Posted on 09/05/2003 4:56:34 PM PDT by cp124
Top Ten Reasons to Move to Maine 1. Maine ranked the #1 state for raising a child.
2. Maine is well known for skiing in winter (Sugarloaf Mountain, Sunday River) and water sports in summer (Kennebec and Penobscot rivers).
3. Maine has the lowest average home price in New England.
4. Maine ranked #1 in primary education in the country.
5. Maine has the lowest infant mortality and highest immunization rate in the nation.
6. Maine has the 4th lowest crime rate in the U.S.
7. Maine is experiencing the greatest growth in racial diversity in its history.
8. Maine has nearly twelve hundred properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
9. Maine offers a wide array of theatre and music performances, including plays, operas and symphonies, and hosts numerous annual fairs and festivals.
10. Maine has one of the best telecommunications infrastructures in the country.
I live in Maine (have lived in Battle Creek).
I'm actually astounded by those statistics. I was born and raised in Massachusetts (I know, I know - don't ask, it's a long story.)
Massachusetts has always had a reputation for bad drivers, and I drove there for almost 40 years. Never was fearful.
Moved to Maine and never witnessed more accidents or near accidents in my life. I feel like I'm going into combat every time I get behind the wheel.
Just no general understanding of the rules of the road.
Maine is like many of the Progressive Democratic Controlled Socialist entities in the US, which is the main reason for the decline in jobs in the US. There are too many arms of Government reaching out with taxes, lawsuits, and citations to create outcomes.
Never in my life until I moved to Maine did I even consider hesitating before I moved forward on a green light.
Now my head swivels around like a dashboard bobble-head before I take the risky move of doing just that thing.
I also motocycle, and assume I am invisible even when I am in a car. The effort to maintain attention beats being in a wreck. City drivers (Boston, NY, Chicago, Detroit, etc.) are the best. In California they can even be friendly -- although I tend to follow the "no eye contact" paradigm.
But Battle Creek, lordy. No rhyme or reason. Pokey, pop oput of nowhere as if they own the road, really an "exciting" place to drive.
I don't know if it's no understanding or not. Here, I think it's impatience and lack of common sense. I've seen people not only run red lights at high speed, but run them making turns with traffic coming at them. They're nuts. If you don't hesitate before going into an intersection, you're asking for it. One of the first things I was briefed arriving in Tucson was to double up on uninsured/underinsured motorists protection. It's popular for people to acquire insurance just long enough to get their license and registration, then drop ther insurance. Part of the problem is that penalties for such things are too light.
Translation: Somalia has sent a sh*tload of people to Maine, who are now on welfare and collecting food stamps, courtesy of the taxpayer.
I have relatives there. It's one of the worst towns I've ever been to for driving. The traffic was absolutely miserable. Those one-direction-at-a-time traffic lights were maddening. Lots of road rage incidents there? I'd bet.
Traffic patterns are miserable, and some of the lights have long cycles (more than 2 minutes) during low traffic periods.
Good town to learn defensive driving (or fail defensive driving).
18. The summer starts on July 8th and ends on August 3rd.
19. The winder starts on September 5th and ends on June 16th.
20. There are more French Canadians per capita than any other place in the world outside of Quebec.
How did you know I was originally from Illinois?
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