More on driving habits

I had to drive to Brussels yesterday -- just a 2.5 hr drive from here.

As I've written previously, I'm at the point now where I really don't like driving far, because of traffic and construction. Sure enough, 15 minutes from home I hit the first traffic jam. It was only a 10 minute delay, so not a huge impact.

I then listened closely to the traffic reports, but didn't hear anything that sounded like it would affect me. Somehow I missed one, and not too far from the border, just as I chose one of the two possible routes, I ran into the back of a 6 kilometer jam. Then I heard it on the radio. It took 30 minutes to go the next 1.5 km to get to the next exit where I turned around and took the other highway.

This is where I would be totally stressed out if my car didn't have a navigation system.

Crossing the border into Belgium, it was as if someone had hit the "relax" button for the highway. In Belgium, the speed limit is 120km/h, and I was told to obey it because the fines are steep. It seems most everyone obeys it, except, I was told again, for Germans who have not yet had the pleasure of being ticketed.

The end effect is that as soon as you hit the border, the entire experience of driving changes. It is so much more relaxed, and so less stressful than driving in Germany. There are no cars coming up on your bumper, or flying by so fast that your car shudders.

I mentioned this to someone at work -- someone who is German -- and he laughed and agreed completely. He said, that is the German way. Everything is so compact, so aggressive, and so stressful. He said he loves to drive in the U.S. (except, I discovered, he had never driven in say Boston or Chicago.)

I did notice though that the Belgians don't seem to easily let you merge into another lane. In Germany it seems if you put your blinker on, the other car is prepared for you to go ahead and merge ... like now. Driving in Belgium, they seemed to go out of their way to not let you merge.

Then I wondered ... maybe I was getting a little payback because of my German license plate.

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Further note:
While driving to / from work the last 2 days I was noticing again how the drivers here will so often wait until the absolute last minute to merge right to get off at their exit, especially at the Autobahn interchanges. They will drive 160 km/h in the left lane then just before the exit move over to the right, jamming on the brakes and squeezing in where there may be less than a car length. I guess saving a few seconds is worth the price of brake replacement.