Americans may love their cars, but they hate gridlock. According to a recent Yahoo! Autos survey conducted by Harris Interactive, consumers would rather get a cavity filled at the dentist (24 percent) than sit in gridlock traffic for over an hour (12 percent). What else would people choose over backed-up traffic? Standing in line at the DMV (22 percent), sitting in the middle seat of an airplane during a transatlantic flight (19 percent), and dealing with a crowded mall during the busiest shopping day of the year (17 percent). The only unpleasant activity in the survey that ranked lower than sitting in traffic was standing up in a crowded subway for over an hour (5 percent). Even on the move, commuting brings additional annoyances. When asked about driving pet peeves, not surprisingly, the number one answer to the survey was people talking on their cell phones and not paying attention to the road (30 percent). Tailgaters (25 percent) and people who don't use their turn signals (14 percent) were next on the pet peeves list, followed by being cut off (13 percent) and someone braking too frequently in front of you (11 percent).
