How to drive in Russia and different countries

The British (and Americans) have long been convinced that the speed of the car is less than the speed of the aircraft, while the French (like most Latins) are still trying to prove the opposite.

At one time I remembered the head of the book, where a retired British major compares the British and French, including in the manner of their driving. And once again she surfaced in memory after our rally. Indeed, there is something to compare. And since we have different distances, and the scope is not an example anymore - it seems that only the reservoirs on the Volga, after it was blocked by dams, flooded the same France (in area, of course) - we can compare the style of driving a car in different cities.

I emphasize that this opus is purely subjective: after all, everyone has their own point of view. Therefore, if you do not agree, feel free to refute, state your position, it will only be more interesting. So, styles by city and some countries.

Tolyatti

Residents of the city, where they learn to drive, almost from the first class, are trying in every possible way to prove that they are the real kings of the road, and here you are not here, but the automobile capital. Probably, the layout also played a role, especially in the Avtozavodsky district, where initially wide direct avenues were laid and for a long time there were no real traffic jams. Therefore, they drive aggressively, arrogantly, they perceive all other participants in the movement as competitors and mastday. To concede or to miss, to allow to be reorganized or to stick in front of you in a row? No, not heard. They immediately farify, honk, and run out. The last time, however, the situation is changing in the direction of increasing tolerance, but slightly, almost imperceptibly. True, almost everyone let pedestrians pass - the traffic police managed to train them well.

Moscow

It is immediately clear that drivers in conditions of a huge number of cars on the road and heavy traffic developed a collective zen. As a rule, no one bothers to rebuild from row to row. There are, of course, impatient or with hypertrophied dullness, but there are few of them. At the same time, of course, the high pace of life in the city as a whole is affecting, which leaves its mark on automobile traffic: catch it, catch it! This is especially noticeable on the Moscow Ring Road, when there is a more or less free area: the mass of cars shuffling from row to row at a speed of 100-110 kilometers per hour - you still have to get used to this. Pedestrians, as I noticed, are allowed in, but not all and not always.

Samara

The riding style is somewhat similar to Togliatti - nearby, just 90 kilometers - but the skills to ride in crowded conditions are already affecting. There is already some tolerance. True, it is sometimes leveled by the state of frenzy caused by the chronic repair of roads in general and the Moscow highway in particular.

Ulyanovsk

Drivers of the city are also accustomed to a large number of cars and high traffic intensities, therefore, if necessary, they will let them in, change lanes, and let them stick in, and they will not offend pedestrians. But there is a feature: a rather high amount of auto antiques slowly weaving along the road with some ancient elder driving. As well as grandparents of high nimbleness, striving to cross the road with a small zigzag in the wrong place.

St. Petersburg

Frankly speaking, he himself was not driving in the city. But judging by what I managed to see, the driving style is similar to the Moscow one, and it’s more nonsense: traffic jams will sometime dissolve, sometime the asphalt will be poured, sometime the snow will be removed from the road, the sun will someday peek out from behind the clouds ...

Now, with regard to the countries in which I managed to visit and make at least some impression of the "local" driving style.

Turkey

Where I managed to drive - from Belek to Bodrum - it's cool asphalt (although in some places in the Bodrum region it is worse), free roads (in the same Antalya, where we were scared by traffic jams, traffic is freer than in Togliatti) and sane, polite drivers. Seen from year to year, on different routes. Perhaps the fact is that the incomes of the majority of residents are low, and gasoline is expensive, and the cars themselves are not cheap, so the driver becomes either an accomplished person, as a rule, no longer a young man, or someone who drives on the road for work needs, therefore and did not meet frostbitten comrades.

Netherlands

They drive neatly, albeit with a light fleur of gouging, but here is the abundance of frightened cyclists ...

Switzerland

They also drive carefully: in the country there is a lot of serpentine, even tougher than Turkish, as well as cameras, cameras, and they will be fined severely. And to exceed the speed of 20 km / h, as we have, it will not work: one or two kilometers per hour - and receive a letter of happiness. True, people are thawing to the south of the country, and in the French-speaking cantons there is already a slight gallant indifference, and only in Ticino, where the Italian language is in use ...