Driving etiquette - US Vs The Rest of the World 1

[StuckInTheMiddle]

I wanted to ask if anyone had opinions on the differences of driving etiquette throughout the US and the rest of world. Being a Brit who has lived/driven in both Europe and the US (New England) it never ceases to amaze me the shear number of people who change lanes without indicating, pull out of junctions without stopping, ignore general road etiquette, and have general 'road rage'. Maybe I'm just getting sentimental in my own age but I don't recall as many crazy drivers in the UK (I'm not saying there weren't any).

I was just wondering if anyone agreed/disagreed with this and also what people's opinions of the best/worst places to drive in the world would be?

Anyone got any opinions?

A,

 

[flapeyre]

addy-

I suppose your description of driving habits would apply to either place. And I agree with you about Rome - I visited there in 1999, and the lack of respect for traffic rules was pervasive. I was just glad to be on a tour bus which was bigger than practically anything else on the road.

Feles mala! Cur cista non uteris? Stramentum novum in ea posui!

 

[addy]

The truly scary thing were pedestrian crossings. For some reason, most of the drivers I saw in Rome thought that the black and white stripes across the road meant you had to speed up by 20 MPH.

 

[Trevoke]

You've all obviously never driven in Naples (Italy).
There, the laws of driving as understood by everyone are optional. This means that some red lights will be foregone, many seatbelts lie forgotten, a whole lot of stop signs are ignored, and sometimes, for no apparent reason, the driver will stop.
This is because everyone in town knows which places are safe to drive through and which aren't. As such, don't go looking for a written manual -- just ask someone or let them drive you. But don't bring your car unless you want to incur the risk of 'losing' parts of it.

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

 

[SilentAiche]

An early memory:

I was very young, but apparently old enough to understand turn signals.

Late one night, as we returned from a trip to the old home place, my dad got caught behind a huge, slow, lumbering 18-wheeler on a two-lane blacktop road.

After we'd followed the truck for a while, he put on his left turn signal, so my dad proceeded to pass him.

I've never completely understood how my dad knew the trucker was indicating "It's safe to pass" as opposed to "I'm about to make a left turn." Maybe it was just a "country courtesy" that country folks understood. Or maybe my dad somehow knew the truck's destination was unlikely to include a left turn in the near future.

However, with his wife and three kids in the car, obviously Dad was very confident in the trucker's intent.

Tim

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[TheRambler]

Somehow I guess language and driving etiquette are linked by semiotics, as both are about understanding the signs. Other than that there is not much I can say about US or UK driving, except that I found an interesting guide regarding International Driving Etiquette, which covers some of the countries mentioned here and others as well. In the end, it seems that 'driving etiquette' is an oxymoron.

 

[StuckInTheMiddle]

Hey Rambler,

Thanks for the Beeb link, I never knew about the hitchhikers encyclopedia. Kinda like a brit wikipedia.

A,

 

[TheRambler]

You are welcome StuckInTheMiddle, I hope it helps to move forward.;-)