Happy birthday, Emmett!

I still remember white-knuckling my way through the Caldecott Tunnel and over the Bay Bridge for the first time at 19, and damn near having to pull over and throw up at the end of the drive.

I was probably 30 or almost when I drove in San Francisco the first time. I'd been driving since I was 18, and most of that was professionally, so I felt pretty confident. And your above comment precisely describes how I felt having to drive, oh, anywhere, JZ. And some of my travels included crossing the GG twice.

Yeah, pull over and throw up is about right.

Huh, other than the fact that I don't have a good sense of direction in San Francisco driving there has never phased me, even the first time which was when I was still in my teens and drove up from San Diego.

I don't know. For me, even with all my experience, I hadn't done a lot of real hills or big bridges at freeway speeds. These days it doesn't phase me at all.

I don't think I've ever driven in SF - every time I've visited I've relied on friends & taxis.

LA drivers annoy me, but I think it's just that the driving cultures in LA vs the East Coast cities I'm used to are so different.

I still remember white-knuckling my way through the Caldecott Tunnel and over the Bay Bridge for the first time at 19, and damn near having to pull over and throw up at the end of the drive

Hence, why I Do Not take the motorcycle over to the East Bay. GG Bridge is fine, though. Fun, even. Bay Bridge? Fuck, no.

LA drivers annoy me, but I think it's just that the driving cultures in LA vs the East Coast cities I'm used to are so different.

See, driving in LA doesn't phase me because it's so similar to Miami driving. Before the first time I went to LA everyone was all "Oh, the drivers, the drivers!" and I got out there and was like "What? I don't see it."

Only place that's ever phased me driving-wise was downtown Chicago, oddly enough.

I always had a great time driving in SF! I was always in rental cars and loved trying to catch a little air on some of the big hills.

Yeah, I think the fact that I kept having to drive in strange cities in rental cars for work, and not know where I was going, made ALL cities seem freaky and ACK, but also "whatever", at some point...

Driving in Orlando makes me fear for my life quite regularly. The natives are insane and seem to adhere to an insane set of rules, like stacking three+ cars in a median waiting for a left turn and then all turning in tandem and jockeying for one lane, and then there are all the tourists who are totally unpredictable added to the mix.

Also Cincinnati drove me a little nuts, the big thing that stunned me there was the number of drivers who would come to a complete stop and the end on an onramp and sit waiting for a break in traffic to then pull out. I'd come up the onramp at freeway speed expecting to actually merge into traffic and there'd be some nutjob just sitting in the middle of the lane.