NM drivers 2nd-most polite in nation?
It’s hard to find anyone who agrees with survey
So I’m driving east on Menaul on Friday in my quest to interview people around town about a recently released survey ranking New Mexico as the second-most polite state in which to drive.
I approach an intersection where a dark blue Buick in westbound traffic sits in a leftturn lane. The Buick’s front wheels are turned and the car slowly begins rolling even before I enter the intersection. I pump my brakes and sound my horn.
The Buick makes a U-turn, passes me on the left, and the female driver waves to me with an extended middle finger.
Just another polite New Mexico driver.
The survey in question was conducted by Kars4Kids, a nonprofit based in New Jersey that promotes safe driving through education programs, courteous driving videos and safe driving guides distributed to driving schools.
“The idea is to remind drivers that they share the road with humans, not cars,” said Wendy Kirwan, the organization’s director of public relations.
Kars4Kids assembled a survey of 10 questions with multiple-choice and yes or no answers. For example: “You’re in the left lane, enjoying a pleasant cruise at the posted speed limit. The flow of traffic across lanes is faster than the speed limit. A car shows up in your rearview mirror and stays right on your tail
for over a minute. Do you: A. Move to the lane to your right; B. Increase your speed; C. Tap your brakes and/or decrease your speed; D. Maintain your speed.”
The survey is in no way scientific. It was distributed online and 50 anonymous respondents from each state, 2,500 people in all, made up the sample, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 12 percentage points, Kirwan said.
Idaho was ranked the most polite driving state, and New York was No. 50.
Over at the TA travel center at University and Menaul, Rojer Bonanno is having a bite to eat.
“I ride Harleys, so, no, people are not courteous to me,” he says. “People don’t look for motorcycles. Anywhere from four to seven times a day people refuse to yield when I have the right of way. They come into my lane on the freeway without even acknowledging I’m there.”
Albuquerque residents Barbara Mitchell and Tom Aikins are chatting in front of the travel center.
“Second! I don’t think so,” Mitchell says, reacting to the survey. “People are always changing lanes without signaling. They tailgate and flash their brights to get you to move over and then give you the finger.”
Aikins agrees. “Courteous? No. Let it snow just a little bit and people act like they don’t know how to drive at all.”
Andy Donalson is waiting for his car at Mister Car Wash, made famous in TV’s “Breaking Bad” series. “Really? We’re ranked second? Huh. That surprises me, and I certainly wouldn’t agree with it.”
He ticks off a list of less-thancourteous driving practices he observes daily: Speeding, neglecting to use turn signals, refusing to let people merge into traffic. “And it’s not just in Albuquerque; it’s everywhere in New Mexico,” Donalson says.
Another Mister Car Wash patron expresses skepticism.
“Second in the whole country? I don’t think so,” Janelle Gross says. She shares her own list, led by people who go slow in the fast lane and those who tailgate. “And what about all the road rage in Albuquerque? A little girl was shot to death in a road rage incident a couple of years ago,” she recalls. “People are driving around with guns in their cars. It’s horrifying.”
University of New Mexico seniors Alex Lavender and Evelyn Figueroa are sitting in the UNM Student Union Building. They don’t understand the No. 2 ranking for polite driving.
“Drivers are way too aggressive here,” Lavender says. “In general, everybody is in their own weird ‘don’t get in my way’ bubble.”
Figuero can’t help but note that New Mexico is generally at the tail end of every bad list and ranking: High school graduation rates, poverty, child well-being, unemployment, opioid addiction, DWI, road fatalities, auto theft, violence and more.
“And here’s this one thing that we know we’re bad at — driving — and they rank us second?”
Clearly, Kars4Kids is wellintentioned, but the group drove off a cliff on this one.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics from 2014 had New Mexico drivers as the second-worst in the country, although last year we improved to sixth-worst in the nation, based on factors such as the number of DWI arrests, drunken driving fatalities and accidents involving careless and distracted driving. We were also ranked No. 1 in pedestrian and bicycling deaths.
Which doesn’t mean that all those bad drivers aren’t also polite, thank you.