Has anyone ever counted the number of idiots and morons on the road? For that matter, is there a difference between them? Is the driver who cuts you off an idiot, and the one who speeds by you a moron? What if he/she does both? Can one mutate from a moron to an idiot, or does that driver become a blend of the two. Perhaps a moriot, or an idion. And what about drivers in other countries? How do we perceive them, and they us?

Are German drivers better than their counterparts in the USA because they comfortably do 150-200 km/h on the autobahn, while we don’t even know how fast that is? (I’m not going to do the conversion for you - if you’re spending time reading my blog, you need something to do anyway.) In much of Europe, if you’re traveling too fast, you don’t miss your exit, you miss your COUNTRY! Or so I’ve heard.

I’ve been in Australia, and it was intimidating to try to drive on the other side of the road, while sitting in what would normally be the passenger seat for me. It’s not just the driving and the turning, it’s also which way to look when you reach an intersection. And using your left hand to shift those manual transmission cars is a challenge for sure.

In several trips to South America, I’ve noticed some significant cultural differences in the way they drive. I recall a conversation with a friend in Argentina, who had just gone through a stop sign as if it weren’t there. American: “Those stop signs are, um, optional?” Argentine: “Oh, we never stop for those.” American: “But what if there’s a car coming from the other street? How do you know whether to go or not?” Argentine: “I look in the other driver’s eyes.” I think I’ll nap through the rest of this trip, thanks.

In Brazil, it’s easy to conclude that the drivers are crazy. Motorcycles are everywhere, zipping in and out of traffic, riding the lines between the lanes, cutting perpendicularly to cars. In Rio, bus drivers seem to think they’re at the wheel of sports cars. And everyone zigs and zags from lane to lane. Once, in Sao Paulo, riding with a friend, I couldn’t resist the impulse to use my “passenger side brake”. He noticed, smiled, and said, “Sao Paulo is not for amateurs.”

There’s something else I noticed about drivers in Brazil. While they all frequently change lanes and cut each other off, no one ever seems to get mad about it. The attitude seems to be, “They’ve got some place to go, or a turn to make, or whatever, and I’ll have to do the same at some point.” Courtesy rules amidst the apparent craziness.

But that’s a stark cultural difference compared to the US. Here, perhaps because of our frontier heritage (gotta blame it on something), we are very territorial. What happens if you decide to change lanes, check the traffic, and flip on your turn signal? Typically, the vehicle that was ten car-lengths back will speed up, then slam on the brakes, and blast the horn at you. It’s as if to say, “This is MY lane, and you can’t come in here.” It doesn’t matter if there was plenty of room. That other driver is still going to make an issue of it.

While that scenario might not escalate to a case of road rage, it does make you wonder whether you’ve just become an idiot or a moron. And, certainly, we have enough of those already.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under Al. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.