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Comment by rob74 | Hacker News Reader

I would propose a more measured approach to this subject. To (mis)quote Jesus, "let he who has never done anything stupid in his life cast the first (metaphorical) stone". There certainly are people who do stupid things all the time, but there also are people who do stupid things relatively rarely, and those things can still have costly consequences. For instance, I once totaled a car because I trusted that another stupid person who was signaling a right turn would actually turn right (fortunately nobody was hurt, but my car was wrecked). I felt really stupid for months after that...

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I find the car signalling problem interesting.

Where I was born people trust the turn signalling and drive early. When I moved to the UK I (luckily) quickly realised you cannot do this here. Everyone waits until the car actually starts turning before driving. Even if it's signalling, no one trusts that, possibly creating less pressure for correct signalling. It makes traffic slightly slower but avoids the possibility of (this type of) accidents.

Counter-intuitively, worse drivers leads to fewer accidents.

Not trusting others' turn signals seems more like defensive driving than bad driving.

People don't trust signals, because the drivers are bad, not the other way around. I drove in most European countries, I drove in America, I even drove in China and I live in the UK. By far the worst drivers. Also the most polite, will always let you in, give way, dip lights, wave etc..

I live in the UK and have driven on various European countries and all down the US West coast. LA had easily the worst and most aggressive drivers of all. It was terrifying; one moment you're trying to squeeze onto the highway between two cars that absolutely won't budge an inch, the next moment you're being overtaken on both sides simultaneously by cars going over the speed limit. I also passed two fresh car-totalling crashes in two days, which I've never experienced elsewhere.

That's my point. I think my mistake was not defining what a good and bad driver means. I don't mean safe, cautious, polite - I simply mean competent in moving the car where you want it to go. Drivers in America and even more so in China are aggressive, but they also can control their cars better because they have to! No one will let them in, they have to force their way. If someone in my country of origin drives at the speed limit, everyone will overtake him, even if it's dangerous and if it's physically impossible they will beep at him. In the UK if someone is driving 40 in a 60 zone there will be a long line of cars behind him. It used to boil my blood first couple of years. Now I'm patient like the rest.

Good point, this does boil down to what we mean by "good driver". If I hear that phrase in the UK, I take it to mean competent as well as safe, considerate, and knowledgeable. On the other hand if a sports person is a "good player" then it's more about their technical ability than their safety - "Cantona was a great player but boy did he foul a lot".

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