New York

City and Los Angeles dance the tango when it comes to

garnering national headlines for every important issue

known to man. From business to media to entertainment,

N.Y.C. and L.A., always lead the pack.

It seems cities like

Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, to mention a few,

can only stand by the punch bowl waiting to cut in on

what seems to be New York's and Los Angeles' never-ending

prom of attention.

Atlanta, though, has

breached all manner of decorum and joined these two

cities to make up what could be considered the

menage-a-trois of nightmare travel-super-city

traffic.

I travel a lot with my work

and have driven in most major cities. And over the years,

I have noticed that Atlanta has risen above the beltways

and the parkways to complete the missing piece in the

triad of cities with nightmare driving conditions. When

it comes to driving and traffic, Atlanta has joined New

York City and Los Angeles as home to one of the most

congested, frustrating, time-consuming commutes known to

man.

There are countless

similarities to driving in N.Y., Atlanta and L.A. It's

always slow down, speed up, look to change lanes. Slow

down, speed up, look to change lanes. It's the lather,

rinse, repeat of the transportation world.

In all three cities you see

the same people driving: The girl trying to drink coffee

from the lidded Styrofoam cup, the guy trying to read the

paper while maneuvering in traffic, the glamorous ditz

trying to put on makeup in the rearview mirror (in Los

Angeles, usually a man).

In all three cities you see

the same sights while stuck in traffic: Tall buildings

that jut beyond your view, "Slow Men Working"

signs put out right at rush hour, roadside shoulders

strewn with mattresses, furniture and various other

lifeless debris (in New York, usually a man).

One foundation unites these

three cities head and shoulders above all others. It's

attitude. In Atlanta, New York City and Los Angeles, it's

the disposition of the driver that warrants segregation

from other major cities.

It only takes one instance

to realize the difference, like the Roswell woman in the

SUV who can make an obscene gesture with the same hand

that holds her cell phone. And this is the true icon of

city driving anyway, the infamous "finger," the

bird, the one-way arrow that runs north, what I call

"the arthritic's peace sign." You may think the

Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., houses the culture of

our nation, but you haven't seen art until a New York

taxi driver, has flicked you off to the rhythm of Turkish

disco, while filling out his immigration papers.

Minnesota may think they

have "tough" now that their governor is a

former pro wrestler, but if I went to war, I am going to

choose the Los Angeles mother of five who can bring a

double tandem trucker to tears with her '76 Ford Pinto.

It's all attitude.

Though alike in major ways,

there are still enough dissimilarities to give each of

these cities it's own special brand of driving

experience. As an example, could you match these popular

foods with drivers from Atlanta, New York and Los

Angeles: bagel, sushi gyro, Big Mac? Or how about weapon

under the seat: brass knuckles, pistol, Hank Aaron

Louisville Slugger. Bumper sticker: "In case of

earthquake follow me," "Follow me and

die," "Follow me to First Baptist Church."

Yes, Atlanta has made the

big three when it comes to super-city driving, and it

only takes a few descriptive words to understand why.

Though we don't have the abusive cabbies of New York or

the heated road rage of Los Angeles, we have something

neither of those can lay claim to - the Buckhead

pedestrian.

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