Tuesday 20 March 2012

Driving habits - strange or otherwise

To be fair, it is not only the UK which has some strange unwritten driving rules (habits).        They abound in other countries too.

No one informs visitors to Australia that an amber light at traffic lights means keep on driving, do not stop.   We stopped and a car ran into the back of our camper van, and then the driver of the car shouted abuse at us, for stopping when the lights were on amber, and just about to change to red.

In New Zealand, where the roads are very twisty, the local drivers cut corners, and then blame the tourists for driving on the wrong side of the road.   They also tail gate.   Very unnerving on the mountain roads.   But there is an official rule - it you are turning left, you must give way to the driver coming from the opposite direction, and who is turning right into the same road.     Do visitors know this?  No.   Apparently it will change soon so that it is the same as in most other countries.    But it will cause some confusion in New Zealand.

In Holland and in Belgium tailgating is a major problem.   In fact I can remember a sign in Holland reminding drivers not to be elephants.    Meaning of course that elephants walk along trunk to tail.    But it has not stopped drivers in Holland.    Some of them drive up close behind your car, and stay there until you pull over into another lane.   A very dangerous practice.  

So unwritten driving habits are everywhere.  It is not just in the United Kingdom.

However, one of the major problems in highly densely populated areas, such as around London, is that drivers become impatient.    They obviously have deadlines to meet, and become stressed so that normally polite and courteous people become rude and impatient people behind the wheels of cars.  


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