OUR VIEW LOGO (NEW)

We’re No. 1!

Don’t be in a rush to celebrate.

It turns out that — according to a study by Insurify of 513 cities — Medford has the rudest drivers in the United States.

Yay?

We know what you’re thinking … what in the name of Miss Manners is Insurify?

We’ll get to that in a second; but, first, we need to flash our high-beams at the slower-than-molasses dawdler in front of us so they either get going or pull over.

Now, Insurify. It bills itself as an independent insurance comparison website, whose “expert” writers and editors work independently of our insurance partners.

It also might or might not be true that they can get you a good deal on oceanfront property in Kansas.

Anyway, in its survey of those 513 U.S. cities, Insurify discovered that our Home Sweet Home has a “rude driving rate” of 4.38% — which is 362% higher than the national average, and 248% higher than the state average.

Have they never gotten lost in Portland? Or engaged in bumper-car battles for parking spots in downtown Bend? Heck, in another of their surveys, Insurify calls Eugene the Oregon city with the nicest drivers!

Eugene, of all places. Bull … HHHOOONNNKKK!!!

The data used to come up with this determination depends on the percentage of drivers who have one or more of the following infractions on their record — failure to yield, failure to stop, improper backing, passing where prohibited, tailgating, street racing or hit-and-run.

Well, c’mon … who hasn’t?

Besides, have those “expert” writers and editors ever driven Crater Lake Highway at rush hour? Or even during the other three hours of the day? Have they found themselves going in circles in a roundabout behind a nut-behind-the-wheel who … never … turns off …their … right blinker?

What do the good folks at Insurify know about Medford, anyway?

Well, not much.

For one thing, they claim that we’re home to “the world’s only Bigfoot trap.” It’s in the Applegate, experts, 20 miles outside of downtown Jacksonville where they want to lower speed limits due to its own influx of rude drivers.

Insurify also suggests that some of our “traffic-related irritation” is accounted for by the fact that “Interstate 5 bifurcates the city.”

Bifurcates!?! We apologize for such language appearing in a family publication.

Can drivers in and around Medford be frustrating? Sure, on those rarest of occasions when someone jaywalks against the light, or spends a half-hour backing into a Trader Joe’s parking space, or fails to realize that a yellow light means “hit the gas,” or gives you a hand-signal indicating their IQ when passing …

… but that doesn’t mean we have to play Enya over our sound systems and suddenly start merging properly from yield lanes.

All that might do is drop us below the current No. 2 rudest city — Racine, Wisconsin — where there’s little doubt they have no problem bifurcating with impunity.

We’re No. 1? Heck yeah, we are!