Bad driving? Blame those Yankees

There’s a lot of harrumphing on my voice mail this morning from readers rarin' to re-fight the War of Northern Aggression.

Native drivers take umbrage at aspersions cast on local motoring habits by Yankee transplants (see today's Road Worrier column, with more reader comments).

We learned how to drive from all those transplants running us over. It's not the natives who drive this way. It's the transplants who taught us how to drive. We never used to have to tailgate, but now we do. -- Linda Burton, 52, NC native.

The people who are doing all this crazy driving are coming from up north. There have been some second-generation Yankees who have grown up here and have the right to call this their home. But they're trying to blame the local residents for this bad driving, and I don't believe that is quite fair. -- Ben Henderson, 79, Raleigh native.

Very few of the bad drivers are from here. The bad drivers are bringing their habits to North Carolina. -- Mike Knott, NC native.

I too am a transplant -- from South Georgia. I moved to North Carolina in the early 1970s, and no one drove like that then. I think the people from other places are the problem, but I don't mean those three you quoted. If I met 'em, I'd probably think the world of 'em. -- Wayne Sears, in NC since 1973, near Sanford.

One caller accused the Road Worrier of being one of those scurrilous Yankees.

My guess is you must have come here from the North because this aggressive driving is very clearly what we experience when we have northern drivers come into North Carolina. It angers me when a reporter like yourself reports something like this and puts down the South. The problem is the northern drivers and their aggressive habits. Good Day! -- Jerry Adams of Cary.

There are some sweet Yankees among us, you'll be glad to know, and they have lovely things to say about Triangle drivers. Barbara Garloch, who has lived here for 22 years, has "found many of them to be uniquely polite and kind and generous. ...

The thing I notice about North Carolina drivers is that when you're coming onto the highway, other people will make room for you and let you in, which I love about North Carolina. And when you can't, you know it was a transplant and they haven't learned their manners yet. I came from the D.C. area where it was dog-eat-dog, and you had to race to get in. -- Barbara Garloch, NC for 22 years.