Do Americans have problems driving cars.

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I recommend you first get your drivers license before tackling this by yourself. If you already have one but still need this video, it isn't the only thing you need mate.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txRTo5eAwrM

You can't afford to rent a real car, what a tosser

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHOssKfprXY[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHOssKfprXY

I have heard from um...people...that Americans are worst drivers then most(?) Europeans. Although to be fair Americans, acording to again um....people, are supposed to be better drivers then just about any one else.

I think the problem is that driver's licenses are too easy to get here. They really ought to make the tests require some real effort to pass. All you have to do is identify a bunch of road signs, answer some really easy MC questions, and drive a car around the block (first time only), and you're good to go.

Now you've got people talking on their cell phones, fiddling with their iPods, reading their GPSes, applying makeup, shaving, and eating while driving.

My car is a manual, and I really love it. It definitely helps keep me focused on the road.

Bah, I hate manuals. Manuals are for racing, not driving down the street.

As for Americans being poor drivers, I don't know. At least we drive on the right side of the street.

I like automatics because riding in a manual is too rough and bumpy (at least with the people I've driven with). All that jerking around when the gears shift and whatnot. Also, during the long, heavy early-morning commute, it kind of sucks to be stuck behind a person with a manual.

I take pride in driving as smoothly as possible.

Are Americans lousey drivers? Compared to the Lebanese neighbor I have who has to get a new car every month, cause he's wrecked the last one, no.

But, coming to work today... a young guy sped past me on the freeway, on my left, zoomed around me, passed the car in front of me on it's right (on the shoulder) and continued to slalom up the I-5 and out of sight at a high rate of speed. Everybody else was doing about 25mph, stuck in traffic. A glorious sight, twelve lanes of traffic - six in one direction, six in the other, all crawling along. A bicycle would have been faster.

Of course, you'd be run over in a day if you rode a bicycle out here....

Which, I guess, karmically made up (somehow) for the granny I got behind on the surface road to work, once I got off the freeway. She couldn't do more than 20mph in a 35mph zone, and insisted on going right down the middle of the road. She never looked in her mirror to see the line of cars trailing behind her. She stopped at every intersection, very carefully. Even if there was no stop sign.

Sigh.

I use a stick shift. I learned how when I was 18. Now I'm used to them, I'm not used to automatics anymore. I keep putting my foot on the break thinking it's a clutch and it feels really awkward.

I don’t see anything wrong with talking on cell phones. It’s the same as talking to someone in the car while driving. I talk on my cell phone but I don’t like it as much because I only using one hand on the steering wheel but I put the phone down when I need both hands, I just tell the person hold on because I need to turn, then I pick the phone back up. If you need to concentrate on the road, you just tell the person you have to go because there is lot of traffic now and you hang up. Same as telling the person in the car you can’t talk right now because you need to concentrate.

Never used a stick shift, but years of playing video games were enough education in using one.

As for doing anything else while driving, no. I may drink a soda or eat a candy bar when at a red light, but that's about it.

Tim

The only reason nationality--or being "American"--would have any bearing on driving skill would be because the number of people with cars is probably greater then anywhere else in the world coupled with relatively low standards in order to get a license AND to keep it. (You have to screw up pretty badly to get your license taken away here.) I don't have statistics, but I'm gonna say that's a logical assumption to make. Nationality might also come into play for the opposite---people in other areas of the world are a lot less likely to drive cars, so when they do, they turn the car into a weapon.

I am dying to know if Americans get points of their license. Over here in Blity half of road users have point on theirs

If you speed - you get them. I'm a terrible driver, and have never gotten any.

Whenever I'm driving I think everyone who isn't me is a terrible driver. I think my blood pressure goes through the roof.

I assume this isn't normal.

Actually, I think it's more common than my feeling, which is that I'm damn near the most dangerous thing on the road.