c7a8608a   
   XPost: misc.phone.mobile.iphone, comp.mobile.android   
   From: x@y.Invalid   
      
   Per Paul M. Cook:   
   >I too have been to Germany driving the autobahn, where I have been   
   >amazed that the Germans do three things rather consistently:   
   >   
   >1. The fast cars on the left (turn signal on) go really fast!   
   >2. The slower cars pull right immediately (unlike Americans)!   
   >   (they'll even not pull out in front of you from their position   
   >   in the right lane if they see that you're coming up fast in the   
   >   left lane)   
   >3. At constructions zones or otherwise signed slower areas,   
   >   paradoxically, the Germans drive like scared little old ladies!   
      
   I would add a fourth and a fifth:   
      
   4. If they cross a line, they do it with their turn signal flashing.   
      And it starts flashing well *before* they cross the line.   
      Follow traffic through a small village where a large truck is   
      parked so that it blocks half of your lane.   Now watch car-   
      after-car as it swings over the center line to go around the   
      truck.... *every* one with the turn signal flashing.   
      
   5. They are (or, at least, were...) all playing by the same   
      rules - although this may have changed since the Eurozone   
      got off the ground.   
      
   For instance, start a thread in a NG here about the proper way to merge   
   on to a freeway and you will get a long, contentious thread from   
   intelligent people of good will - with diametrically-opposed notions on   
   the proper way.  Seen it...   
      
   In the Germany I visited, there appeared to be one and only one   
   proper way and *everybody* understood it - including my 80+   
   year-old father-in-law who made sure I understood...   
      
   Something to do with having to take driving lessons to get a license   
   plus, as a people, pretty much owning the concept of respect for   
   authority is my guess....   
   --   
   Pete Cresswell   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)