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driving in California/California drivers, the end of the myth : a French driver's experience
Last year, my girlfriend, my best friend and I spent 3 weeks in California for vacation, touring the state. We're coming from France and are, respectively, 35, 33 and 34. We drove from San Francisco to Lassen Volcanic Park in the north part of California, then to Lake Tahoe, Monolake, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and then back to San Fransisco.
During our trip, we drove in absolutly all kinds of roads : 10-lane congested urban freeways in LA and SF metro areas, desert rural roads, meandering forest roads, urban one way streets, avenues and boulevards, 2-lane highways, 3-lane (one is the passing one) roads, 2x2 roads with or without dividers, during the day, the night, etc.
Viewed from Europe and especially from France, there is the persistent myth that american, and especially californian, drivers are cool, relax, corteous, doing the speed limits : well they are actually good drivers compared with the French drivers who I've used to consider so far as perfect dangerous jerks compared with the american ones. There's also another myth : cops and highway patrol cars are everywhere checking for your speed, your behaviour. Third myth : road casualties are much lower in the US than in Europe regarding the same comparison basis. I guess those myths date back to the "CHips" series time!!! Well the conclusion of my 3-week California tour is : this time is over!
I would like to give my opinion on the topic, based on my californian driving experience : well to sum it up i'd say that all those myths are totally FALSE, it's complete RIP-OFF!!! Reality is far from the myths and not in a good way, we noticed.
Here are the widespread road behaviors we noticed on the California roads :
1-speeding : it's a sports practiced by 100% of californian drivers ; the speed limits? pff forget about them!! speed limits are mere indications NOBODY respects and neither enforced at all. Oh yes, we tried to respect them the first week but, let's be realistic : nobody does them, everybody tries to drive as fast as possible, even if the road or weather conditions are bad and If one dares doing the speed limits heis automatically endangered by the other drivers, threatened even by the others who honk, tailgate and show you their finger. At a time my girlfriend told me "speed up or one of them is going to take his rifle and shoot us" (yes, you're true, another myth : each citizen in the US carries a rifle with him).
The worst experiences :
*Pasadena freeway in LA, an urban freeway with dangerous sharp bends and stop signs on the on-ramps : you enter the freeway at a low speed and everybody on the freeway is speeding at 75 instead of 55, waving, cutting off, etc. Well honestly, due to the sharp bends and the lack of acceleration lanes, we didn't find that the 55 speed limit was too low!!
*I15 between los angeles and las vegas : it seemed that people where crazy on their way to Las Vegas : speeding, tailgating, honking, cutting off, using the shoulder as a lane on traffic jams, this was a festival of nonsense driving
2. Red light running : in San Fransisco and LA, it seems to be a widespread habit to run red lights even 5 seconds after the light has turned from yellow to red. If you're a pedestrian you got to be very carefull if don't want to die.
3. tailgaiting : well if you do the speed limit like us, it is unavoidable to have cars only a few feet of your bumper. Furthermore, everyboy will show you how wrong you are to respect the law by honking, threatening you, making road rage gestures.
4. cutting in front of your car : widespread behaviour on the freeways, despite the rear mirrors, a great number of california drivers behave as if they were alone on the freeway. We were forced to hit the brakes several times not to be hit by these guies.
5. turn signal and changing of lanes : the turn signal??? What for??? I'd say that less than 10% of the drivers use it when changing lanes. Well it was no rare to see drivers changing 4 lanes in one time to exit a freeway, almost causing crashes.
6. keeping a safe distance between cars : again, what for? The philosophy in california roads seems to be the following : the least space you let between your car and the car in front of you, the better it is for everybody. Even worse, when you're trying to let a reasonable distance between you and the car in front of you (you know, in the very very very unlikely case there is a sudden brake in front and so that you will not end in a giant pile-up), there will always be someone cutting in front of you, passing you to feed this seucrit distance!
7. (no) enforcement : complete lax! what are the highway patrol officers doing? spending their work time sleeping on their cars ??? The relevant question is : is there really a highway patrol or have they fired all the cops since the "CHiPs" times?? During all the trip we only saw one time a patrol car ; it was in a 4 lanes highway, everybody was doing 80 in a 65 hwy (exept us) the cops picked one car at random and arrested it, the others went on as if nothing had happened!! Wow, such an efficient way to enforce the speed limit!!
- Our conclusion :driving in California is unsafe and you are put at risk whenever you take your car and hit the road. The road beahviors seemed to us selfish, mean, it was some kind of "i'm the king of the road, i do hatever i want to do no matter he consequences, get off the road" attitude.
Actually, the behaviors we noticed in the California roads were similar to those of French drivers until 2003 when the governement said "enough" and launched a strong set of measures to fight the anarchy on the roads. Measures were based on :
-much harsher penalties for speeding, DUI, cell phone use, etc : fines increased, jailtime systematized
-increased enforcement, greater visibility of the enforcement, hence increased probability to have your behaviour checked on he road
-widespread use of fixed speed cameras and mobile speed cameras in unmarked cars : this is the center measure that has cut the death toll by 40% since 2003. We have now 2000 speed cameras and until 2012 there will be 3000 new ones. This has turned the roads safer, behaviours've been pacified.
You might think i'm kind of rude in the way I express myself but we were really amazed by what I'd call complete anarchy in the california roads with really dangerous behaviours! We often felt jeopardized by the road behaviors of the californian drivers!! And, no, we're not paranoiac.
So I'd like to have the opinion of california drivers on the forum. Have you ever drive in european roads recently? What do you think of the european drivers? What do you think of the behaviors of your counterparts in California roads? of yours too?? Do you also frequently notice the kind of behaviors I report above in your daily commutes etc? How are california drivers compared with the other states? is CHP another myth or do these guy really exist ?
You can complain all you want as a visitor, but the people who live here and drive here daily know the system and how that system works. I think that everyone can agree that traffic is bad here, just like in every heavily populated region in the world, but the rest of what you mention does not really phase us. Yes, you get the occassional exceptionally stupid driver who involves him/herself in the things you mentioned to an even greater degree, but for the most part you are over reacting as an outsider.
On a side note, if you really think about it, it's actually quite amazing that we have so many millions of drivers on our roads each day and there are actually a very low proportionate number of collisions.
Regarding European roads, I have very limited experience in cabs and riding scooters back in 2004, but I do remember fearing the idea of driving in the major cities in Europe, this is coming from someone who grew up driving in the LA areae. For one thing, American drivers are very good about staying in their respective lanes, Euros drive anywhere on the road where their vehicle will fit. Also, use of the horn is much more prevelant over there, which actually gets quite annoying for pedestrians. Lastly, I was amazed at the fact that drivers in Europe did not give the right of way to emergency vehicles (ie police cars, ambulances, fire trucks...).
One more thing, regarding the mitigation efforts made the French government, I'm glad they are working for you and making the roads a safer place. However, Americans in general are highly against the idea that "Big Brother is watching you." Most of us would rather have a slightly more dangerous commute than lose any more of our personal space/freedoms to the government.
You can complain all you want as a visitor, but the people who live here and drive here daily know the system and how that system works. I think that everyone can agree that traffic is bad here, just like in every heavily populated region in the world, but the rest of what you mention does not really phase us. Yes, you get the occassional exceptionally stupid driver who involves him/herself in the things you mentioned to an even greater degree, but for the most part you are over reacting as an outsider.
Occasional? I see the behavior he described daily here.
Its not that bad...I guess you get used to it. And the reason alot of people dont use the turn signal when changing lanes is because people love to speed up and block you from entering their lane , if they know you have intentions to do so. You have to sort of "catch them off guard" or else you could miss your exit
The point was that although the French visitor may have been appaulled by the driving habits of many of the drivers in CA, most drivers in CA know the "system" if you will, and drive accordingly. Most of us seem to get from point A to point B just fine over 99% of the time even if we partake in the aforementioned rude driving behaviors from time to time.
i have no problem with driving in LA , not even merging onto the 110, even tho it gets a lil scary in a beat up bucket of a car.
most people here know how to drive and we get used to the high pace driving. thats why i prefer to take side streets more than the freeways. its a slower pace.
a peeve of mine when driving from LA to SF is drivers who do not understand the
"slower traffic keep to the right" concept. the signs are posted, yet they insist on driving slow in the fast lane when the highway is only 2 lanes! im sure they are tourists because in the midwest i think the passing lane is the merging lane. anyhow it completely annoys.
but all you have to do is take a deep breath and go around them.
the answer to traffic can be huffin anf puffin or you can just let it slide.
and as a tourist i have had to suck it up when i am almost getting run over by those europeans in their egg sized cars or vespas. florence and rome taught me something about lookin both ways... a couple times before crossing the street.
wow! the presumption in that post is astounding: i was there for three weeks, so let me tell you EVERYTHING you're doing wrong! is it possible that your unfamiliarity with our roads and driving habits was the problem? when i was uncomfortable driving in a foreign country, i returned my rental car and took taxis; i didn't write an online "valentine" to the place in question telling the residents that their driving sucked. this is really something!
The first mistake was defining the words speed limit. It should read minimum speed limit so tourists don't get it confused as the max. Btw, it's not dangerous if everyone is doing it. It's the one or two that refuse to get with the program who casue accidents. As they say, "When in Rome."
Spoken like a typically arrogant Frenchman. You couldn't handle the behavior of the natives, so you come here and provide us with your unsolicited opinion. Merci.
There is some order behind what visitors typically view as chaos on the LA freeways. I've driven in many American cities, and believe it or not, LA drivers are some of the best. We may be a little bit aggressive, but we're consistent and people who live here learn the code and adapt.
I'm sure you sneer at tourists who come to France and can't comprehend your ways, either.
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