Archive for August 21st, 2006
Orlando the angriest city?
In this months issue of Men’s Health, they rank 100 cities for angriness. The criteria includes the following:
- percentage of men with high blood pressure
- rates of aggravated assaults
- numbers on workplace deaths from assaults and other violence
- traffic-congestion
- speeding citations
And the winner of the angry city sweepstakes? None other than Orlando, FL!
This ranking prompted an article in the Orlando Sentinel, as well as lots of commentary on the Sentinel blog. A quote from the Sentinel article:
“How can they say that of a city as beautiful as ours?” Salvagio asked. “Haven’t these people been to New York City?”
New York ranked 57 in this list, to the disbelief of many. I have not lived in NY for many years, but I do visit often. I don’t believe that New Yorkers are angry people (with the exception of most token booth clerks); I think that they are impatient. If you can adjust to the pace of life (or in some cases thrive on it) I think that you can do quite well there. Many people do, and they could not see themselves living anywhere else. Many don’t, and thus either can’t wait to get out or already have and have no intention of ever going back. That being said, New Yorkers can be quite helpful and courteous; in fact it ranked number one among world class cities in courtesy in this Reader’s Digest test.
Orlando seems to have a mix of both extremes. On the one hand, you have people that are impatient, especially while driving. They are easy to spot; those are the people that change lanes every few seconds to gain a few inches, run red lights, and tailgate. At the other extreme are those that drive on the left lane at the speed limit or below regardless of the traffic situation, and those that take 5 seconds to notice that the traffic light changed. So what we have is a mix of impatient, clueless, elderly (no offence to older people but their reflexes and eyesight aren’t what they used to be) and lost tourists all sharing the same road. There is no real public transportation to speak of so you must drive. All of this can lead to a bad driving experience. People are also not themselves behind the wheel of a car. It is much easier to flip the bird when you’re in your own car rather than doing it in someone’s face who you’re sharing a sidewalk or subway car with.
Something else that may have contributed to this ranking: crime. If you think that Orlando is safer than New York, think again!.
