what i remember specifically is that they liked how americans can merge two lanes into one peacefully by letting each lane take a turn, instead of turning it into a free for all where if the other guy gets into the lane first, you've shamed your ancestors.

[–] TrashGoblin@hexbear.net 3 points 6 days ago

This has never in the history of the US actually happened. If two Interstate lanes have to merge for construction, the backed up stop and go traffic will reach back 20 miles.

[–] invalidusernamelol@hexbear.net 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This sounds like pure fantasy, I'm in a relatively sane part of the country and even here no one zipper merges lol.

If you go to Atlanta, it's basically just Dukes of Hazzard on the highways. Absolutely terrifying place.

[–] huf@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

all i'm saying is they definitely had this impression. they kept saying this. maybe things really are (were?) even worse in hungary.

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

That is alien to my experience in America, and I remember my dad complaining in the 90s about how if everyone just cooperated instead of fighting to be 1 car length ahead, zipper merges would be so much smoother. I've never experienced Hungary traffic so maybe that's it.

But the thing about US drivers isn't that they fight, everyone does that, and they're less aggro than SEA, more aggro than Japan.

The difference is how often people have just psychotic reactions to someone driving in a way they don't like, whether it's going too fast, too slow, switching lanes too much or too little or being too close, lane splitting, riding a bicycle, playing music too loud, hell look at OP, the driver saw a child riding a motorbike on a sidewalk, and decided that running them down was a sensible course of action.

Since leaving the US, not once have I seen a driver go out of their way to fuck with someone else, whether brake checking/going 10 below the speed limit or speeding up at a merge so someone else can't get in or trying to physically push a bicycle out of their lane or blocking a motorcycle from filtering at a light. These are all common experiences in the US.

[–] huf@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

i've been thinking. maybe what they were experiencing was the contrast between driving in a city of millions vs driving in US suburbia, and they mistook the relative relaxation for an overall improvement

[–] casskaydee@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago

This is really only true in America if you get at least 100 miles away from a large city. Even then it's a toss up