I thought this study was somewhat peculiar. It says that the second most courteous city in the world is... Zürich! :P (do they really pay people for doing this kind of rankings? hehe)

World of Courtesy: Ranking of 35 Cities

Below is a ranking of the most courteous to the least courteous -- 35 major cities included in RD's Global Courtesy Test. Figures reflect the percentage of people who passed in each city. When multiple cities had identical scores, they are listed in alphabetical order.

New York USA 80%
Zurich Switzerland 77
Toronto Canada 70
Berlin Germany 68
São Paulo Brazil 68
Zagreb Croatia 68
Auckland New Zealand 67
Warsaw Poland 67
Mexico City Mexico 65
Stockholm Sweden 63
Budapest Hungary 60
Madrid Spain 60
Prague Czech Republic 60
Vienna Austria 60
Buenos Aires Argentina 57
Johannesburg South Africa 57
Lisbon Portugal 57
London United Kingdom 57
Paris France 57
Amsterdam Netherlands 52
Helsinki Finland 48
Manila Philippines 48
Milan Italy 47
Sydney Australia 47
Bangkok Thailand 45
Hong Kong 45
Ljubljana Slovenia 45
Jakarta Indonesia 43
Taipei Taiwan 43
Moscow Russia 42
Singapore 42
Seoul South Korea 40
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 37
Bucharest Romania 35
Mumbai India 32

Source

After years of painstaking research, I conclude that the list below is complete bollocks.

dave

I can only imagine the list is posted in reverse. I lived in the NYC area for 12 years - they are not the most polite bunch out there!

Seriously, when does a New Yorker even give you the time of day??? They must have mistaken tourists for locals.

New York is easily the rudest place I've ever been. I asked a policeman the way and he replied "Go buy a map!"

Zurich is certainly short on charm school graduates too.

Isn't the list upside down?

You were still lucky with that answer, (probably because the policeman was on duty..) How about: "do i look like a tourist center" for an answer.. (from a gas station employee)

That reminds me of the reaction of the Harvey Keitel character in Pulp Fiction when they bring the dead guy to his house...

dave

Not surprising there are no aussie cities on that list.

I heard rumours that they have a surveilence monitor in Zürich which monitors the number of noises sounding like "Grutsi" in a given location. Perhaps this was mistaken as a courtesy factor in the poll?

Actually my mum still always talks in amazement at how friendly everybody was when she came to visit me in Sydney. One story in particular, she was in Chinatown and asked for directions and the girl she asked walked her a few streets to show her the way.

Maybe she's just gotten too used to Bristol levels of friendliness...

Ask someone of Arab descent for directions and they'll take you by the hand and lead you there. A bit disconcerting at first, but not an altogether unpleasant experience...

Uncle, we cant deal with pleasant. We just want to pay then we know we can complain to someone!

The list is totally absurd.

NYC???? you gotta be kidding me right.

Singapore has 42%??!!?? Proven, the annually courtesy campaign is still not bearing its fruit.