French driving sucks balls. I am told that Italian driving is even worse. I fully acknowledge that bad driving is a hell of a problem, and not to be overlooked or let slip. I just often hear people fall into confirmation bias thinking and saying that all drivers suck, or that Britain's full of terrible drivers, and I look at Russian and southern states American dash cam footage and I think... "things could be so, so much worse, and we don't even realise it". Actually, yeah, just...America. American driving looks, sounds and is terrifying. Everyone I know who's driven on American roads has horror stories. And the cultural acceptance of road rage over there is off the charts, you see biker vlogger footage of people full-on screaming and hammering their horns and cutting people off on purpose - can't imagine a typical British driver doing that, or even failing to report it to the police if they saw it happen. We have a pretty thorough zero-tolerance attitude to scummy driving here, which is exactly how it should be.
The first time I went to rural Ireland, quite a few years ago, on the very first afternoon I saw an old guy tootling down the road on a moped, with only one arsecheek on the seat, only the throttle hand on the bars and his left leg dangling, dragging his foot along the road. Hanging off the top-box at the back was a board with "Garda" (Police) written on it. My mate turned to me and said, "Welcome to Ireland".
This was my first thought also. He was very good at it though, hardly weaving around at all. Practice makes perfect.
Just a couple from a rainy Saturday in Jersey... This one is just daftness I think: Whereas this one is my favourite of the two. Utter laziness: :facepalm:
I thought our taxi drivers were bad.... Theirs are on a whole new level :| I thought I was going to die
Americans, too much caffine Russians to much vodka Ill argee though when ive been abroad ive had much worse there than here. Some parts of france Paris especially are death traps it usually boils down to two rules. Rule of whos bigger and rule of gap. If im in a bigger vehicle im coming through. If I see a gap and will roughly fit, I will take it.
Ugh. Nearly forgot one: Brazilians. I always imagined cities in South America would generally be a nightmare because of the population density and the lax rules - and they are. But on top of that, they also contain Kleber Atalla, a man who I hate so much I'd probably stop and reverse if I accidentally ran him over. (And I say that as a biker.) Since righteous indignation is the theme du jour, let's take a moment to hate this total ****ing bellend: This guy actually has a loyal and fervent fanbase in Brazil, even after he killed a pedestrian with his car, which kind of tells you everything you need to know about Brazilian drivers.
If it's the same guy, there is a rather satisfying vid of him wiping out, somewhere - but, yeah, I'd love to see someone open a car door on the pillock.
Try South Africa... If there is even a slight gap someone will force their way in, taxis will ride the shoulder or shove you out their way and if you try and block them you are likely to get beaten or killed. And don't get me started on emergency vehicles. NOONE moves out of the way so they get through.
I recommend everyone interested in experiencing almost universal terrible driving to visit the Indonesian Island of West Sumatra. We're in this 70s rust bucket of a bus, climbing a steep hill, with the engine protesting, exhaust vomiting thick, oily smoke. Round the jungle lined and impossibly steep bends we go. A lorry in front of us would have failed its MOT before it had even lumbered onto the Kwik Fit forecourt in the UK. Up out ahead of the lorry is a some locally produced crapheap of a small, yellowing, family car, its tiny overworked engine dragging its 5 occupants upwards. Just as we approach the next precipitous bend, the, presumably lobotimised, driver of the lorry goes for an overtake! On a blind bend, on a blind hill! Suicide surely!? As terrifying as this was, it soon got worse. The driver of our bus seemed to agree with the lorry driver that this was a good place to get around the Indonesian equivalent of an austin metro and goes for a TRIPLE OVERTAKE! A TRIPLE OVERTAKE ARE YOU MAD? I looked around at my friends, wide eyed with fear. Is this how it ends? If absolutely anything comes around the corner, people are going to die. The lorry and bus are neck and neck, the truck in the middle of the road, us in the oncoming lane. Seconds pass like hours, as passengers crane their necks to try and get a better glimpse of the bend and the summit of the hill. With the engine of our bus screaming as much as the passengers, we slowly pulled past the lorry. Ahead though, another bus crested the hill. Changing down a gear, the driver lurched the bus forward, and swerved across the road, cutting inside the front corner of the lorry by what must have been literally centimeters. We swore. A lot. It wasn't funny, it wasn't exciting. It was stupid. What a stupid way to die that would have been. And then the ride continued. Over and over we were sure this was the last corner we were ever going to round. At one point I turned to a local in the seat next to me. Boy must have been about 18. I asked him "Aren't you scared?". He just nodded at me. Somehow, we made it to small town. The bus wasn't due to stop, but I marched to the front and forced the driver to stop. We got out and he looked pretty annoyed at having to get our bags out from the hold beneath the seats. As soon as we had our bags on our backs, I said to him "you are a terrible driver, you are going to kill someone". He laughed, I'm not sure if he was laughing at me or thought I was joking. I repeated "you are going to kill someone, stop laughing its not f*cking funny". At this point he realised that I definitely wasn't joking, held up his hand, fingers apart, like a farmer would grab the balls of a Bull and said 'no cajones'.
Just been on holiday in Morocco; driving/parking was, how can I put it?, interesting... Driving seems to revolve around I'm going this way, b*gger anyone else. All road/traffic rules are optional (even speed limits when approaching a rather obvious police speed trap!), including lanes and traffic flow direction. Parking is a case of find a "space" (not a nicely defined parking space, but a patch of ground), and leave car. Doesn't matter if they're blocking someone, as they leave the handbrake off so the car can be rolled out the way (if you leave the handbrake on, they'll crawl under the car and cut it..!) Additional obstacles include donkey carts and mopeds/motorbikes/scooters etc, sometimes racing each other (yes, donkey cart vs moped!), cyclists, pedestrians (what? this is a road? I thought it was a foot path! - Its a fecking motorway!) As soon as you show any form of fear/reticence/reluctance and slow or worst of all stop, you're stuck. Oh, and they drive on the wrong side of the road, and road-signage is infrequent, and when present confusing. Good holiday though
Marrakech for 7 days for the crazy touristyness (i.e. the Souks), and the 3 in Agadir for relaxing luxury (drinks by the pool). Why do you ask?
Moroccan roots. Tangier. Never heard about the handbrakes being cut. Might be a southern thing. Speeding has improved steadily over the last 8 years. Not quite there yet still as you saw. Big wins yes, move or get crushed. No way right but the rules need to be bent/ignored in order to get to your destination. A join them to beat them situation. Oncoming traffic will warn you about speed traps. Right about any space is a parking space. Blocking doesn't really happen. If it does the owner is usually has eyes on his car and will come and move it. He/she knows it will get mysteriously dented if they're not around to shift it. Otherwise you can round up enough kids to lift the backend and shift it. Definitely a variety of obstacles. It used to be very unsafe for pedestrians on the road. A few law changes and the tides have turned to the other extreme. Now motorists fear pedestrians taking them to court as it will go highly in the pedestrian's favour. Now nearly any road is a crossing/footpath. You have to be assertive to get through. To the rest of the world we are the 1/3 that drive on the wrong side. Everyone knows or knows someone how to get to somewhere. If you don't you ask for directions when you get near there. Confusing signage, blame the French?
People who cant park I was in the van in a car park finishing lunch with a friend today, parked nose out between the perimeter wall at the far end of the almost empty car park an a massive, extra wide empty space. Deliberately nowhere near anything... I just had 3 dinges (which were there when I bought it) removed from the doors at a cost of £40 each by a professional PDR technician. This young girl drove straight in beside me, on the side of the wide space closest to me. Nowhere near enough space to open her door, so much so that her passenger was able to fully open her door on the other side. She tried opening her door and getting out. I just looked at her, shook my head, started the van and drove off. The whole almost empty car park and she puts it so close to my vehicle in an already wider than normal space that she struggled to get out... Most of what's wrong with drivers in this country is a lack of common sense.
Wow. Just...wow. In that situation, if I had my wits about me, I'd take the condom out of my wallet, give it to her and say "here...don't reproduce. Please." On a slight tangent, what's the deal with parking in cycle lanes? Nobody seems to know if it's okay or not (it shouldn't be) and whether it's illegal or not (it should be). Like, until they start doing something about this, cycle lanes are totally useless and actually worse than having no cycle lanes at all because the parked cars and unloading lorries force cyclists to weave back into the car lane periodically. I mean it's heartwarming to know it's not just in the UK, but I see **** like this in cycle lanes all the time and it completely defeats the purpose.
1/3? You, The Japanese, a couple of Kangaroos and 3 Whitebaitfishermen? Or did I miss a densly polulated area? Right Thailand.... bout it, right?
