Apparently Detroit Has the Nation's Best Drivers...

[313WX]

I wouldn't describe it as Detroiters "coping" with traffic better. Detroit simply doesn't have bad traffic to cope with, for a couple reasons:

1. Odd commuter patterns. Unlike most major cities, not everyone commutes to/from one center of employment. It's not uncommon on a weekday to not encounter any inbound traffic backups into the city on some freeways.

2. Wide / underutilized roads. Most cities don't have 6 or 8 lane wide avenues and boulevards like we do.

3. Strategically built street grid. You really appreciate how efficient our mile-road and spoke system is after visiting and driving in other cities.

Compared to Atlanta, for example [[which is only slightly bigger than Detroit), their freeways stay clogged for most of the day. Even at 10am, you'll still have traffic backups headed into their downtown area.