Being used to aggressive and sloppy Perth drivers, it was a pleasure to find friendly drivers in the US and Canada being the norm. Even in busy cities such as Vancouver and Seattle, I found tailgating rare, and there was little impatience. By contrast, this morning's ten minute commute to work featured two occasions when I wanted to change lanes but was blocked by a car in another lane who closed the gap immediately. On my recent trip I never had difficulty in changing lanes. And in the entire 12,500km, I never had to emergency brake because someone pulled out in front of me whereas I did that twice yesterday on a quiet Sunday afternoon in Perth.
Here I get the impression that everyone the roads is my enemy, and we're all competing to get to our destination first. Over there, I felt warm friendly feelings from fellow road-users. In Australia, when I see I truck approaching from behind, getting larger and larger in the rear-view mirror, I dread how close they get, and the pressure they put on you to speed up or pull-over to let them past. In Canada and the US, the trucks would stay a sensible distance behind and wait patiently for a chance to pass. I do miss being over there - it was so easy to burn off all the competition at the lights, even in my sluggish Corolla.
No comments:
Post a Comment