Overseas Driving

Here's what the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (November, 2007) has to say regarding driving conditions in various countries:

United States
"In the U.S., driving conditions are similar to Australia. America has been a motorised society for longer than anywhere else and they've had longer to practise. so American drivers are generally competent and considerate. It's a paradox: crazy gun laws but sensible driving."

Italy
"Italians are regarded as the worst driver sin Europe. They routinely ignore red lights and avoid congestion by driving on the footpath. On the open road, they take corners at suicidal speed. In a survey of European motorists, 36% of respondents voted Italian drivers as the continent's most dangerous."

Germany
"Germany's autobahns are the best roads in the word, but they can be a strain to drive on. Just try pulling out at 100 km/h to overtake a slow-moving truck. Within seconds that dot in the mirror turns into a BMW doing 220 with its lights flashing for you to get out of the way. While crashes are quite rare on German autobahns, at such speeds the survival rate is low."

Developing Nations
"In the Third World it's also easy to pick up the road rules: there are none. Well, none that are enforced."