European driving standards are horrendous!

[andyredz]

Having lived and worked in Kenya and spending a lot of that in Nairobi, for over 12 years, I have very little to say - except the biggest problem with drivers in this part of the world is takeing other peoples driving foibles far too personally...

[chrisfr]

We also have a motorhome and have quite frequent holidays in a place called the isle d'oleron, which is a a lovely island with a bridge to the mainland just below la rochele.
The locals are complete nuts amd are very aggressive if you do not exceed the speed limit. They flash ,beep,overtake,undertake and cut you up. Many of the roads have soft verges which means with a 3500 kg vehicle you will come off if you get a wheel on to the grass. Bearing in mind there are only really two occupations in the isle d'oleron,which is tourism and oysters you would have thought that the locals would not be pi ssing off the tourists. the number plates on the island are unique as they are marked " oleron" and show the offenders to be locals. The only way to avoid it is to travel at lunch time. I get my wife to follow me in our xc60 and she also gets the abuse so its not just campers and caravans.
Shame really as they are completely different people out of a car than in.

[Grimble]

In my experience, driving standards in any country are directly proportional to the density of traffic. The same can be said for human behaviour in crowds.

Out of the cities, the USA is a pleasure to drive in, wide roads, relaxed road design, generally relaxed drivers.
In sub-saharan Africa, generally I never went fast enough, either because of the road conditions or the traffic density, to be a problem to me or anybody else.
Same in India.

[chrisfr]

I recently bought a volvo xc60 which is now reregistered on french plates. All our other cars have french plates, and one is lhd. The point is ( in my experiance) that if the french see you have a foreign car they will tailgate or overtake you even if they are on a skateboard!
Last week i took my better half over to the airport for her visit to see her mum in the uk. We were constantly hassled by french. The car was the english plated xc60. Yesterday i collected her from the same airport. This time the car has now neen fitted with french plates as the french registration has come through.Amazingly, the standard of driving is much better. The car has also got rear tinted windows so you cannot see if it is rhd. People were patient, gave me room and considerate!
Funnily it is not unique to france. In january we made a trip over to the uk to pick up the new car and used my wifes lhd french plated car. We were cut up, undertook,overtook. One guy gave me the finger and clearly mouthed f off you french bstd. He was quite shocked to find at the next traffic lights that i was indeed english and not a french bstd and i invited him to repeat what he said which he declined. I had the mum in law in the car and she gave him a look which would turn most people to stone!

[john.wigley]

Originally Posted by chrisfr

..... I had the mum in law in the car and she gave him a look which would turn most people to stone!

My MIL could do that as well, 'chrisfr'! I used to ask her if she had to work on it or if it came naturally J.