Drivers and countries

CM · Post by CM » Tue Jul 30, 2002 5:23 am

Well like this hasnt been done a million times but who cares.
Drivers, some regions overall have bad drivers.
You see the license plate and say oh god no, i will be late for sure.
Then you see another and say i just have to indicate and the guy will move out of the way.
Of course there are the ones which are just plain road hogs and think they have the right to drive 80 km on the fast lane in the highway.

From personal experience in Europe the good and the bad are:

The good.
German drivers are the best, closely followed by austrians. I know if i am in the car with my friend and we are late, we can expect a german license plate driver to not to be a road hog and driver at the proper limits on the proper sides of the lanes. These guys either drive fast on the fast lane and leave everybody in the dust. Or quickly over take and get back into the slow lane as not to be a bother.

The worst.
The french. No offense to any frenchies, but driving aint your thing. Road hogging was meant for them as well as driving 60 km on the highway. I remember seeing a "lemon" (Citroen???) 106 on the highway. lucky my friend knew some short cuts or else we would have been stuck behind the car for decades. Slow driving, road hogging, not following the rules, zig zaging in a crazy dangerous manner and lastly never indicating before turning are traits i have seen in geneva and teh rest of switzerland when ever i see a french license plate.

Ode to a Grasshopper · Tue Jul 30, 2002 5:48 am

You've never been to Melbourne, I see.

Minerva · Post by **Minerva** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 6:05 am

I am sad to inform that many Japanese drivers are bad.

They think the drivers are always superior to the pedestrians, and often use horns towards people who's crossing the road (on the perican) to hurry them. I was nearly knocked over in the central Tokyo twice in two weeks by cars turning the corner, even though I was walking on the perican crossing (with green lights on)...

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 6:19 am

In the United States, the consensus worst drivers are in Boston. They don't use their turn signals, they cut each other off and alternate between speeding maniacally fast and driving ridiculously slow. It's doesn't help that they've dug up half of the city in "The Big Dig" and that the traffic pattern seems to change daily.

The fastest drivers in the US are in Los Angeles. I was out there in March for a conference and we rented a car to drive around town. Since I paid for the car, I was driving up I-5 going 90 miles per hour in the middle lane and folks were passing me like I was standing still. At the same time, not once do I recall a driver ever cutting me off and everyone there used their blinkers (that's "indicators" for you folks across the pond). Where I come from in West Virginia, I don't think that anyone has ever used a turn signal in the history of the state.

The worst Taxi drivers are in San Francisco. They're even worse the NYC taxi drivers because they won't even give you the finger or yell at each other; they just pull out in front of anyone and everyone. At least the taxi drivers in New York have personality. The safest taxi drivers in North America are in Toronto; I rode with four different taxi drivers at different times of the day and not once did I feel like my life was in any danger.

The slowest drivers in the US are in south Florida (also known as "God's Waiting Room"). Half of the population is old retirees that drive Buicks, Cadillacs or Lincolns. The other half are stuck behind them going 30 miles per hour in the fast lane.

The most annoying drivers in the US are from Ohio. They have a habit of parking in the fast lane (often with a blinker left on) and staying there, even if no one is in the right lane and there is a line of cars behine them. I am in Myrtle Beach right now and someone was going 45 mph in the passing lane in a 55 mph zone. Sure enough, they had Ohio tags. If only my wife would let me mount that plasma cannon to the roof of the Saturn . . .

My favourite line about drivers is from George Carlin, "It's funny that everyone who drives faster than you is a maniac and everyone who drives slower than you is an idiot". From my point of view, the world is full of idiots.

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 6:37 am

I must say I was very impressed with how polite the drivers in the UK were. So much better than NZ, where no-one seems to care for anyone else on the road. That's not to say that we're a country of maniacal road hogs, but we're certainly not very forgiving to each other.

Thankfully speed isn't much of an issue here - the police road patrols are rather effective, as are the TV ad campaigns.

frogus · Post by **frogus** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 8:50 am

Drivers in the UK are much worse than in the USA (so I've been told by visiting Americans), but UK drivers also consider themselves to be paragonal (real word?) exemplars of sedation...which they are compared to the French and Italians. I think it is fair to say that bad driving originates in the alps, and radiates outwards in all directions. Japan is an anomalie

.

Beldin · Post by **Beldin** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 8:56 am

Originally posted by frogus
Drivers in the UK are much worse than in the USA (so I've been told by visiting Americans), but UK drivers also consider themselves to be paragonal (real word?) exemplars of sedation...which they are compared to the French and Italians. I think it is fair to say that bad driving originates in the alps, and radiates outwards in all directions. Japan is an anomalie .

Not exclusively the alps, mon chèr...

Ever been to Cuba or the Dominican Republic....?

"Suicide" doesn't even begin to describe their style of driving...

No worries,

Beldin

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 9:09 am

My wife and I refer to "North Carolina drivers" whenever we see somebody in a left hand lane cut almost horizontally across three further highway lanes to exit on the right. It seems to be standard, there.

New Jersey drivers are bad. They beat out NYC and LA, as far as I'm concerned, because while NYC and LA drivers are ill-tempered because they're parking and driving in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, NJ drivers are simply ill-tempered because of the culture. They love to cut people off on roads, honk their horns all the time, curse out loud from their car windows, and hold up traffic wherever possible.

Never get in the way of a Texas pickup truck on a Friday night. For that matter, get off the road, and watch from a distance. Traffic lights? Stop signs? Pedestrians? Other cars? Who cares? It's time to drink, drive, and kill!

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 11:49 am

Originally posted by CM
The good.
German drivers are the best, closely followed by austrians.

IMHO Austrian drivers are quite incapable. They act incredibly slow and incalculable at the same time and they obviously don't care for anything happening around them.

I personally think Italian drivers are very good. They drive intelligent and are skilled in operating their vehicles. OK, they don't care much about legal rules of traffic, especially not at night, but they are highly capable of dealing with difficult driving situations and they're always alert (probably because you can't rely on anybody following the traffic rules there).

Most german drivers are used to drive at higher speed than people in other countries, since we have no speed limit on many highways. This probably makes them capable drivers, because driving at high speed (say 200+ km/h) is somewhat more difficult than driving typical european speed (say 120-130 km/h). On the other hand German drivers often act very aggressive, especially at the sight of slow vehicles. I've been driving hundred thousands of kilometers in both slow and fast vehicles in Germany and it's a hell of a difference if you drive a Fiat Panda or a BMW on the "Autobahn". In a Fiat Panda you'll get flashing headlights from behind if you only think about taking over a truck. In a BMW you'll see small cars flee from the left track just at the sight of your silhouette.

Nevertheless I have to add that the driving behaviour in Germany got more peaceful with the rise of fuel prices over the last ten years. There's not so much left of the racing atmosphere we had here when fuel was cheap, because fuel consumption increases heavily at high speed and people now obviously think about money when they're driving. Today it's mostly vehicles with modern Diesel engines that still move fast. Another positive development is that car brand rivalries have decreased. Some years ago it was a matter of pride for drivers of BMW, Audi and Mercedes cars to be the faster than each other. Since all three brands put a focus on a similar image today and speed counts less than comfort it's gotten less aggressive on our roads.

Logic IsAThreat · Post by **Logic IsAThreat** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 11:56 am

L.A. drivers are all very good. i've had no bad experiences at all, you'd think that the california freeways would be more bogged down since there are hundreds of thousands of people driving on them everyday, but they run very smoothly. in japan i had bad experiences, there is no law about seat belts for one, everyone started laughing at me when i put it on, te raods are very windy and not taken care of, the tollways are very backupped and everyone is honking their horns like mad. also, in new york i noticed that everyone honks their horns, nobody ever honks in california (if they did they'd probly be looking down the barrel of a gun). i've also had bad experiences with utah drivers, they don't seem to know what they're doing, also, the roads are terrible in Salt Lake City, it was virtually impossible to drive around during the olympics.

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 12:07 pm

Originally posted by fable

Never get in the way of a Texas pickup truck on a Friday night. For that matter, get off the road, and watch from a distance. Traffic lights? Stop signs? Pedestrians? Other cars? Who cares? It's time to drink, drive, and kill!

I couldn't have said it better myself!

We folks in Missouri are somewhat reckless. Kinda use our turn lights, kinda stop at red lights, kinda maintane average speed limit. Otherwise, we're pretty good. The only thing we really have problems with (that I have noticed) is the fact that a LOT of our women put MAKEUP on in the car while they're DRIVING!

That really irks me....

My other family im Minnesota tell me that driving up there is great. They live in the Southern area (mostly agricultural) so the roads are usually clear. If you did see somebody else on the road, there are pretty much no problems. I learned this from experience when I accidently cut off somebody too short while driving up there. In the end, she was actually pretty understaning and curteous.

Drivers in Rome, Itali...

Zu'l Zorander · Post by **Zu'l Zorander** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 12:47 pm

i was raised in texas and their drivers arnt that bad. But the worst drivers to me reside in key west. its such a small island whith lots of people crammed in, and half of the population are tourists and the other half are old people. throuhout keywest all you will find streetwise is a 2 lane road where everyone is fighting for position when they all are going to the same place anyway.

Weasel · Post by **Weasel** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 1:04 pm

I was trained in the fine art of driving on dirt roads and to be modest, I very good at it.

Stuck at a red light? Take to the ditch.
Deer runs out in front of you? Speed up to catch dinner.
Person ahead of you going slow? Pass them in a curve, (Be sure to revv on them as you pass)
Person beside the road needing a ride? Stop twenty feet ahead of them, and then pull off once they get near the car. Continue as needed.

Logic IsAThreat · Post by **Logic IsAThreat** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 1:07 pm

and half of the population are tourists and the other half are old people

so which are you?

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 7:48 pm

There is something about getting into a taxi on Bali that always seems to raise my blood levels and heart rate by a small amount.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 9:53 pm

Good and bad driving style is of course pretty much a question of what you are used to, but as a Northern European I am sort of used to order and that people follow the traffic rules at least rudimentary.

In Europe, I think Greece and the large cities in France and Italy are the "worst", not only do people drive like crazy, park everywhere (triple parking is just fine) and zigzag through the files like mad - they also shout and hit the horns every 4th nanosecond. The noise in a large crossing at rush hour in Paris or Rome is deafning.

In South East Asia, there is the formula speed*condition of the road*condition of the vehicle. If you want to know the exact location of your kidneys, I heartily recommend going with the local buses or taxi's in Thailand - especially on the countryside where the roads aren't so good.

Northern Africa, especially the larger old cities with very narrow streets are also a total chaos, especially so since mules and wagons often block the streets. If traffic lights exist, they are considered decoration.

One of the worst places I've been to is Kamchatka Penisula though, since they have right hand traffic like the rest of Russia, but they have cars with the steering wheel on the right side, since they buy almost all their cars directly from Japan due to the Geographical proximity. To this, add roads where 4wheel is a must and only the locals ever get used to.

One of the best places driving-wise is the Emirates. Extremly good roads and everybody has really good cars to. People drive fast, but organised and not dangerous. It's like the Arab allegory to Germany.

Ode to a Grasshopper · Wed Jul 31, 2002 12:33 am

Originally posted by C Elegans
One of the best places driving-wise is the Emirates. Extremly good roads and everybody has really good cars to. People drive fast, but organised and not dangerous. It's like the Arab allegory to Germany.

The UAE was very good in terms of drivers, so long as you didn't get in their way as a pedestrian...They didn't seem interested in stopping for some reason.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Wed Jul 31, 2002 12:44 am

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
The UAE was very good in terms of drivers, so long as you didn't get in their way as a pedestrian...They didn't seem interested in stopping for some reason.

I think they just suppose the pedestrians should look out...quite the opposite of Northen Africa where a guy and his dromedar can halt all traffic for half an hour...

Ode to a Grasshopper · Wed Jul 31, 2002 1:02 am

Originally posted by C Elegans

I think they just suppose the pedestrians should look out...quite the opposite of Northen Africa where a guy and his dromedar can halt all traffic for half an hour...

They could have saved a lot of money by not putting in traffic lights IMO. You just had to look out for a break in traffic, as the lights never really stopped traffic anyway...

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Wed Jul 31, 2002 1:20 am

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
They could have saved a lot of money by not putting in traffic lights IMO. You just had to look out for a break in traffic, as the lights never really stopped traffic anyway...

Yes, but that's like North Africa, traffic lights are mere decoration

Makes me think of Aqua's story in my "most stupid things" thread...