In a surprising coup, New York overtook Miami as the city with the angriest and most aggressive drivers in the country, after a four-year streak of dominance by the Southern city. What’s surprising, of course, is not that New York is on top again — but that it ever wasn’t. Apparently, voters from 25 big cities said our drivers “tailgate, speed, honk their horns, overreact, and lose their tempers.” This also puts us in the top category for road rage. “New Yorkers were most likely to wave their fists or arms,” said Michael Bush, whose company commissioned the survey. “They were most likely to lay on the horn and they were most likely to make some sort of obscene gesture.”
Naturally, we asked some celebrities about this.
Last night we happened to be at the Calvin Klein–hosted Friends of the High Line Summer Benefit on the grounds of the new park, and we asked couple Rhea Perlman and Danny DeVito about how they get around the city, what with this traffic problem, and all. Turns out, they bike! “Crosstown, you’ve got to be careful — I walk the bike,” the Twins star said. “Because you don’t want to get nailed.” But then, once you get on the bike path, he says, “You can kick ass.” Perlman says they like biking along Hudson River Park — a lovely space that can be, at times, perhaps a bit too inviting. “You go, like, oh, I’m going to take this huge bike ride from Battery Park all the way up to the George Washington Bridge or something, and then you get up there and you go, ‘Oh fuck — I’m sorry — oh shit, I gotta go back! I gotta go back — I can’t even sit anymore on this seat.’ Because the bike path is so wonderful and it’s so long and fabulous, you know. I never get a ride like that anywhere. Not in L.A. It’s too great.”
DeVito claims he’s never even had a confrontation with a driver in the city. “I’m very respectful of people who drive in the city, because I’m, you know, from New Jersey; I’m a driver,” he explains. “And I’ve lived in New York for a long time, so I have respect for, uh, the automobile.”
View our Party Lines slideshow for more.
