Following my vacation in Munich, Germany, I wrote this article on my impression of drivers in that city, whom I found much better at the task than those in my neck of Canada.
The other day I was speaking with a man who lives in Munich and I discussed my thoughts. As with any situation, I only saw one side, and he gave me insights into the other. While he does agree that European drivers are more attentive than North American ones overall, he said that the city's public transportation network, while far superior to ours, could use some money spent on it, and that he much prefers the way that we can turn right on red lights here, rather than having to wait for a signal.
But one major difference he noted between Germans and Canadians is that, in his words, German drivers are "more aware of other drivers". This came about when we were turning left onto a multi-lane street, and a driver turning right from the opposite direction turned right across two lanes and into ours, cutting us off. His observation was that Canadian drivers are insulated from the rest of traffic; they only look ahead, they only think about themselves, and they don't think about the consequences of their actions. "Here, someone will sit in my blind spot for several kilometres," he said. "Drivers in Germany don't do that, because they know it isn't safe."
Paying heed to what he said, I observed traffic around me and discovered that he is indeed right. Drivers are looking straight ahead, instead of checking their mirrors and glancing out of their side windows. They turn corners without checking for pedestrians. They open doors without looking for bicycles. They blow their horns and flip the finger when another driver offends them, and then by the next block, they're performing the same mindless move and upsetting another driver. As Red Green used to say, we're all in this together. Keep your stick on the ice.
