I'd have to agree that LA driving is some of the worst I've seen. If you have 200 yards to the exit and two lanes to get across, good luck finding someone to let you through.

Easypeasy. Pick some guy with a nice shiny Mercedes or BMW (which are pretty common), and just start to nose in. Works every time.

Unless he's driving that Merc because he's a gangsta and he's packing. How long have you lived in LA, again?

Unless he's driving that Merc because he's a gangsta and he's packing. How long have you lived in LA, again?

Long enough to recognize which Mercs are being driven by gangstas, and which Mercs are being driven by middle-aged men in business suits.

(There's also the part about not hanging out in areas frequented by said gangstas in the first place.)

It really makes my blood boil when people don't know the road rules, like 'never try to beat a guy in a red sports car'

It's a little bit different here in Texas. As an ex-girlfriend of mine once put it, it's the law of biggerness. Whichever car is bigger has the right of way. Driving my little Z3, I have to always be aware of some monstrosity of an SUV that just doesn't seem to notice that I'm there.

In New York, from what I've seen, it tends to be more related to how beat-up your car is. An old 1970's station wagon with fake wood paneling, dents all over the car, and a coat-hanger as the radio antenna is going to gain the right of way every time, because you know the driver just doesn't care.

As an extension to the biggerness rule, how about the overriding lease car ownership rule.
The lease cars are the ones that are very shiny with no mods or stickers anywhere, usually large suvs.
The drivers are too scared of the fact that they don't own the car and have huge balloon payments and security deposits to risk an accident so will happliy move out of the way.

Whew! I just finished moving into Boston (though not from very far away) I just moved across from Fenway Park. Boy was it fun driving around here in a moving truck during a Red Sox 5 game home stand. We were parked outside my building and running in and out with tons of stuff as fast as we could so we wouldn't get a ticket. Then trying to find a place to park a huge truck during a baseball game in downtown Boston was no easy task. It's a good thing that I'm the world's best driver.

The way I spot LA drivers is their masterful use of the 'fake'. They use their signal, then just look like they are going to pull into the spot in the lane way to small for their car. The driver behind panics, and slams on the brakes as the other driver completes the fake by swerving back into their lane. By that time the car behind is far enough back so the car just merges in with no problem.

I almost hurt myself I was laughing so hard the first time I saw that.

Caught. Though I've never done it intentionally.