Have you tried driving in London? Or Paris? Or Rome? I don't think the issue is to do with New York particularly, but with cities in general. The bottom line is that when the car was invented, it was never envisaged that one day it would be negotiating its way around huge cities along with millions of other vehicles. If this wasn't a stressful enough experience, it needs to be remembered that we live in a fast-moving world - especially when it comes to city life - where seconds cannot be wasted. Thus, we have millions of stressed and frustrated people all trying to get somewhere in cities that have had to survive the onslaught of cars by developing convoluted road systems, with one-way systems, underground tunnels, flyovers, slip roads, traffic lights etc - usually liberally sprinkled with road works. Thus, the human brain cannot cope and it becomes a matter of using one's aggression to fight one's way across the city.

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