I’m 72. Have heard this all of my life, and a poll is needed to confirm?
Once having a job that required extensive cold calling, I tend to agree. If NY, NJ or New England were on the docket you’d cringe just hoping to get thru the day.
Nicest people I found (at least on the phone) were in Houston and, believe it or not, Southern California.
I might catch some flak here, but I just have to make this observation. There is a sort of ‘pride’ that New Yorkers take in being ‘aggressive’, and this is absolutely evident in driving behavior. When I’m driving on the east coast and find that someone is tailgating me very closely, I am usually accurate in predicting that the license plate of that car will be from either New York or New Jersey. Ironically, this kind of ‘I’ve got important things to do and I’m in a hurry’ attitude and behavior actually leads to lots and lots of traffic slowdowns.
As soon as someone has to brake, even for a minor reason, there is a chain reaction of braking that leads to an overall traffic slowdown. If you drive enough on the east coast you know what I’m talking about. There will be a big slowdown of traffic, and then it will pick up again miles later, and there is no accident or anything you can point to that lead to that slowdown. This is what happens when you are so aggressive that you leave no spacing. It’s not ‘aggressive sophisticated’. It’s just plain stupid.
Rant off.