--- On Sun, 7/3/11, Paul Hunt <paul.hunt1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> But not
any more. European car
> driving has been reduced to the level of watching TV
on said
> couch/sofa and all the concentration that involves. Devices
> that
warn of drifting out of your lane and that put the
> brakes on if you haven't
seen the car in front slow down or
> even worse pull out in front of an
oncoming vehicle don't
> help safe driving.
I agree that those devices don't
help make drivers safer,
and they allow idiots to get into much more trouble.
I
don't think there's any electronic doo-dad that will save
your sorry butt if
you cut off a logging truck on the
freeway.
I can see, however, that those
devices (such as adaptive
cruise control and perimeter sonar) can be useful on
US
freeways where the speed limits are typically so slow, and
the volume so
high that sheer boredom easily sets in when
traveling more than a few dozen
miles. And I know - I
commute 150 miles round-trip to work three times a
week.
Needless to say, I greatly prefer driving in Germany to
driving in the
US. Being on a highway (or back road)
where your fellow drivers are generally
rational, serious
and competent is a revelation. There's no trick to driving
a Fiesta or Yaris at over 100 MPH on the Autobahn when the
whole driving
environment is geared towards that. It's so
damned refreshing, and so
disheartening to return to the
land of lazy, slow, stupid, distracted drivers.
A couple weeks ago, I had someone change lanes into me
(my commuter car, not
my MG), scrape my right-hand mirror,
gun the gas to get ahead of me and keep
going.
"Only in America."
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