What is it with US drivers?
 

I have watched a considerable number of US police chase videos, particularly the official output from Arkansas police, and I cannot get over how, on multi-lane highways, US drivers just seem to pick a lane they fancy and drive in it irrespective of the traffic around them. And I think the use of mirrors also leaves a lot to be desired.
In the UK, for the most part, we drive on the nearside and only move out to overtake before returning to the nearside. If you are driving faster than the traffic in lane 2 then you move out to lane 3 to overtake. We do get some middle-lane hoggers who won't move into the nearside lane and some less-than-average drivers undertake them on the inside. Though not in itself illegal this can lead to a charge of careless driving. And when an emergency vehicle comes up behind we move to the nearside whereas in the US it appears they just move to whatever side takes their fancy. The only time we would move to the offside is in solid crawling traffic where the lanes will split to either side to make an extra lane for the emergency vehicle to pass.

Does seem to be a ridiculous concept that you can pass on any side, extremely dangerous if you ask me. Visited the US 5 times and their rules are bizzare. The thing that bugged me the most, was that thier brake lights and indicators (blinkers) are the same light, of the same colour, so at night when thier tail lights are on, it's near impossible to tell if someone is merging. If they are indicating and braking, then it's actually invisible, we nearly rear ended someone for this exact reason. On the plus side, some roads have 85 MPH speed restrictions, we can only do 70 legally. 70 was fine 50 odd years ago, but technology has moved on a lot since then, cars should be allowed to drive very fast if the want like on the autobahns.

No argument here vis-a-vis the driving scene within - at least California.

The lack of skill, courtesy, judgement and following distance - would seem - in a word - CRIMINAL - to this old sailor.

Fair winds,

ez

What I did like about driving in California is the fact that even country roads have a "hard shoulder". And I like the rumble strips along Arkansas roads and even down the centre line of many two-lane roads.

tl;dr - It's ignorance and lack of enforcement of the laws.

"Stay right" regulations are on the books in at least some places. I know passing in the nearside lane is illegal where I learned to drive, but it becomes a necessity when nobody follows the idea of keeping right.

Ignorance of proper turns is my personal peeve. Would regularly get stuck at a light because people waited for the far lane to clear for them to turn into while the near lane was completely clear.

The fundamental issue is that the US lacks public transit over most of the area. Which makes a cars a necessity, and that leads to poor driver training. A lot less people would have licenses if we had to go through what people in Europe had to to get them.

I heard that in North America people don't like to be behind someone else, especially if it is a larger vehicle or truck. Bad drivers pick a lane where there is no-one in front of them so that they can see far ahead. Bad drivers also like to drive larger and larger vehicles so that they can sit high hoping to see far ahead, but everyone buying larger vehicles defeats this purpose. I don't believe the lack of lane discipline is lack of education, it has to do with bad drivers feeling safer without cars in front of them.

Personally, I don't worry about the vehicle in front. It is the vehicles behind I worry about.

You and I both, but knowing this fact you can screw around with bad drivers. Once I passed a vehicle that I noticed on the highway that every time someone passed her she re-passed the vehicle right away. After passing her and leaving a safe distance, I stayed in front increasing my speed little by little until their car reached the top speed limiter without them realizing. Fun and games. :)

I had the opposite effect on a driver using his phone behind me. I slowed down slower and slower eventually getting down to 20 mph. It wasn't until he finished his call that he realised and took off.

They don't want to be behind the truck, buth then they are unwilling to actually pass truck. Now we have a rolling road block slowing down all traffic.

But why are they bad drivers? The times of my commute means they can still drive in the near lane of a 4 lane divided highway, and see far down the road. Yet they don't. Psychology is a factor but it isn't the sole explanation.