Sneeky Boss!

Shades of Toronto rush hour David?

Could be just about anywhere today.

I have lived in and driven in many countries.  The worst was the Middle East as it was like a game to drive aggressive and cut people off, sort of like a hocky match on four wheels.  In the States it seems like a personal insult to let someone merge in front of you, infringe in their personal space. In Canada I found drivers more polite and less aggressive. 

@abaucom  Come to Germany, where the laws of physics don't seem to fit with the general understanding of car versus man.  Before I moved here I consulted the USA Consulate (see what I did there?) and their information stated unequivocally that Germany had more accidents per capita than any other Western European country, and that included Italy and France.  They were dead on with their analysis.  When I arrived, I met an American consulting for the US military while I was getting my haircut and his first question for me was, "How do you like the drivers here?"  If I am on the road for an hour or more in any given day, I will experience at least one close call, and this is not an exaggeration by any means.  Aggressive drivers?  Germany has an abundance of such a creature. 

One thing that surprised me was how many German women said females were the worst drivers in Germany.   

@gdh I lived and worked in Qatar for two years and the driving experience was interesting.  First, getting a drivers license in Qatar was not like getting a license at your local DMV a casual / respectful event.  I have lived in many countries, many states, each time I move must get a new drivers license so I have experience.  I went to get my drivers license as a permanent resident in Qatar, I went with my 'Guy', Arabic speaker who knew how to cut through the red tape.  He would just move me to the front of the long lines to the next station.  Finger prints, no they just covered my hands in ink to take a palm print.  My man had alcohol wipes handy.  Move to next station, eye exam.  My man and the examiner started a long conversation in Arabic, voices raised.  I passed the eye examination even though I had forgotten to bring my eye glasses with me.  I later asked what all the yelling was about and my man told me the examinator said I was blind.  But because I was a professor, and after the exchange of some money, I got my Qatari drivers license.  Amazing how fast I moved along the long lines with a little money exchanged.

Driving in Qatar was an experience in defensive driving.  Round-abouts were the most fun.  Just shoot into a round-about and hope everyone else gets out of your way, yielding was not part of the game.  I was with an American friend in her SUV and we got rear ended in a round-about by a Qatari in his SUV.  The process is if you get hit, stop, doesn't matter how much traffic congestion results.  None of that pulling off to the side of the road business.  Police come, they take your drivers license, you drive away without a drivers license, you go to traffic court that night.  No delays, traffic court that night.  Have a 'guy' represent you in traffic court.  You don't have to show up yourself, just have your guy.  Very simple, if you hit someone from, like say the Philippians, and you are from the West, its their fault, they get fined.  If you get hit by a Qatari, its your fault, pay the fine, and your man picks up your drivers license, all done.  Fault depends on what country you are from, there is a pecking order.  I asked my own Qatari auto insurance company about this and they said, doesn't matter not going to raise your rates.  Qatar was exceptional having speed cameras.  You could just exceed the speed as much as you wanted to, at the end of the year you would get one bill for all your excessive speeding violations, pay the bill, and all was forgiven.  Speeding violations did not affect your insurance rates. I enjoyed my years in Qatar but it took a learning curve to adjust to its driving culture.  Of course I had to pay my speeding violations before I was allowed to leave the country.

@abaucom 

Thank you for this. What an interesting place to drive. Quite different from driving life in my Ontario, Canada.

@david-green I retired three years ago, moved back to the States, I lived in Ottawa for 18 years.  Loved it.  Becoming a permanent resident of Canada was not a walk in the park.  The only thing I don't miss about Canada is the long winters.  When I moved to Canada I had both a USA & Qatari drivers license. It took about 15 minutes to get my Canadian drivers license.  When I retired and moved back to the US from Canada, with my Canadian drivers license only took about 15 minutes to get my Virginia drivers license.

@abaucom 

I am glad that you enjoyed the Canada experience. I agree about the Winter. This one started with heavy snow the first week of December, about 15 feet so far and 5 feet still on the ground where I live on Georgian Bay. Permanent residence requires more effort than it used to. I am from England and in 1974, without asking, I got a Canadian Citizenship and documentation in the mail. Times have changed.

I remember after an almost two year process I received my Canadian permanent residency.  All I had to do was go back, cross the border again, get some papers stamped.  So I drove from Ottawa to the border crossing, about 90 miles, told the Canada side I would just cross the border, turn around and return.  Drove to the US side of the border, told them I was just going to turn around to complete the process to get my Canadian residency.  Pulled over, US border patrol treated me like a traitor, they inspected my auto for an hour, treated me with distain.  After an hour of being treated like a traitor on the US side, I made the U-turn, back to Canada.  At that border crossing I was told welcome, stamped my papers in 15 minutes, all done.  I will never forget, or forgive, the way I was treated at the US border and I was still a US citizen, just changing my residency status not changing my citizenship status.  

@abaucom 

Sorry about your border crossing experience. Over the likely hundreds of crossings to the USA that I have made, I never know how I will be treated. Most were short and pleasant. Worst was at Detroit when my Canadian passport, after a trip to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus was closely checked and questioning went on for a few hours. I never got refused entry, just occasional unpleasantness. 

My move to Canada was 2003, tried to cross the border minutes after the big black-out.  That is another story.  Ten days after the blackout I crossed the border to Canada in my 1996 Sebring LXI coupe with an attached U-Haul trailer with just the essentials and the furniture would follow.  Picture this:  I had my five cats in the car.  I stopped at Canadian border to have my work visa documents and car inspected. A big burly customs agent came to my car to inspect the car and U-Haul.  He saw my five cats bouncing around the car interior, turned pale and turned away.  He had a cat phobia.  Nothing was inspected, my documents stamped, I was on my way in less than 1/2 hour.

Funny I had spent weeks before my move to Canada to have all my cats documents in order, in my U-Haul had my house plants all documented safe to move to Canada, all my computer and electronics documented. One border patrol inspector with a cat phobia, never checked any of my documents.

@abaucom   I was treated in a similar manner when I flew back to the US after relocating to Europe.  The Customs official in the airport asked why I had been 'gone' for years and when I told him I lived overseas, now, his countenance took on a very unfriendly expression.  I smiled and waited for what would come next, but it was only a grimace and then a motion with his hand for me to move on.  I wondered if it would have made any difference to him that I was the first of my family to leave the country, since we arrived in the early part of the 17th Century.  Probably not.

@gdh I was an Interior Design Professor at a branch campus of a respected US university in Doha, Qatar, teaching in a 4-year degree level program.  My hobby when I was in the Middle East was jewelry design, my jewelry creations had been exhibited in two countries.  Returning to the US I was wearing rings with diamonds, emerald's, rubies, on every finger, plus one ruby earring.  The US customs agent asked me why I had been in the ME so long.  With the wave of my hands, and fluttering my sparkling fingers I said, "I am a Dallas decorator teaching the girls in Doha how to decorate".  Needless to say that customs agent could not get me gone fast enough,  I was not asked to declare my jewelry and moved through customs quickly with all my sparkles.

@david-green I can relate to passport issues.  My passport also has Russia, China, ME stamps, etc.  I am only a tourist!