There's no way around it. New Orleans drivers are horrible. By contrast, Rochester Drivers are generally skilled and knowledgeable; Pennsylvania drivers are slow; San Francisco drivers are cautious; and Boston drivers, while usually fast and borderline reckless, are at the same time very skilled. I love living in New Orleans, but it's drivers are ridiculous. I speculate this is why my insurance rates were jacked once I moved here (and apparently it is mostly Orleans Parish [counties for the other 49 states], because Jefferson Parish apparently has much lower rates). So I thought for years perhaps this was a result of some bizarre traffic laws here in Louisiana, as if the Napoleonic Code had somehow influenced driving, like horse carriage traffic law was more bizarre in France than in England.

Not so. In researching traffic laws in preparation of defending my girlfriend in court, I realized New Orleans has pretty much the same rules as anywhere. Use a turn signal within 100 feet of an upcoming turn. When turning left, stay close to the median line; when turning right stay close to the right lane line. These are the big ones. No one here uses a turning signal and people routinely swing the opposite direction before making their turns, as if they were about to cut down on an inclined Indy track or were trying to clear the rig of an eighteen-wheeler. Right

New Orleans, I love you. New Orleans drivers, you have no clue what the traffic rules are and you suck. Maybe they don't have a written test here to get a license. Maybe they just put you in a car with an instructor and tell you not to hit anything. And based on my insurance rates and the amount of times they keep replacing traffic light poles and control boxes, I'd say many can't even do that.