Vroom Vroom
Exiting out of the Holland Tunnel this morning, I noticed two big signs: New York City Speed Limit 30 MPH Unless Otherwise Posted and New York City Law No Turn On Red Unless Otherwise Posted. Being a driver, I thought to myself “Well that’s pretty much common knowledge to anyone driving a car in New York… You learn that when you take your permit test, you learn it again when you take your road test, and you learn it a third time when you get caught speeding.” After thinking about it for a moment, I understood why the signs were there. They aren’t meant for us New Yawkah’s, who know what’s up, but rather for the foreigners.
I started thinking about it today, and each of the fifty states has its own unique culture. Think about it – every state has its own laws that govern its people who behave differently in accordance to the laws. In Florida, the driving laws aren’t really enforced so the people from there tend to drive aggressively. In Staten Island, people tend to drive relatively normal – it’s the roads themselves that make a driver want to stay indoors (they’re terrible). In Wyoming… do people even have cars there?
But why limit the analysis of driving cultures to this country? I’ve visited Egypt, Russia, Armenia, Spain, and France and the driving there is a key part of what makes the cultures in these countries unique. In Spain and France, wherever you can find a space that can fit your car, you park it there. Such spaces can be found on: sidewalks, rooftops, bridges, inside buildings, in parks, etc… In Russia, every single car on the road is a potential taxi – just wave at any random car and they’ll pull over to give you a ride. In Egypt, honking is so common and prevalent that they call it “Cairo music.” When two cars crash (stand around for 10 minutes), it’s called “Cairo kiss.” In Armenia, the traffic lights serve as nothing more than Christmas ornaments decorating the streets.
Driving is an essential part of most commuters’ lives and we oftentimes don’t stop and look at ourselves. Is there a unique feature of our driving style that would seem absurd to people of other countries? I’m sure there are… One time, a relative from Moscow came to visit my family and my dad was driving him around. An ambulance was coming up from behind with it’s sirens and lights on so my dad pulled over, along with every other car on the road, to let the ambulance pass. The relative was shocked at how organized everything was but his first question was “What happens if you don’t let him through?” A question like that never even pops up in driving courses – it’s just something we all do because we know we have to. Can you think of any other practices we Americans do on the road that would seem unusual to an outsider?
2 comments
Ah how true this is! In March, I was in 4 countries in a matter of a few days (Israel, England, Paris, US) and there I witnessed the major difference in pedestrian culture, or foot-traffic patterns. In London, I loved the huge letters LOOK LEFT and LOOK RIGHT painted on the pavement at crosswalks, so foreign pedestrians like me don’t get killed crossing the street.
Funny how we both addressed car culture. In Florida it’s legal to text while driving on the highway, and supposedly you don’t have to buckle up on a regular street outside of the cities (if you find one.) They also don’t use turn signals to indicate lane shifting when they’re speeding, which came off as a pretty natural practice there.
“Can you think of any other practices we Americans do on the road that would seem unusual to an outsider? ”
Yeah, two BMW’s tailgating the ambulance as you pull over the side of the road, or it could be just me during my driving lessons.