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Re: Freeway Etiquette
dsmall@igc.net (Dave Smalley) wrote:
snip...
>The people I hung out with indicated that one of the most
>important concepts taught over there [Europe] is lane selection and positioning inside
>that lane.
>
>Over here in the US we concentrate on speed limits rather than skill
>enhancement, what a shame.
>
I've been lucky enough to have visited Europe many times and Dave is right,
driving on the autobahn or the Italian autostrada is a true pleasurable driving
experience. It is not for the timid, however. I know that one of these days
I'm going to get tagged with a ticket on my way home from the airport after
having visited Europe. It takes me a couple of days to re-adapt to the US driving
style (i.e. in slow motion).
A couple of years ago, on German television one evening, I saw a one hour
program on driving techniques. They spent a half an hour showing how to deal
with missed off-ramps! They emphatically indicated that backing-up was NOT
an option. In the states, I see people do this all the time. The program went
into all kinds of scenarios - all of which involved options on upcoming offramps.
The program was done local to the city I was staying in and showed how to deal
with these situations for many of the offramps which serve that city. They also
showed how to navigate through some of the more complex interchanges. They
did this using drivers' views, aerial views and computer graphics. Neat idea!
I just wonder if we Americans have enough brain cells to make sense of something
like this...
I remember back in the 60's, one of the networks would periodically run a
"National Drivers Test" program. Too bad they couldn't bring something like this
back to American prime time TV! If insurance companies REALLY wanted to reduce
accidents and highway casulties, they should be sponsoring a prime-time driving
skill TV program in conjunction with state and federal governments.
Lets be careful out there - John
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