"gixer" > wrote:

>The thing is though living a densely populated city (Athens) it's a case of
>you learn very quickly to drive well, if you don't then you will get through
>a lot of cars very quickly, your concentration levels have to be very high,
>because you have vehicles, pedestrians, scooters, motorbikes, buses and
>taxis all around you, near on 24 hours a day,

Where would you rank Athens on the scale
Rotterdam - Brussels - Paris - Rome - Jakarta?

>I found that generally in the states people do not really concentrate to
>hard when driving, of course New York and LA are obvious exceptions as are
>downtown in many of the major cities, but in the less densely populated
>cities I have been over there, people are not generally switched on while
>driving,

Well over here in Tallahassee they are. Their cell phone is switched
on pretty much all of the time.

> they are not really completely aware of their surroundings,

Here they are. They are fully aware that they are talking on a
cell phone.

>I was with a mate in San Francisco we were talking about driving standards
>and I gave him my opinion that in the San Fran area the standards were
>pretty low, he got ****ed off and asked what evidence did I have to back
>this up, so I put my hand over his rear view mirror and asked him what was
>behind, he had no idea at all near on every time,

The most challenging part of driving in SF is apparently the hills.
That is, if you have a manual. We have had at least one SF Miata
owner here whining that a manual Miata was just not possible in SF.
I drove some in SF myself, but did not see anything steeper than
you can find in mountainous Holland.

Leon

> in Athens most people have
>a very good idea of their surroundings most of the time, but then you have
>to have because road markings are nearly always worn away, sign posts are
>usually that badly faded of missing all together, the roads are extremely
>bad so you have to keep a constant eye out for alloy wheel swallowing pot
>holes, people are of the general opinion that if they have been waiting to
>cross the road for more than 3 mins they automatically have the right to
>step out in front of any vehicle, parking is a case of stopping right in
>front of the place you want to visit, even if there are 20 parking spaces 15
>meters further up the road, right turn lanes are there especially for people
>who are soooo busy and soooo much more important than everyone else, that
>they can drive down the lane specifically marked as right turn only and at
>the last mm cut up the guy who has been waiting patiently in the correct
>lane, causing him to stamp on his brakes, which of course causes a multi car
>pile up 50 meter further back.
>
>Ahhhhhh the joys of living in big cities!!!!!!!
>
>Its really a miracle and a testament to the quality of the average Athens
>driver that the hospitals are not overflowing every rush hour, and its
>amazing how 1 Malaka (Jerk) can cause so much disruption,.
>
>
>
>Cheers Mark.

--
Leon van Dommelen Bozo, the White 96 Sebring Miata .)
http://www.dommelen.net/miata
EXIT THE INTERSTATES (Jamie Jensen)