Michele77 wrote:
В России мне обычно, и не всегда комфортно. Просто по причине того, что надо каждый день доказывать, что ты - крутой. Если у тебя крутая тачка - то ты ездишь комфортно, тебе не хамят, не подрезают (а уж если еще номера не простые повесить, то вообще чудесно). Пересел на машину попроще - сразу же "вкусил" все российские прелести.
Вот как в анекдоте про гаишника: "Вот тебе жезл, и крутись, как хошь".
Каждый день вижу проезжающих на красный свет водил. Ну, когда жёлтый выключился, а тот как ни в чём ни бывало въезжает на перекрёсток и ещё бибикает, если поехали с перпендикулярной стороны.
А почему? ГАИшников нет в помине. Зачем им выходить на улицу и дежурить, если зарплата приличная и так идёт.
Вот тут полная информация про вождение в Калифорнии.
Ужос! И всё здесь полнейшая правда.
http://www.californiadriving.com/califo ... its-worse/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
* Somewhere between a half and two-thirds of all turns and lane changes in California are done with no turn signals at all. What this means is that there is no way to tell for sure whether a car is going to turn or change lanes or not — the lack of turn signals means nothing. You have to treat all cars, all the time, as likely to turn or change lanes without notice. Cars will suddenly turn across traffic right in front of you without signalling. Other cars just stop in the middle of the road with no turn signals; you learn to assume they’re turning simply because they’re not signalling…. Similarly, when you come to an intersection where you may be blocked by someone turning left in front of you, there’s simply no way at all of knowing whether the car in front of you intends turning or not if they’re not signalling (it is also very common for the car in front of you to only start using their indicators when the light turns green).Predictably, you also see drivers leaving their turn signals on for mile after mile without noticing, or to turning left while indicating a right turn (or vice versa). Surprisingly enough, most of the above things are actually illegal in California, but I’ve never in all my time here ever seen any enforcement — in fact it’s fairly common to see police cars turn without using turn signals as well.
* Running red lights — an increasing number of Californian drivers are running red lights, especially in the cities. Usually this is just an impatient driver who accelerates rather than brakes when he (occasionally she) sees a yellow light about to turn red. The results are predictably lethal and bloody; unfortunately, short of being really careful around every intersection where you can’t see all entering traffic for about 100 metres in all directions, there’s not a lot you can do about this.
* Some Californian drivers regard stop signs and red lights as purely advisory rather than mandatory; this is particularly true late at night. This is not a case of running a changing light (see above), or not coming to a complete stop at stop signs — what’s being described here is simply ignoring the red light or stop sign and going through at full speed or close to the limit.
* “Assault stereos” — if you’re new to America you might be astonished by the common use of violently loud car sound systems in urban and suburban areas. These things can shake other cars from across the road, and closing the windows won’t make the noise go away.
* Freeway merges. A significant proportion of cars trying to merge from freeway on-ramps onto the freeway itself try to do this at a speed of about 20 or 30 MPH. Given that the freeway traffic is often doing at least 65 MPH, this is both dangerous and frustrating.
* The California Cut. You’ll see this lethal maneuver every time you drive on the freeway: what happens is that someone realizes that the next freeway exit is theirs, and that they’re way over in the fast lane, with less than one hundred metres to the exit, or they’re just tired of driving in the rightmost lane and decide to get into the fast lane several lanes over. The usual solution is the “California Cut” — a multi-lane cut across the traffic, making a beeline for the exit or the fast lane, cutting an oblivious swath through fast moving traffic. This causes (at best) screeched tires, heart-stopping swerves, and traffic problems for everyone around the lane-cutter. Why couldn’t they wait for the next exit? Who knows? (and it goes without saying that they won’t use their turn signals during this little game; nor, in general, will they bother looking first).Watch out for this — there’s not a lot you can do about it except to be very careful when you are near freeway exits.
* Watch out for drivers making quick left turns in front of you and the other traffic when the traffic light turns green. This happens when an impatient driver believes he or she can just cut in front of the oncoming traffic before it starts to move quickly instead of waiting for it to clear. If you’re not really concentrating, they’ll probably hit you — it often boils down to a game of chicken which they presume they’ll win, and many of these drivers would probably rather hit you than yield (think “death cars” here, but also yuppies in BMWs).
* You see it every time you drive: the car next to you or in front of you is weaving from side to side, straddling the lane markings, speeding up and slowing down randomly, stopping at green lights, going straight through red lights and stop signs… yes, the driver’s talking on a cell phone while driving. This is hardly unique to California, I know, but just be aware that it happens here too.
