On another, somewhat related note, why does it seem like there are a bunch of Oregon-based GOG'ers on the forums?

LOL, You do realize that most of those ones are actual CA drivers that finally got nailed for not moving their registration here, right? I spent a week down in Berkeley a couple years back, and not a single time did I climb into a car without wondering if I was going to make it out alive. Those fools are nuts down there.

It used to be more obvious back when I was a kid and most of those folks would live here for years without paying to register their vehicles in our state.

Yeah CA or WA drivers get nailed a ton for that, I was almost one of them :D Though had I known about the way people choose to drive around here I might have chosen to stay in WA.

I briefly considered taking a road trip on my bike down to Cali, probably down to San Francisco to drive by the Mythbusters shop, but given what I know about drivers in LA from last time I was there, HELL NO.

You haven't seen Warsaw drivers. If there is one group of people who would buy roof mounted remote controlled gatling guns it would be them. I think they all enrolled in the Col. Kadaffi School of Offensive Driving. Thank god I take the bus.

By and large drivers around here tend to err on the side of caution. You'll definitely have fools driving really aggressively, but even the worst of them can't compete with the folks I saw driving around when I was down in CA.

People will drive stupidly, but by and large most folks seem to drive pretty conservatively.

Because Portland is great?

Anyways, yeah, we see people driving under the speed limit all the time. It definitely annoys me, but I'm using it to hone my patience skills and chill the fuck out. Honestly, it's one of the best ways to do both of those things, the problem is so damn rampant.

Haha Yes I can agree with that! But when your down the the wire and you example need to get to school, work, party (whatever) and you can't even do the speed limit (Again the SPEED LIMIT) then I get really irritated and I want to Hulk Smash the person in front of me.

Portland is where young people go to retire, if TV shows teach me anything.

ROFL, yeah. Californians are nuts, and I've lived there (Family in Bay area - not as crazy as Los Angelesians, but still! - cool story : was helping out at my aunt's business - one of the drivers needed help delivering heavy O2 tanks, so we're on the highway, driving north, and this big-ass red pickup starts swerving towards the central barrier, clips it, bounces off. The driver finally realises he shouldn't have his head under the dashboard, and sits up, over-corrects back into the barrier, bounces off again, over-corrects to the side-shoulder, and rolls the truck a few times. My driver's slowing down to not be so near him, and drives around the wreck. Others are rubber-necking as they go passed, and my last view was the driver getting out, and appearing unhurt (luckily, noone else was involved)). Fun times, those. But you had to keep your eyes open :P
So yeah, slow and careful, over the alternative, any day of the week!

Honestly, that's what I do, fortunately I've got AC and they tend not to be so common as to be worth griping about. I know I'll annoy people sometimes coasting into a red light, but really, I don't see any reason why I should waste the gas when I'm just going to have to put on the brakes anyways.

I've learned to just let aggressive drivers go around me and hope that there's a police car nearby to ticket them before they hurt or kill somebody.
I used to wonder whether being born in CA causes that sort of recklessness or if there was something about the environment.

Then my best friend moved to Berkeley and literally within 6 months he was driving like that. Previously when I had ridden with him I found his driving to be prudent and had no concerns for my welfare. But down there, I was really wishing I was a Catholic so I had justification for asking St. Christopher for protection.

Drivers around here suck, but they're usually just bad drivers, and it's usually pretty easy to avoid coming to a bad end with defensive driving. Most of the bad habits are ones which are pretty easy to predict and generally just lead to more traffic than is absolutely necessary.

Hehe. I saw "cars" that'd be illegal to drive here - would fail the yearly MOT test easily.
No panels / bodywork, just a frame. Steam pouring from the engine. Worse.

And what's with only needing ONE license plate??? Or having a different front and rear one?? It's a legal requirement here that both a front and rear license plate must be installed/attached, and both must read the same. Vanity plates are legal, but must be registered to the car with the DMV...

I used to think this, but after looking into the studies it seems aggressive drivers cause less accidents (they are focused and less distracted).

Also, many states have minimum speed laws and you can definitely get a ticket for not doing the minimum speed if you weren't restricted by road conditions or traffic. In Oregon they'll just hit you with Violation of the Basic Rule, which is very expensive as tickets go.

Yep, speeders are a nuisance. But slow drivers are just plain deadly.

By just reading the first few posts, all i have to say is this:

L.O.L.

:)