Some of the Big Differences Between Driving in Europe & North America

Okay, so I'm back from Europe and now in New Jersey.

Yay. 

Anyway. One thing which always persists after such a trip are the differences between the ways of doing things on the two different continents. There are aspects of Europe that I absolutely love. Being a fan of both history and architecture, how can you not love the beautiful cities dating back many centuries, if not even millenia? The southern French city of Béziers is apparently 2,600 years old. So that is not the kind of a city you are going to see in North America, generally speaking. 

Also, I have always admired Europeans for the way that they can relax. Sitting and relaxing at, say, a sidewalk cafe, enjoying a meal or a beverage or even a simple snack, taking in the ambience of an interesting part of town, watching people going to and fro, with no obvious destinations or purposes, is one of my favorite past-times. Just taking a load off and relaxing. Enjoying a good conversation or beautiful weather, or perhaps both.

You know, enjoying life?

This is something which Americans - and probably most of North America north of Mexico, with the possible exception of Québec - could learn a little from. 

Europeans do some things better than Americans tend to do. They preserve their history in the form of not just individual buildings, but whole neighborhoods dating back many centuries. They tend to have rich cultural and artistic traditions, which are often well-preserved and appreciated. And to be frank, in my lifetime, they tend to find ways of doing things politically which make more sense than what Americans often choose to do, things that work for most of the people, like having affordable, universal healthcare which is not tied to employment, or more affordable childcare, better education, significantly superior mass public transportation, and so on. 

That said, it feels like one thing which Americans (and North Americans more generally) seem to do better is associated with driving. Let me explain. 

I have now some experiencing going back years with driving in Europe. Drove for almost two weeks through six countries back in 2019, and rented a car twice in each of the trips to France (and Spain, for a couple of days) which I took this year, for a total of over one week's worth of driving. When you drive around for any length of time while visiting Europe, there are some differences which are bound to get your attention.

The one thing which stood out in particular following this last trip was the driving. To sum it up, driving in Europe tends to be more annoying - even far more annoying - than it is in North America. There are far, far more traffic circles there, and these tend to be annoying. They can also not only be stressful but dangerous, especially the ones with multiple lands when traffic is particularly heavy and everyone just wants to go, and nobody is giving anyone else a break. This tends to lead to everyone having a short fuse, and then people begin to react in negative ways. 

Another thing that both my brother and I noticed - and not entirely unrelated - is that the number of highly aggressive drivers appears to be far more in abundance in Europe. I know, I know. This kinds of reinforces the already existing stereotype that European drivers have. But at least in France, a lot of the craziness was seriously cut down. Authorities tried measures which seem to have worked to slow people down. There are tons of traffic circles, there are speed bumps, and especially cameras, which tend to be particularly numerous on highways. 

Initially, the impression that I had gotten was that the "crazy European drivers" still mostly existed in eastern Europe. Because when I drove in and around Paris in 2019, and even earlier this year, it felt like things had grown a lot calmer since the last time that I had spent any real time in a car in France (admittedly, as a passenger) back in the eighties and nineties. But the week and change which I spent in southern France seemed to indicate that the craziness has not simply gone away, but only manifested into a different form. Where once, crazy European drivers recklessly racing along highways at breakneck speed defined the stereotype, the highways now seem almost like the calmest aspects of driving in France. People obey the speed limits. Trucks mostly stick to the right lane, and relatively low speeds. And few people risk getting caught on camera going well over the speed limit. There are not nearly as many police cars pulling people over as in North America, but the cameras seem to be at least as effective at both calming and slowing drivers down. 

Away from the highways, however, you definitely still see a certain crazy and overly aggressive (one might even say dangerously aggressive) streak which becomes evident soon enough. As mentioned earlier, this was particularly true on the countless roundabouts, or traffic circles. But it was also evident elsewhere, in other ways and at different times. People trying to cut you off and sneak by on traffic circles, people going too fast and not giving anyone else a break on those same traffic circles, and many, many people tailgating, often recklessly close and seemingly wanting to hit my rear bumper. Don't get me wrong, because it happens here in North America, too.  Bad drivers are everywhere, unfortunately. But that particular kind of aggression seems far more prevalent and inescapable in Europe. 

Also, one more thing about driving in Europe. The road signs tend to be much, much smaller, and so more difficult to see. This is one thing which feels like it is clearly better in North America, where the road signs tend to be large and clear and - this is not a minor point - accurate. Too frequently, I would be following signs towards someplace, and those signs would just suddenly stop. It seemed like the message was you are on your own from this point. With signs already being smaller, and with far more drivers from out of country (often not speaking the native language all that well), this inevitably will lead to problems. During this last trip, I experienced that in Barcelona while walking, of all things. After getting off the Metro at the recommended Lessep stop, I followed the signs to Park Guell. It was supposed to be a twenty minute walk from the station. There was plenty of time, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to get there early. Only the signs just suddenly stopped, without warning. I was on a hill, and my understanding was that the park was on the hilltop. Yet when I finally saw another sign, it pointed to the right, which headed downhill. That didn't seem to make sense, but I mentally shrugged and followed the sign. It directed me to the next left, and then, just like that, no more signs.

Poof, all gone!

Not sure if someone was playing a prank or what. The two misleading signs that I saw looked a bit different than the others, but they still looked official, like they belonged and were put up by authorities. So I am not entirely sure what happened there, or why it happened.

Now, this would likely not have been such a problem if the signal for my GPS was working. But since I had problems with the GPS signal on previous trips, it seemed like a good idea to snap screenshots of directions. Only these directions were how to get there by Metro, and then it said follow the signs while walking. That did not work out so well. It was hot and sticky, and I was already starting to get annoyed by the combined lack of signs and inaccurate directions of the last few signs that I did see. Forced to ask and extend my virtually non-existent Catalonian language skills well beyond what they were capable of, I inevitably asked some people and, eventually, got the sense of where the place was. But when I arrived at a destination that was in theory only a twenty minute walk away (and I arrived probably some 45 minutes or so early at the Metro), my actual arrival time was about fifteen to twenty minutes after the printed time, and in small print it warned that the ticket would not be honored if the time extended beyond half an hour after. So that was really frustrating. I was clocking the miles walked on the cell phone, and it showed over three miles walked from the time I got to the Metro station to finally arriving at the park. 

The road signs feel like they add unnecessarily to the stress and confusion, and particularly with driving. But that is particularly true when it gets dark, or when the weather is unaccommodating, like rain or fog (and I experienced both). Add some of those aggressive drivers whom were mentioned earlier, and driving becomes particularly tricky at times, especially if you are trying to figure out which direction to go in. Because again, by and large, nobody seems eager to cut you any sort of a break. 

Also, parking tends to be crazier. It's more difficult to park on the streets, and the parking decks tend to be tight squeezes to drive in as well as to park. So across the board, there are things which, in this particular category, Europeans might learn something from Americans. Seems weird to suggest that. But on this particular subject, it feels true.

So, that's my little rant about driving in Europe. 

Again, I love Europe. Often feel more at home there, and in so many ways, than in the United States, and on several levels, for numerous reasons. I tend to identify or sympathize with them more politically and even culturally.

Just not so much in terms of driving.