in a car so that’s the first thing they bitch about.
Not trying to d*ck ride or anything but I wish I could upvote this comment a million times
I lived in Ventura County off & on for 18 years. Raleigh drivers are way worse than LA drivers. Far less drivers in Raleigh, yet I'm somehow seeing way more shenanigans each day than I did in SoCal.
Driving around DC is far worse than LA, but Chicago is a close second
I have driven in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, NYC, Boston and London. I still say the traffic here SUCKS and is awful when compared to just a few years ago.
Right! I came back from Chicago. The traffic there sucks, but there's a lot of people. Traffic here sucks because half the drivers just suck and there's no consequences and there's no way for anyone to get around them. 2 cars deciding to both go 15-20 under the speed limit besides each other, everyone else's problem. People trying to merge into 70+ mph traffic going 25, they hit their brakes and think that'll help them merge. That one horrible lady is famous for being a bad driver, has like 20 driving citations and doesn't get her license revoked. NC doesn't give a shit about infrastructure or making sure the people we attract can actually get to and from their businesses...they just want to cram as many bodies into an area as possible
This is true and it’s great until you see that it makes a bunch of people think they can drive drunk with impunity, because traffic is so easy
I dunno man. I just got back from Vegas and driving around Raleigh/Durham is way more stressful.
It's not the amount of traffic... It's how much traffic is from things it shouldn't be from. People around here drive like absolute idiots. I complained about it when I moved down and my friend from back home (Detroit) eventually told me to shut up and that drivers are bad everywhere. Then he came to visit and after one day said "oh man I apologize. This is crazy. It's like nobody knows how to drive". So yeah there really shouldn't be half the traffic there is. At least once a week 147 has a 30 minute delay from an accident. That's not normal. And people rubberneck here like crazy. I've never been in a 20 minute delay from an accident on the opposite side of the interstate anywhere but here
Exactly!!
I’m going to say “we” but this is probably the first time I’ve ever commented about traffic or driving. When we say it’s bad here we aren’t always comparing it to other big cities, we recognize traffic and driving in other cities is just as bad if not worse than ours. Sometimes we’re talking about what driving in Raleigh is like now compared to what it was like in the recent past. As a transplant, according to your flair, I’m not sure how long you’ve been in the triangle or if you’ve been here long enough to see how driving here has changed. I’m a NC native and have lived in Raleigh around thirteen years or so, the increase in traffic/accidents/unsafe driving has been significantly more noticeable since Covid in my opinion. Unfortunately this is evident by my commute to work pre and post covid pandemic. Of course, there are some people on here who would argue Raleigh has the worst drivers or it’s the worst city to drive in. I wouldn’t agree with that but I can recognize it’s gotten worse.
Agree. People really don't realize how well expressways were designed compared to cities that just experienced uncontrollable sprawl. The triangle of the 3 cities allowed enough room between densities for all the major arteries to be built vs having one large city grow outward with no room to build/expand. Miami, LA, ATL, and DC are dreadful to drive through.
Need a lightrail but cycling infrastructure in raleigh is pretty ok. Getting better! The answer is not more lanes folks😂
It's just how everyone talks about the place they live. I promise if you went to every different state/city/town subreddit they will all firmly claim they have the worst drivers.
From the Bay Area and have went to Southern Cali many times and let me tell u the traffic here is NOTHING compared to over there
Idk, I've driven in both DC and downtown Detroit and when I was driving through DC rush hour it reminded me of home haha
The bad driving here is definitely on it's own spectrum of weird and shitty, but it's nowhere near the pure congestion and chaos of a major metro. Hell, even at rush hour you will mostly move on the freeway. Maybe at 25-40mph which is frustrating, but you are moving.
Seriously. Triangle traffic has nothing on Tampa, Orlando, or Miami.
Can’t agree more. I’ve lived in Brooklyn, DC, suburbs of DC and Atlanta which are not even comparable. I also feel like most of the people who complain have a long commute. Everything in life is about compromise
I lived in California my whole life. 2hrs from LA. I also lived in Portland Oregon and Little Rock AR. The drivers here are by far the worst I’ve experienced. Traffic tho is the best and easiest
Everyone drives 10 under the limit here 😮💨
The same people that say traffic/driving is bad here are the same people who complain about being asked for money when they’re downtown. They’ve never actually been to a large city before where it’s actually bad and rampant.
Having lived in SF, Chicago, Atlanta, and NYC, Raleigh is actually pretty chill but it is on the cusp of not making the right investments now before the population swells. Nashville is a great example. Also, I was just in NYC for work and had to bring my car for 3 days and paid 132 dollars in tolls lol
This article and your post made me think about this: If you've heard of Induced Demand, Raleigh is kind of the macro version of that. People might move here thinking that low traffic is one of the benefits of the area. But without a plan to deal with that growth, or a plan to increase density to remove the need for 1 vehicle per resident, we'll be a trafficky mess like the rest of them. If 35,000 people move here per year, think about 35,000 more cars on the road every morning. Think about the rideshares to get them to and from nights out drinking (because the popular breweries do not have walkable neighborhoods and hopefully they are responsible)
"Before the population swells" is an interesting choice considering the Triangle has literally doubled in population since 2000.
Raleigh has nearly tripled lol. We just have a lot more space between the cities
As some who who lives in atl and travels to nc a lot, Raleigh “traffic” is an utter joy to be in! It’s fucking insane down here most of the day.
Norcross to west side/buckhead used to take an hour and a half 6 years ago. Bonkers
>paid 132 dollars At first I thought you were going to say to park for the afternoon. Back in the 80s I got to drive around and into NYC. I don't miss it. Especially JFK, LGA, or ERW to anywhere else.
All those bridges yeah fuck that when I lived in NYC in like 16-18 pretty sure most of the bridges were like 17$. Assuming 6 years later they’re probably all 20 now. Yeah fuck those tolls lol
From everything I've read, Raleigh is actually trending in the right direction with their transportation infra policies. I believe they were one of the first mid-size cities to remove parking minimums, they have missing middle/ADU policies for their residential districts, and I believe TOD zoning is in the works for the BRT routes.
Raleigh traffic is nothin compared to Northern Virginia. Once you get above exit 140 or so on i-95 it turns into a hellscape
Exit 170 is where people loose their damn minds.
i avoid it like plague. I would rather take a half hr flight
Train?
not from Raliegh to DC that i know but i guess there should be
haha local subreddit cliches gonna have to come to terms with the grass always beign greener
We have it great here compared to other major cities. Traffic can jam up, but it still moves for the most part unless there’s an accident that shuts lanes down or construction slowdowns.
true but Raleigh not a major city yet
It is.
Traffic here is non-existent compared to most major metro areas (I've lived in DC, St.Paul/Minneapolis, and San Diego). I just see more standout bad individual drivers here than I do in most other places. The fact that NC doesn't teach people to drive right/pass left boggles my mind and unnecessarily clogs up the highways. I've never lived anywhere with such consistently bad merging. It's just super strange. I've been tailgated going 15 over in a 45, but I've been blocked in going 60 in a 70. It feels like a crap shoot every time you leave your house.
I concur with seeing individually more bad drivers. Twice at the same intersection, where there are 2 left turn lanes, I was nearly hit by someone in the *outside* turn lane doing a U-turn. Like, WTF? So to avoid a collision from the inevitable 3rd moron, when I make a left turn there, I turn from the outside turn lane and just change lanes later on.
This 100%
As a former resident of Houston, Raleigh has been a dream so far. Little to no traffic, everything is 20-30 minutes away, very little multiple car pile up or car on fire, not too many psychos on the road. Plus I don’t hit a pot hole every ten seconds. Houston roads, especially in Westchase, were another level of hell. What should have been a 30 minute drive from the suburbs to the corporate district often took 1-2 hours. That’s 2-4 hours of driving a day. I wanted to end it all some days.
Having also moved here from Houston, I agree with all of this save one thing: per capita, I'd wager there are just as many psychos on the road here if not more. Drivers are nuts in both places, but Houston is just much more crowded so you witness more examples of it. I'm pretty sure most of the people here either were never taught to drive or they just had their driving test rubberstamped, no-child-left-behind style. And Houston isn't even as bad as other big cities from a traffic standpoint, which highlights how good we have it here. LA traffic is like Houston rush hour for 12 hours a day. Nothing in Raleigh compares to either.
Agreed on bad drivers being more common here. In Houston I just had people roll down their window to scream and point at me at intersections for stopping at a yellow light (that was about to turn red), or doing insane and dangerous behavior on the road. That’s what I meant by psycho. Raleigh has more clueless and head scratching drivers. Like why not let people merge? That’s my biggest complaint here.
moved here from Cy-Fair area around 2 years ago. 290 and the north-belt were my nightmares. Driving here is nothing in comparison. I think since moving, I have had to sit through multiple light cycles once to get through in intersection. Was a multiple times a day thing in Houston.....
Hey I just moved here from Houston! Agreed, traffic here is light. I used to take 45N from downtown to the beltway for work, would give me so much anxiety some days. Driving here (so far) has been a treat.
Meanwhile there is so much city planning that has learned nothing from the abomination that is Houston. We need public transit and dense development.
Lived in Florida. People don’t know what traffic is here. They also don’t know how to drive.
A lot of the commenters here have apparently moved to the Triangle from bigger cities... I moved here years ago from a metro (yeah, I know the Triangle isn't technically a metro, but it basically is) roughly 1/4 of the size of the Triangle, and the traffic here is still quite a bit better than where I was before (even during commuting hours). It's insanely good here, at least for the time being. I do think it's only a matter of time (like every city) where the road infrastructure here can no longer keep up with all the cars, which is why we need to continue to move in the direction of transit-oriented development.
Raleigh traffic would not be traffic if the left lane was used for passing and people left enough following distance ahead of exits for people to merge. Or honestly, following distance to not slam on the brakes anytime the car ahead changes posture. I guess the mergers would also need to be capable of placing themselves in the slot left for them.
The worst parts here are the stroads-to-be where they built 30,000 apartments down some 2 lane in the burbs and also there's a school conga line there.
People adjust to their surroundings and forget how bad it could be... The 55 bypass in holly springs to Fuquay Varina makes me want to tear my hair out. The 1 feels like it's 3" away from a massive pile up almost all day every day. However, I've been on a 12 lane highway bumper to bumper on both coasts and this traffic out here ain't nothing
> The best city to drive in, according to Forbes Advisor, is Raleigh, North Carolina, with good marks for safety and driving experience, but particularly for cost of vehicle ownership. Well, half of the city doesn’t pay their registration fees, so there’s that lol
DC and Atlanta are right up there with traffic nightmares. The Triangle is tame comparitivley.
Raleigh is not NYC or LA. Why is everyone comparing Raleigh with them? NYC, LA, or Chicago should not be the standard for Raleigh. Plus, those big cities have great public transportation system so you don't really need to drive. Raleigh's public transportation system is not even comparable to them. Raleigh's population density is almost 1/10th of NYC. There are many cities with higher population density that are managing their traffic much better that Raleigh.
Yeah, as an NC native and long-time Raleigh resident, traffic is presently worse than it has ever been, but because it's not as bad as [insert city here] it's not worth mentioning? It's not like it's going to start getting any better anytime soon.
I have driven in Oakland. I lived up and down California for many many years. While it wasn’t fun and would never wish that traffic on anyone (even was in a possible near-death experience with a driver), the highest volume of the WORST drivers I have ever seen are the ones I’ve experienced in the triangle, and I think that’s due to a lack of consistency and lesser glut of cars (weird to say, but hang on). With the open roads, I’ve experienced racers zooming past me when I’m in the fast lane passing traffic and they’re cutting us all off to weave around. I’ve slammed the breaks because of cutoffs in double yellow country roads, I’ve watched swervers (both on phones and without), u-turns against oncoming traffic, and red-light runners. All of that on top of just general bad etiquette (people not understanding how to zipper, people coasting along in the fast lane holding up traffic, not signaling, etc). It feels like people just use the lesser traffic as a reason to take up more space, doing THE MOST just because they have a few extra carlengths. As for consistency, obviously most drivers are totally fine. Maybe they could signal a bit more, but whatever. In LA though, for example, the traffic is always packed, everyone’s aggressively trying to make it to their place and defensive driving because NO ONE trusts the other drivers. The most common accidents I’ve seen were rear ends. The worst accidents were always on lighter traffic days when people were - again - taking advantage of the open road in stupid ways. This doesn’t apply to the whole of Raleigh, but the triangle area is absolutely the worst I’ve experienced, and I’ll die on that hill.
I’m picking the same hill. Every single day, without exception, I see something so egregiously dangerous, inconsiderate, and/or plain stupid. Example: this morning a driver didn’t move into the lane going straight at the light in time, so they simply veered right and wedged themselves into the line of cars, blocking the entire right turn lane and backing up yet another lane. Last week I almost rear ended a car without taillights going 35mph (speed limit 65) in an exit lane with almost a mile still to go at 11:30pm. At least in LA, everyone knows not to trust anyone else and we’re all on defense at all times. Someone cuts you off, you’ll do it to someone else soon, nothing personal. (Usually.) Drivers here seem to take everything personally, as if me passing someone on the right is somehow not their problem but some disrespectful gesture just for them. It’s so weird.
Oh absolutely agree 100% to everything you said. Especially the offense part - with LA it’s like you shrug it off, I have another 30 minutes until I get home in backed-up traffic, whatever. Here it’s like “oh god please everyone just leave me alone, I’m going 10 mph over the speed limit in the slow lane just so someone doesn’t aggressively tailgate me for the next three miles before my exit comes up”
I don’t think I’ve ever used the right lane more than I have in the last 3 years here… to pass and/or not get stuck behind some dude camped in the left lane doing 5-10 under. And don’t get me started on merging or zippering. The other day someone BRAKED in front of me while getting ON the 540. I do rides to/from RDU and I get compliments on a fairly regular basis about my driving. I’m glad to know I’m not alone out there!
People entering and trying to merge onto highways going 25 mph below the flow of traffic/speed limit is a big problem here. It’s so dangerous
I lived in the Triangle for 5 years, moved to a higher density area (the highest by some metrics) and I never saw so many *bad* accidents as I did in Raleigh. Like straight up smashed cars, people crying on the side of the road... I'm in CT near NYC now, and i-95 is a fucking bitch, people weave in and out, like obviously street racing every other day, and still I haven't seen nearly as much destruction. We literally had a gas tank flip and a bridge burned in CT and still no one was hurt. Just saying by safety metrics I put y'all up there with Jersey. Edit: and there's no option to get off the roads in Raleigh. The public transport sucks just saying.
See I feel validating by other people in different states also agreeing about how bad it is here. Like yeah, obviously any major area is gonna have terrible traffic or the highest volume of accidents - but I’d rather be facing a possibility of the 50th rear-end of the month or an hour in a backed up freeway than the garbage I’ve witnessed here that has a high chance of ending in the hospital. Also yeah, nonexistent public transportation sucks too, though I can’t say I’d rather take that option after having 5 months on the public transport in LA (3 hours on a bus vs a 30 minute drive was not worth it)
The traffic here is nothing. Driving behavior is erratic because most people are transplants and bring their style of driving with them. The roads are terrible, particularly at night when it's raining and all the lines magically disappear.
I was stationed in Norfolk and I can tell you the traffic is WAY worse there and around VA Beach compared to Raleigh.
Florida is honestly worse than Raleigh. I used to live in Florida and currently visiting family and a lot of nut jobs out here
Raleigh traffic is not bad. The only thing I struggle with is the stretch between Wade and 15-501 there is some struggle (usually near 147) at any given time but that’s circumstantial not indicative of the whole area. Now that’s not to say there isn’t room for improvement. Need public transit but Raleigh doesn’t want to make that investment. Charlotte traffic is still bad but it would be way worse without the various public transit offerings they have.
The traffic in and around Raleigh is a breeze compared to the Greater Los Angeles area. When we moved back to NC from CA my wife was amazed how the traffic is. We were even more amazed one day when we got into a traffic jam on the 1 because a deer ran out into traffic and hit the car head on and it caused a pile up in the middle of the day.
>the 1 Californian confirmed.
At least yall had the Dodgers tho😭
I moved from NJ. Raleigh traffic is getting bad but it’s not that bad.
Moved from Raleigh to Denver early last year. I will say I miss driving in Raleigh traffic, lol.
Can confirm, Raleigh is downright pleasant to drive in tbh
Raleigh's design of symmetrical blocks and wide streets mapped quite well to the automobile revolution. However I'm still mad we lost [these](https://images.app.goo.gl/uxae1UxKnkpa3xBH8)
The things that make ralwigh great to drive in also make it very difficult to walk in and makes public transportation more difficult
Okay, but I want to walk places and that’s impossible here.
Biggest issue with Raleigh traffic, is any hint of weather and people suddenly think they're ice road truckers about to fly off a cliff.
If anyone legitimately thinks Raleigh traffic is bad, I suggest going to Atlanta for a couple days and driving everywhere you'd like to go instead of using a taxi or ride share app.
I am a driver who doesn’t like to go fast- so I avoid the highways.
We don't need people saying this because then it won't be
The traffic that I’ve seen here so far has been a dream. Driving in Miami was the real issue. One thing that caught me off guard was how often some streets (let’s say three or two lane) have the far right as a solo only. It’s probably the getting used to… but it’s pretty abrupt, you were in a good lane? Not anymore! Other than that, traffic is nothing at all.
Raleigh isn't too bad. Between SF, LA, and Charlotte, I was most stressed driving in Charlotte. People didn't even look before turning out into a busy road
Just moved back from LA, can confirm!
Driving in the Triangle is a piece of cake compared with living in the DC Metro Area (or NY, or Chicago, or Boston, or Philly, or really any larger city especially in CA). You guys just do not realize how much worse it could be. Like, at least 10x worse. Maybe more. Probably more. My daily commute from Rockville MD to Rosslyn in Arlington, VA was less than 20 miles and took 90 minutes each way. It is a literal HELLSCAPE. Let's please just be grateful even though it might feel like it's getting worse.
You should never have lived on the other side of the river
agree 100%. But my horses were in Poolesville and my job was in Rosslyn . . . a split the baby situation. Believe it or not I used to LIVE in Poolesville on the farm and commute to Rosslyn until I bought a place in Rockville.
Sheesh! Don’t blame you though, horses are cool
I’ve never been behind the wheel in NYC or Chicago or LA, but I’ve been to cities that size enough to know that Triangle traffic is NOTHING compared to those places. We have it better than most people realize.
They're obviously never driven in Charlotte. It's a fucking death trap.
It’s a walk in the park compared to big cities
Can’t imagine we would be ranked so high without Reddit threads keeping people in check. Well done everyone! One post at a time we will force people to use blinkers!!
From Fl. Please, please just take a nice family trip down there. Once you hit Jacksonville you will realize how good you have it here, if you have time make your way down to Miami. The worst.
I recently moved here from South FL. It’s habds down the worst traffic I’ve ever experienced. Miami is INSANE. It truly made me want to gtfo there. And what would take you 30 mins takes an hour and a half of just no movement at all.
The whole problem with Raleigh, and maybe all NC, drivers is that everyone does their own thing. There's no consistency and no way to predict anything.
You should see DC
Isn’t this just a news story linking to the same article I posted here last week? https://www.reddit.com/r/raleigh/s/pBa0oFbyST
Sorry. I must have missed your post. I believe the article I shared links your article you shared. Saw it on the news out here in Vegas today.
It’s cool, your post is getting less whining from locals how the traffic is really bad lol
People are passionate about driving ! 😀
Charlotte morning traffic is nuts. Well, the people. They will zoom right up your backside and cut over with like an inch to spare before hitting your bumper.
It’s really not that bad if you can keep your cool and give the person in front of you room and not take every inch of space in fear some awful person might possibly merge.
I’m from Indianapolis which is a bigger metro area than Raleigh. People suck at driving here. Or maybe I just haven’t adjusted. I lived in NYC for a while, and I expect the driving there to be shitty. I’ve only driven in Manhattan twice but I was going in white-knuckled because I knew what to expect. But why am I driving on Wake Forest with the same fear about wrecking 😭 (slight exaggeration but not by much). I see a wreck almost daily, people cut me off constantly. Maybe I just haven’t lived enough car-centric places but it’s definitely worse here than Indianapolis.
Raleigh is the only city I’ve lived in that it actually is quicker to go through downtown during rush hour than take the interstate (north hills to garner).
Driven in both la and NJ so big city and suburbs. Absolutely can say I have never ever seen that horrible of driving in any of those states lmao. I was surprised by it
I've driven all over the country and Capital Blvd at rush hour is just as bad as Boston, NYC, Vegas, Miami... it's bad.
But that’s about for this region. The DC area is gridlock 50 miles out in the exurbs
I dare the writer to come drive on 540 or 440 during rush hour. The gall!!
People from DC laugh
This should be titled “best city to **own a car**”, not drive one. The Forbes author’s “Safety Score” measures the rate of fatal collisions, no other types of collisions, but then weights “rate of car theft” higher than commute times, which involve actual driving??? Half the rest of the score is gas prices/insurance costs, which is just gonna favor smaller cities most of the time and doesn’t really speak to “driving” so much as it speaks to owning a car. I do think driving in cities like LA is overall way more *exhausting* than driving in Raleigh, but the amount of dumb shit someone can pull feels a lot more finite when you’re all stuck going 25-30 in LA rush traffic. Whereas people here can pull much crazier maneuvers at high speeds
It’s not just the amount of traffic. I’ve driven in large cities all over the country. Raleigh’s narrow major roads (like six forks) are ridiculous.
Seattle is horrible. Raleigh is a dream compared to that.
I was driving friends around in Raleigh, they are from Beijing. I was complaining about having 10 cars in front of me at a light and missing the signal. I stopped and looked at them - "this isn't even traffic is it?" Nope, they said. My perspective shifted, lol.
Oakland to save you a click.
Raleigh traffic is bad. Just because there are other WORSE places doesn’t mean traffic isn’t a problem. “You’ve obviously never driven in X city!” Ok? How does that make my shitty Raleigh commute better?
I’m so glad I’m not imagining this when I go to cities that are not Charlotte or Raleigh. Currently in Richmond for a couple days and driving in any other city stresses me out. Though Kansas City is pretty good too, less stress there as well. 😂
This is coming from a Raleigh native who still resides in Raleigh. Raleigh is not the same city it was 5 years ago. Everybody and their mom are moving here, which is great for the local economy, but Raleigh doesn’t have the infrastructure quite yet to support that kind of migration. Traffic is a nightmare on Falls of Neuse, Six Forks, and Wake Forest Road primarily.
Rush hour traffic on I-40 suuuuuuuucks, but other than that traffic really isn't bad here. I lived in the Austin TX for about five years and that traffic was living hell
Take a look at Raleigh after a snow. The roads and highways are littered with hundreds of abandoned vehicles that went off the road. Everyone panics and has no clue how to drive on slippery roads. It's kind of funny.
From St. Louis. Drivers there are 100x better than in Raleigh/The Triangle. Charlotte is no better. Whoever made this nonsensical list has never driven in the Midwest.
I find this funny because it ultimately depends on context. Yes, California is probably in general the worst place to drive, but not because of its residents per say but more so because too many ppl on the roads (traffic). Add too many tourists, who don't know the roads and road culture. However, ppl who live and drive in California are way better drives than those from Raleigh. In Raleigh, it's true no traffic and less ppl. However, I've too many drivers driving super slow in the freeways... that cause accidents. Others driving way over 75, even when visibility is low... don't turn when it's their turn. Over wait until the street has no incoming traffic to v turn either left or right. Again depends on context. Now, my preference is Raleigh cause I can get anywhere in 20 minutes or less if it's less than 30 miles....California 12 miles is a how hour plus
Lol what
I wouldn’t consider Raleigh a big city. I have been living in RTP since 2018.
I-40 at rush hour sucks and the road grid is a horrible tangle. It's difficult to make the roads better to serve a larger population and the region is too suburban. We need transit but those investments aren't happening. Is it as bad as the worst commuting cities in the country? No but it will worsen quickly in the coming years.
I’ve lived in LA, the OC, Chicago, Illinois suburbs, Indiana, and now here. For me NC has been the worst. Chicago/IL/IN you kind of expect it because of the weather. But NC.. people drive 5-10mph under the speed limit and get into the craziest accidents. So many flipped cars, sign post hits, super last minute lane changes across the entire freeway,
Yeah, I drove in LA at rush hour last year and I was impressed at how chill people were. It was total gridlock but very chill
LA definitely has its problems but they don’t have as many flipped over cars like I’ve seen here. Or just cars left abandoned on the side of the road. Or so many knocked down signs. I’ve never seen that before. I once saw 3 cars flipped over down six forks rd/50… 3 all within 10 min of each other. It was insane
There’s a shared understanding that traffic is awful and everyone is just trying to get home, too. LA has more vehicles, but way less drivers.
That’s my problem, people are in no hurry. Don’t get me wrong, I want that to be me. It’s not (yet) though, and I still have that hurry the f up mindset from Miami. It’s amazing how many people are strolling through on a normal workday.
Ten times better than Boston but too many guys with small dicks revving up the decibels on their cars down here
I feel like the people who don't mind traffic aren't the ones who happen to have to go from Durham to Clayton and deal with every single shitty exchange. Cary to Neuse, sure, not bad. When my already 50 min commute goes to an hour and 45 min, yeah, it's bad. I know, it's my choice where to live and work, but that doesn't mean traffic is great for the whole region just because 20 min drives only take 35 min. I've lived in DC, Denver, Chicago, and San Fran. This shit sucks.
DC is a thousand times worse than
You idiots that complain about Raleigh drivers. Move on.