I live in the British Isles on a relatively small island, 63,000 people, 12 miles long. Much different attitude here compared with the UK, make a mistake in your car and people seem much more patient, far less likely to berate you.

Road Rage does happen but it seems way less frequent. Motorists stop in their cars to let pedestrians cross with a smile and in the street and in the shops people are more courteous. Somebody said to me the other day that its due to the fact that if you are rude to someone or get involved in a road rage incident, you are more likely to meet that person again in the near future.

Dodgy behaviour is big news too.  Even those who get speeding tickets end up in the newspaper. 😁

I'm thinking population density is a key factor. In the UK the pace of life is faster, everyone rushing around in a highly stressed state, too competitive to consider others.

What's it like in your neck of the woods boys and girls, is there a correlation between population density or are there other cultural differences at play.

 

I live in the Derbyshire Peak District, like you life is relatively placid and slow pace partly due to lack of population density but also me thinks. is the north south divide,

people are far, far friendlier upt north!

Far too much traffic and totally inadequate road system in the UK - coupled with the fact that most who perpetrate violence or bad behaviour are likely to be let off with a slap on the wrist and points on their drivers licence - if they were to lose their licence and be hit with a hefty fine they might think again.

In my neck of the woods (southwest corner of Europe) drivers are just as manic and are just as likely to get aggressive on the roads - pulling out in front of you on the roundabout/junction/side turning and they all seem to be late for their meetings/lunch appointments/coffee resulting in loads of speeding drivers, hanging on to your bumper/fender and waving their hand and issuing threats as they pass by - mainly to be sat at the next set of red lights when you pull up. Summers see an increase in bad behaviour when the roads can be clogged with tourists from the North and elsewhere - and dont get me started on the "RV" season when convoys of Camperwagons travel down a single lane road ot 50km/h!!!

 

Here in upstate South Carolina it’s a mixed bag. Half try to drive defensively and be courteous but then there’s Bubba and Bubbet who consider courtesy a sign of personal weakness. NASCAR doesn’t use turn signals so why should they. They often have a crass bumper sticker about their gun rights but couldn’t recite the second amendment if their life depended on it.  Or a Confederate Flag but couldn’t tell you what years the Civil War was fought. They talk over you in a conversation and always quick to excerpt the “arrogance of ignorance “.

Edited October 5, 20214 yr by Patco Lch

Here in southern Vermont it's mostly OK, with the occasional foaming-at-the-mouth driver that rides your rear at 55mph even though you're already 5-10mph over the limit. The majority of folks are respectful of others.

Also I drive through Mass and Connecticut a few times a year and it's ultra stressful on the freeways there. Once upon a time I didn't think twice about jumping in my auto and heading out. These days I do all I can to avoid travel outside the state.

Side note: I recognize freight truck drivers as a necessity though and rarely do I encounter aggressive or self-centered situations with them. 

 

  

This could quickly turn into a firestorm topic!

For ten years I had a "Road Warrior" type job that took me literally around the World.

I lived in Scotland for two years in the mid-2000's. Most of my driving was in the city of Aberdeen. I thought, for the most part, drivers there were indeed courteous. Between towns/cities was another story. I thought there was an abnormally high frequency of traffic fatalities...particularly among young people. It was always ironic to me when their parents (of the deceased) were interviewed on television..."it's the Council's fault for not posting a sign for the road hazard"...never mind that little Johnny wrapped his car around a tree at 80 mph when he failed to execute a slight curve in the road. I was left with the impression that there was no personal accountability for safe driving...it was always someone else's fault.

Roads in the UK are inherently narrower than North America...on the open roads, people pass one another with little regard for personal safety or the safety of others it seems. There is no way I would drive a motorcycle in the UK.

In France (outside of Paris), I thought drivers were much better. Road conditions in France are very similar to the UK yet they don't seem to have the number of open road fatalities compared to the UK.

German drivers, for the most part, are much more disciplined. In my opinion, the attitude is much more prevalent that to drive is a privilege, not a right.

Back in the early 1980's, I thought the western US had very good drivers...without fast lane hogs staying in the fast lane driving right at the speed limit. That seems to be a courtesy of the past, however. As already mentioned above, in the Carolinas, people never learned that cars have signal lights...and yes, lots of xxxxxxxx drivers in jacked up trucks that think they're in NASCAR. Seatbelt use in the Carolinas also appears to be optional...how many times have you read articles of car accidents in South Carolina where the victim was "ejected from the vehicle". You don't need a motorcycle helmet there either...no further comment required.

Montreal is probably one of the rudest cities I've had the misfortune of driving in...use your signal lights there and drivers will intentionally cut you off/not let you merge. Dallas/Fort Worth comes in at a close second for the same reasons...and those stupid eight lane freeways with exit/on ramps every half mile running through the city!

I grew up in Vancouver...it used to be pretty good for driving...population expansion (explosion?) over the last 25 years and the sheer number of cars on the limited number of roads has changed that. Never mind that on the 3-5 days a year the city gets snowfall, people can't drive (and the high number of bridges in the lower mainland become iced over). I'm willing to bet the city of Vancouver probably now has the highest per capita number of autobody shops...and a single monopoly on auto insurance in the province of BC (but I digress...).

Vacationing in the Dominican Republic several times, car rental there is a "white knuckle" experience...witnessing entire families on a motorcycle...fuel tankers driving on the wrong side of the road...and roadkill on every block (I hope they're just animals!)...it just seems that whoever is in whatever open space first has right of way. There are no "rules of the road" in the DR!

Personally, I've always tried to practice defensive driving...a must do if you enjoy two wheeled travel (and plan to live). Over four decades now without an accident on either two, or four wheels...and yes, I did some dumb word not allowed when I was younger!

I only drove once in the States (just Florida, Louisiana, Texas and everything in between). Apart from a moron in Orlando that wanted to brake test us once, I saw nothing remarkable about driving there (luckily).

Now, come to either Bogotá, São Paulo, Lima, or even my hometown Bucaramanga (1.2 million people squeezed in an area similar to @martin-w's island) and dare to drive: it's so stressful and unforgiving here. I'm not sure of being able to drive next time I get to visit my parents there. People are surprised when I say that driving here in Córdoba is peaceful and civilized...

4 hours ago, martin-w said:

is there a correlation between population density

So I think yes: high population density means high stress levels while driving... unless the amount of cars is limited in another way (for example, Singapore).

Edited October 5, 20214 yr by Luis Hernandez

4 hours ago, martin-w said:

I'm thinking population density is a key factor.

Absolutely!  Almost 30 years ago I moved from the metropolis of Denver Colorado to the small city of Rowell New Mexico and found an order of magnitude difference in the behavior of people.  More courtesy and less rudeness.  Like your small island the population of our country is just 64,000.

Living in a beehive or anthill tends to make people more tense.  A lot of people thrive on that.  And big cities have more in the way of fine restaurants and theaters.  But personally I like shopping in a store where people know my name and I know theirs.  

Our main street has no parking meters and if I go downtown I'm pretty sure I can find curbside parking on same side of the street on the block store I want to go is located.

Another plus is you spend less on gasoline because you don't have so far to drive to go to work or to the store.  Since this COVID thing started and we never travel out of town any more my car just had it's second birthday and I just turned 3,000 miles on it.

Noel 

I'm guessing you're in the Isle of Man? 

In Ireland, we have a mixture of different driver-types. They appear more aggressive in the North of Ireland,but I've seen good and bad drivers on both-sides of the border.

 

Lived in Japan several years ago.  It's a real education in driving to navigate the roads on the opposite side with what I remember as other rather aggressive drivers.  Shortly after returning to the US, we wound up driving in New York city.  That experience was a piece of cake compared to Japan.  All you had to do was look 'em back when someone challenged you a an intersection.

2 hours ago, jmdriskell said:

Lived in Japan several years ago.  It's a real education in driving to navigate the roads on the opposite side with what I remember as other rather aggressive drivers.  Shortly after returning to the US, we wound up driving in New York city.  That experience was a piece of cake compared to Japan.  All you had to do was look 'em back when someone challenged you a an intersection.

LOl. That reminds me of riding the front seat of a cycleo ( spelling?) in downtown Saigon. That’s a three wheel motorcycle with a bench on front for the customer/victim. Your body serves as the front bumper as Papa San maneuvers through everything from pedestrians to mopeds to military 21/2 ton trucks. Your job is to make sure the Saigon cowboys don’t sneak up from behind on a moped and  grab the watch off your arm, a highly refined local art. 

Edited October 5, 20214 yr by Patco Lch

I drove in Japan 50+ years ago.  I didn't find it too bad.  But then there only commercial vehicles on the road.  Few privately owned automobiles were on the road.  When my first wife was in the hospital in Tokyo I routinely drove from Yokota AFB to the hospital she was in.  At that time the biggest hazard were kamikaze gravel truck drivers.

Noel 

8 hours ago, martin-w said:

I'm thinking population density is a key factor. In the UK the pace of life is faster, everyone rushing around in a highly stressed state, too competitive to consider others.

Yup. All those things.

I live 30 minutes outside of Liverpool (UK) in a fairly sane new town, with green fields around and no traffic lights anywhere. But even here it can get crazy.

The main thing I've noticed is that the lack of patience has been on the increase for around 20 years;  even so called 'professional' drivers, such as police, ambulance and taxi drivers are at it. 

...Firstly there's little or no use of car indicators at junctions. Then there's the pulling out almost in front of you as you go past junctions, or when you're on roundabouts.  It's a free for all out there. And the sad thing is: I do it too (except I always indicate;-).  But it seems different from my perceptive, as if I'm more in control than everyone else and have more time. 

So my guess is: its a sort of national madness that's gripped the country. Every man for themselves.

My last road rage incident (and almost my last day;-)

A couple of years back I was driving home on a country road when this people-carrier car overtook me on a corner. He was driving at a crazy speed and soon vanished over the horizon. 

A few miles down the road I came up behind him -and a very slow moving truck that was in front of him. Seeing the road was clear in front, I overtook them both.  But speedy Gonzalez didn't take kindly to being overtaken by my little Peugeot 1.4, and he blasted his horn in protest, to which I responded by rolling my window down and giving him a farewell wave. Big mistake on my part, as he quickly overtook me and slammed his brakes on, stopping me in my tracks.  I did a quick U-turn and was soon doing 70mph in the opposite direction from this absolute enraged madman, with him close on my tail.

...We both approached a large roundabout at 70mph, with me anxious to get away from the maniac.  There was no escaping though, since he kept me in check all the way, staying by my side, and blocking any escape routes at every junction we passed.

After 10 minutes of this adrenaline rush madness, I realised I couldn't outrun him, and so I quickly put a plan into action.   Basically I just stopped in the middle of the busy road and put my hazard warning lights on and locked the doors;  and more and more cars stopped behind me, and the people in cars at other junctions started to look over at the tailback building up. 

So Speedy Gonzalez sees his golden opportunity and stops in front of me, jumps out his car, flexes his shoulder muscles in a ludicrous fashion, then proceeds to walk 'macho-like' to my car to give me a well deserved thumping.  Except he didn't and couldn't.  The fact that a line of cars with curious 'witness' onlookers was watching him, plus his sudden realization that the person in the little Peugeot 1.4 car wasn't a 20 year old nutcase, but  rather a 58 year old (nutcase;-), soon had Speedy driving off in frustration, but not before slamming my side-window very hard with his open palm as a token farewell gesture.

Moral of the story: Don't acknowledge angry road ragers; and especially don't wave, be it a hand or a finger ;-) 

Footnote:  In an odd sort of way I enjoyed the whole thing. It was like being thrown into a very real Grand Theft Auto video game, and fighting for your life.
 

 

 

You must have been at Iwakuni then Jim.

Noel

Noel,

Yep, there i was!

Jim