Driving manner-The U.S and Japan

I drive everyday and I feel about how nice the diving manner is in the U.S compared to Japan.

The situation may be different between the city and country side.

However, generally speaking, I feel American people have a good manner than the Japanese.

In the U.S, it's common that when drivers realize pedestrians, they stop and make way for them with a smile.

In contrast, in Japan, some drivers make pedestrians stop and drivers pass through first.

Also in Japan, pedestrian try to walk quickly in an apologetic tone when drivers make way for them, but American people walk slowly in a stately pace.

In addition, American drivers stop at once when signals turn into red, but in Japan a lot of drivers accelerate to pass the cross.

If you stop correctly in Japan, you might get honked or you might be dug a ditch.

Also, If you rush into the inter section with red light in the U.S, you might crash because both signals change at the same time.

When you try to merge into the traffic from the parking lot, most of the U.S drivers let you merge in front of them with smile, but it's rare in Japan.

Instead, some Japanese drivers accelerate with a nasty attitude.

So, with these in mind, I guess that American drivers basically have a good driving manner compared to Japanese.

Why are American drivers' manner so good? I think there are some reasons.

First, the driving situation in The U.S especially in LA is much better than Japan . Roads are really wide and have a lot of lanes.

The parking situation is also nice. Almost all shops and restaurants have  enough space. So American derivers don't have stress in their driving time. However, as you know, the driving situation in Japan is horrible, especially in cities. Roads are really narrow and have few lanes. There are a lot of traffic jam and parking capacity is really poor.

In other words, Most of Japanese drivers have a lot of stress compared to American drivers.

Second, Japanese people are not good at expressing their feelings in their daily life because they are extremely shy.

So, some drivers become more aggressive when they drive.

American people don't need to change, because they can express their feeling easily. And people who lives in CA have a casual attitude, so they don't rush in their driving.

However, I think there are some advantages in Japan. It's an education level for safety driving.

I know basically, American people's driving manner is good, but few drivers are much, much worse. They change lanes without using signals in freeways.

They drive in a reckless manner.

 In Japan, most of people go to a driving school before they receive the test and they have to take some driving lessons if you get a ticket.

In addition, people who are over seventy years old people have to receive the lesson and a deriving test for eligibility.

In conclusion, I think it is ideal that mixing the American people's manner and Japanese driving education system.

However, it seems impossible in the U.S, because this country is based on freedom and self responsibility.

Revised Nov10 2011