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In all of the places where I have driven extensively, the best drivers I've seen were in Ireland. Very peaceful and congenial place in which to drive.
I'll prolly catch a load of bubblegum for this, but the United States, despite what everyone is claiming in this thread, comes in a fair second.
Other places where I've driven a lot that are worse than the above, in no particular order, include: Italy, France, UK, Scotland, and the British Virgin Islands
Hands down, no-contest, absolutely the most aggressive and hideously dangerous drivers I have ever had the misfortunate to be surrounded by are in Saudi Arabia.
When I left there 5 years ago, women still were not allowed to drive (that's recently changed, although there still aren't many female drivers). It was only men behind the wheel, and every one of them had to be the first vehicle in line, no matter where you were going. The speed at which they travel boggles the mind. I swear to God they are trying to engage warp speed or enter hyperspace. A speed limit of 120 kph (~70 mph) is interpreted by these clowns as a minimum cruising speed. I regularly found myself exceeding 100 mph just to keep up with traffic and not be an obstruction!
The "police" do nothing. They sit in their little air-conditioned shacks along the roads and smoke cigarettes all day long. "Traffic enforcement", such as it is, consists of speed-triggered automatic cameras set up in vans underneath overpasses. You know when you're coming up on one cuz they all look the same, they all park at a certain angle to aim the camera at the oncoming traffic, and they all camp out underneath overpasses. At night, you can see the flash go off from the van's back window as the cars in front of you blow by these vans. We used to slow down for them when we first got there, but then we noticed that most Saudis duct tape over their license plates or just don't even have a front plate. Cops don't care about it. So before too long we were speeding down the highways like everyone else. Got to the point where we were waving and making goofy faces at the cameras for our mug shots!
One last thing... I think Saudis drive the way they do because of Islam. Ever heard the word "InshAllah"? It means "if God wills". If God wills it that you are to die today in a blazing, fiery crash at 100+ mph, then there's nothing you can do about that. Imagine how liberating for the mind and soul that must be, to know that you can basically drive like an bubblegum all day and every day, and when you survive, it's because... InshAllah! And if you do die in a flaming mass of twisted metal someday, then that, too, was because of InshAllah. The absolution from any amount of personal responsibility must truly be freeing...
The sides of the road in Saudi Arabia are literally, and I mean literally, strewn with the mangled, burnt-out, rusted hulks of cars in which somebody had to have died. They don't even bother to pick them up and haul them away. They're just left there, like monuments to the dead...
I'll prolly catch a load of bubblegum for this, but the United States, despite what everyone is claiming in this thread, comes in a fair second.
Other places where I've driven a lot that are worse than the above, in no particular order, include: Italy, France, UK, Scotland, and the British Virgin Islands
Hands down, no-contest, absolutely the most aggressive and hideously dangerous drivers I have ever had the misfortunate to be surrounded by are in Saudi Arabia.
When I left there 5 years ago, women still were not allowed to drive (that's recently changed, although there still aren't many female drivers). It was only men behind the wheel, and every one of them had to be the first vehicle in line, no matter where you were going. The speed at which they travel boggles the mind. I swear to God they are trying to engage warp speed or enter hyperspace. A speed limit of 120 kph (~70 mph) is interpreted by these clowns as a minimum cruising speed. I regularly found myself exceeding 100 mph just to keep up with traffic and not be an obstruction!
The "police" do nothing. They sit in their little air-conditioned shacks along the roads and smoke cigarettes all day long. "Traffic enforcement", such as it is, consists of speed-triggered automatic cameras set up in vans underneath overpasses. You know when you're coming up on one cuz they all look the same, they all park at a certain angle to aim the camera at the oncoming traffic, and they all camp out underneath overpasses. At night, you can see the flash go off from the van's back window as the cars in front of you blow by these vans. We used to slow down for them when we first got there, but then we noticed that most Saudis duct tape over their license plates or just don't even have a front plate. Cops don't care about it. So before too long we were speeding down the highways like everyone else. Got to the point where we were waving and making goofy faces at the cameras for our mug shots!
One last thing... I think Saudis drive the way they do because of Islam. Ever heard the word "InshAllah"? It means "if God wills". If God wills it that you are to die today in a blazing, fiery crash at 100+ mph, then there's nothing you can do about that. Imagine how liberating for the mind and soul that must be, to know that you can basically drive like an bubblegum all day and every day, and when you survive, it's because... InshAllah! And if you do die in a flaming mass of twisted metal someday, then that, too, was because of InshAllah. The absolution from any amount of personal responsibility must truly be freeing...
The sides of the road in Saudi Arabia are literally, and I mean literally, strewn with the mangled, burnt-out, rusted hulks of cars in which somebody had to have died. They don't even bother to pick them up and haul them away. They're just left there, like monuments to the dead...
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