Driving me Crazy!

I am 51 years young, I have lived in the US, Europe and Asia, I have driven on those continents and Africa. Some countries have a reputation for poor driving, Italy springs to mind for some reason. Before coming to live in South Carolina I hadn't really thought about driving here, after all I had been here plenty of times on vacation and I had driven all around the US over the years but I can honestly say that after 4 years of living here and plenty of time in the car, the drivers in South Carolina are easily the worst in the world.

The first thing I noticed in 2008 when I arrived was that cell phones had just been invented, what other reason could there possibly be for every other person behind a wheel talking on the phone? Now the smart phone has arrived and everyone is downloading, texting and surfing while trying to get from A to B. I was living in the UK when cell phones became popular and there were no laws regarding their use while driving and I was there when it was realized what a distraction they were and hands free became your only legal alternative, people moaned at first but very quickly became used to it and it was practically self policing. There was talk of restricting cell phone use for teens here a while ago but it died before becoming law because of objections about civil liberties! Do what you want to yourself but lets face it, if you cause an accident while driving there's a very good possibility that someone else's civil liberties are going to end up wrapped around a tree.

Within 10 minutes of leaving my house in the morning, and this is every morning I will witness the following infractions; tailgating, weaving, undertaking, speeding and a complete lack of understanding of the functions of the turn signals. The problem starts with the DMV, the driving test is a joke, I know, I had to take it, a little quiz followed by 10 minutes driving around and a parallel parking practical that a blind man could pass. On filing the paperwork I was asked what my native tongue was, "English" "No" says the clerk, "What language do you speak in your own country"? "English" I said a little dumbfounded "No" says the clerk a little more forcefully "You don't understand" "I can assure you I do" says I, and my language is English because I'm from England. A little sigh and she gave up, it went downhill from there. So the problem is, you start out as a bad driver in SC and you then get worse. On discussing lane discipline with drivers here, it becomes apparent that they have no clue what I'm talking about, most drivers simply do not know that you are supposed to drive in the right hand lane and overtake in the left lane.

Tailgating is another terrible problem, 60 mph down the road with 6 cars no more than 10 feet apart, half the drivers on the phone and the others watching movies, it's insane I tell you. I've driven on dark country roads at night and the car behind me is so close I can't see his headlights! And we're the only two cars on the road. All of this would be bad enough but to top it off the roads and the street signs are a mess, who the hell hangs traffic lights off of wires anyway? In a state that gets hurricanes!

Part of the problem are the laws, the open container law doesn't stop people drinking while driving but it does mean that the littering law is ignored as the ditches full of empty containers will testify. They sell cans of beer in brown bags in filling stations for god's sake. Out of the town centers all the bars come with mall sized parking lots but that's ok because if you do happen to get a DUI you can buy your way out of it. My daughter gets a ticket for speeding, she's young and the ticket has implications for my insurance but thats ok because for $50 I get a lawyer that gets the 19 miles over the speed limit reduced to a seatbelt violation. Handy but definitely wrong, she was wearing her seatbelt.

Rant over.