Guest Columnist

Morgan Moore

Study Names and Shames California’s ‘Most Entitled’ Drivers

Some drivers seem to treat road rules less as rules and more as suggestions, whether that means double-parking "for five minutes," using the shoulder to skip traffic, blocking a bike lane, cutting across a turn-only lane, making an illegal U-turn, or stopping wherever their hazard lights happen to be flashing.

New Jersey-based criminal defense firm Brett Rosen Law surveyed 3,056 motorists across major U.S. cities to identify America's Most Entitled Drivers, revealing where drivers are most willing to bend or ignore everyday traffic laws when those laws become inconvenient.

The top 5 in California were as followa:

#1. Los Angeles
If any city gives drivers an excuse to decide the rules don't apply, it's Los Angeles. Freeways like I-405 and I-10 carry huge volumes of traffic, and the streets below add crowded intersections, turn restrictions, loading zones and nowhere near enough curb space. Plenty of Angelenos have an answer for all of it: drive the shoulder, cut in at the last second, double-park rather than circle the block. One driver doing it barely registers here. Thousands doing it every day shows how many think the law is negotiable.

#2. San Francisco
In San Francisco, some of the worst rule-breaking happens with the car barely moving. The city has more than 130 miles of bike lanes, and its commercial streets also have to fit buses, pedestrians, deliveries and very little curb space. Yet drivers still double-park for pickups and sit in bike lanes with the flashers on, holding up cyclists, a bus and a line of cars all at once. The rules are posted on every block. The quick errand just seems to matter more.

#3. San Diego
On San Diego's freeways, drivers often have a split second to choose between waiting for their exit and breaking the rules to reach it. I-5 and I-805 are the city's main north-south routes, part of a wider web of interstates and state highways. Too many pick the second option, cutting into the exit line or swerving across several lanes at once. The law asks them to wait. The car behind them ends up hitting the brakes instead.

#4. Sacramento
Sacramento sits at the heart of Northern California's freeway network, and its drivers don't always wait their turn on it. I-5 and U.S. 50 are two key corridors, and work on I-5 has aimed to ease rush-hour congestion and improve access for high-occupancy vehicles. When traffic slows, familiar habits come out: slipping into the exit line at the last possible point, or stopping illegally for a quick errand. Each one saves a few seconds, and each one breaks a rule the driver knows perfectly well.

#5. San Jose
Four major Bay Area routes (U.S. 101, I-280, I-680 and I-880) meet or pass through San Jose, so drivers here have to pick lanes and exits early. The city is also planning upgrades at several freeway interchanges. Plenty of drivers skip the planning and break the rules instead: a sudden dash across traffic, a turn from the wrong lane, a last-second cut into the exit line. It gets them where they're going, and the cars around them pay for it.

When annoyance gets a response
The survey asked motorists how they had reacted when another driver annoyed or angered them. Repeated honking was the most common answer (22%), followed by an angry gesture and shouting from the vehicle (17% each).

Other answers went beyond making displeasure known:

7% had accelerated to prevent another driver from passing or merging.

5% had braked suddenly in front of another driver.

5% had deliberately followed another vehicle closely.

4% had followed a driver for some distance after the original incident.

3% had gotten out of their vehicle to confront someone.

Using a vehicle to make a point
A separate question asked whether respondents had ever deliberately used their vehicle to make another driver, cyclist or pedestrian feel threatened during an argument or confrontation.

About one in seven (15%) said they had, and roughly half of them had done it more than once. Another 17% had considered it but not acted on the thought. In total, almost a third of drivers (32%) have either used their vehicle to intimidate someone or thought about doing so.

That question moves the discussion well beyond bad manners. A horn can express frustration; using a vehicle to frighten someone introduces a very different kind of threat.

When road rage escalates
A quarter of respondents (25%) said they had been involved in a road-rage incident that escalated beyond shouting or gestures. That 25% breaks down as:

10% said another driver had followed them.

6% said someone had gotten out of a vehicle.

4% said they had followed another driver.

2% reported a physical confrontation.

2% said a vehicle had deliberately been used to threaten or intimidate someone.

1% said police had become involved.

Running late, taking chances
Anger wasn't the only factor in questionable decisions. The survey also asked motorists what they had done because they were angry, frustrated or in a hurry.

More than one in five (22%) admitted driving far faster than they normally would, while 17% had accelerated through a changing light. The appeal is easy to recognize: nobody enjoys watching the clock while traffic barely moves. The resulting decisions are harder to justify.

Respondents also reported:

Aggressively swerving around slower traffic: 9%

Making a risky lane change: 8%

Following another vehicle too closely: 7%

Passing despite limited space or visibility: 6%

Racing or trying to "beat" another driver: 6%

A small dent and a revealing decision
The survey then presented a hypothetical scenario: after accidentally striking another vehicle and seeing only minor damage, what would respondents most likely do.

Most (89%) chose an option that involved stopping or leaving information: 61% would stop and exchange details, 17% would try to find the owner of an unattended vehicle, and 11% would leave a note before continuing their trip.

Around one in ten were prepared to let circumstances decide:

6% would drive away if they thought the damage was too minor to matter.

4% would drive away if they believed nobody had seen what happened.

Of course, "too minor to matter" is an easier judgment to make when the repair bill belongs to someone else.

Who has actually left the scene?
The final question moved from a hypothetical scrape to respondents' own experiences: had they ever been tempted to leave the scene of a collision rather than stop and deal with the consequences?

In all, 21% had felt that temptation. Of all drivers surveyed, 7% acted on it and left, while 14% were tempted but stayed.

That distinction matters. Thinking about avoiding an unpleasant situation and actually leaving it behind are two very different decisions, especially for the person left to deal with the damage.

"Most drivers can give you a detailed account of everyone else's bad habits. It's harder to recognize the moment we start making excuses for our own," said Brett Rosen, partner at Brett Rosen Law. "Being late, missing an exit, or struggling to find parking can be frustrating, but it doesn't make another person's safety less important. The most concerning answers here involve intimidation and leaving after a collision. Those decisions can leave someone else dealing with consequences long after the original frustration has passed."