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November 29, 2003
The Italian Driving Experience (Part Two)
Okay, so obviously I got out of there alive and amazingly enough, my van did not have a single scratch. Just as I got onto the street going the wrong way, a caribinieri (Italian police/military) happened along and guided me, thus preventing any deaths. And he was amazingly nice about it too (must be that special license plate that marks the Americans as idjits).
The next thing Americans will notice about the way of the road in Italy is that there seem to be some major difference in the road rules. But, before I tell you about that, I need to discuss the difference between the American and Italian concepts of time. Americans think of time as very linear - we tend to be future oriented which means that we don't really think about the present and once the past is past, it is forgotten. The Italians, on the other hand, are mostly oriented to the present and somewhat the past. They take special care of history but mainly focus on making today the best that it can be. Neither of these concepts are inherently right or wrong. Just different. And what's more, they make for some interesting conflicts. ** Warning, the next few sentences represent sweeping generalizations!** The Italians think that Americans are greedy and don't appreciate what we already have. They don't put a lot of stock into preparing for the future and are genuinely perplexed by our obsessive need for preventive practices. One example of this is that it is unusual to see them wearing seatbelts or have their children in carseats. To them, it is unconscionable to force a child to sit in a carseat if it is going to make them unhappy. To us, we would rather see our kids cry in their carseat than to risk the outcome of a car accident.
There is no such thing as a line here. When you go into a bank or store, you will see a large crowd around the cashier. To the Americans, this is chaos and overwhelming. What it means when you first get here is that you will stand at the back of the crowd for as long as it takes you to smarten up, while indignantly watching people just walk up past you to be served. In the U.S., you get in a nice neat line in order to be served. We have an unwritten rule about personal space, you generally stay about half an arm's length from the person in front of you. In Italy, you pick out what you want to buy and then walk up as close as you can to the cashier. You make a mental note of who was there before you and so does everyone else. If you hang back a bit, it means that you are not ready and you send out the okay for others to go before you. After doing this a few times, you begin to see that there IS an order to it.
When you get on the road, the concept of time is no different. The lines painted on the road are a mere suggestion, whatever works for you. Because they have always dealt with small spaces, they see no need for giant hunks of asphalt marring their beautiful countryside. I generally agree but it has been a steep learning curve downsizing my space requirements.
There are two speeds that the Italians drive. Really, really slow, which happens to be the speed limit - about 35 to 45 miles per hour and really really fast - about 80 to 100 miles per hour. The older Italians drive at a snail's pace and the rest of the population expects it. It is very predictable. Fortunately the "slow-goers" (my made up term, of course) hug the outside of the road in order to let everyone pass. Driving seems to be a terrifying experience for them. When I first got here, I was amazed at how often they left their left turn signals on. Then it became clear to me that this was their way of asking people to please go around.
Now the folks that drive at the faster end of the spectrum use their bright lights to talk to you. It is completely expected when you see brights flashed in your rear view mirror, to immediately hug the side of the road so they can pass. Same thing for an oncoming pass. It is normal to have a car driving towards you in your lane. As a matter of fact, if you do not facilitate their passage and an accident results, YOU are mostly at fault by Italian law. Road rage here, at least in the rural areas is nearly nonexistent. If for some reason, you do not get over or they can't pass at that moment, tailgating is the norm. I have discovered that helping them pass as soon as possible is definitely better for my blood pressure.
In the beginning, it takes at least double time for you to get to your destination because it seems impossible to pass. After a while, you start to get brave and peek your head around the trucks to guage the safety of a pass. For the Italians, passing happens. It doesn't matter if it is during a curve or whether there is even oncoming traffic. The roads are mostly two way, single lanes. There is an imaginary third lane down the center of the road that is used for passing. When you get brave enough, you dash around the slow goer and make it into the lead position just as another car whizzes by. Pretty soon, you are passing like a pro (Mario Andretti, stand back). And then it happens. You are passed WHILE you are making a pass. This has happened to me twice now. The other thing that has happened to me twice now is having someone pass on my LEFT side while I am in the process of turning left!
There are so many American vs Italian traffic accidents, that they tell you in the traffic class that virtually no one gets out of here without some sort of fender bender. Indeed, last January, I drove past a very fresh accident involving an American (we have special license plates with the initials AFI - Armed Forces International). The car was heartstoppingly crumpled. I got the story when I got to work. The woman in the car had been driving to base and had been hit head on coming around a corner. The Italian that hit her was in the process of passing someone else during a blind curve. The kicker of the story? The caribinieri issued a ticket, assigning partial responsibility of the accident to her - because her back tires were slightly bald. She is okay now but spent MONTHS in the hospital after multiple surgeries and physical therapy.
Part three coming soon.
Posted by DebC at November 29, 2003 11:46 PM