97af3f0f   
   XPost: misc.phone.mobile.iphone, comp.mobile.android   
   From: x@y.Invalid   
      
   Per Paul M. Cook:   
   >As you said, in Germany, *nobody* is gonna pass you on the right,   
   >but, boy oh boy, when they pass you on the left, they're moving!   
      
   I have to think that, in a country where they claim a lower freeway   
   death rate than the USA's - yet Porsche's going 150+ mph are mixing it   
   up with triple tractor-trailers pulling out to pass at 45 mph - they   
   have the most highly-evolved and functional set of driving rules in the   
   world.   
      
   Three observations in that respect:   
      
   1) During a vacation in Puerto Rico, I quickly learned that there   
      actually is life without turn signals.   In PR, eye contact with   
      other drivers made all the difference.   
      
      Once I got eye contact, everything went smoothly.   OTOH, when   
      I would use a turn signal people would start reacting as if   
      they had never seen such a thing and were worried what this   
      lunatic  might do next ....-)   
      
      
   2) My motor head German relatives who visit us here in the USA all   
      comment on how much *less* stressful it is to drive here.   
      
      
   3) Freeway stats to the contrary, Germans have their share of accidents.   
   My relatives tell me that drunk driving is rare there partially   
      because drunks don't survive very long - driving is just too   
      demanding.   
      
      And when they do have accidents at 100+ mph, it's a whole different   
      ball game.   I'd be watching the morning news and the announcer   
      would be saying something like "Where was a pileup on highway   
      XYZ yesterday afternoon.   Between 18 and 23 people were killed.   
      We will report the actual number once all the body parts   
      have been inventoried."   
      
      I tried to avoid driving and spent most of my time on my   
      mountain bike.... but riding the shoulders of the non-freeway   
      roads I would frequently see deep ruts in the vicinity of   
      curves - suggesting to me that the local drivers were losing   
      it on some sort of regular basis.   
      
      
   4) First time we went over there, at the airport I saw the taxis   
      with windshield wipers on their headlights and wondered "WTF   
      is up with that?"..... about 30 minutes later I found myself   
      in the passenger seat of my brother-in-law's Lancia sedan   
      doing 100+ mph in the dark... in the rain!!!...   This is the   
      same guy that kept a spare engine in his garage so he could   
      rebuild between the times he'd blow up an engine on the   
      autobahns...   
      
   --   
   Pete Cresswell   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)