I think those of us who can shift their own gears should have our own, unrestricted lane on the freeway!

A note on speaking to the officer, last time I one exactly how fast I was going, I received the verbal equivalent of a firm and unpleasant slap–I was going 81 in a 75 in California.

Truer words have never been spoken about the lack of lane discipline. It doesn’t help that the process of getting a drivers’ license is a joke compared to most of the world. In Japan, there’s even a separate level of drivers’ license for people who want to operate a manual transmission car!

Thanks for a wonderful read. Having had the chance to be born in, live, vacation, and drive in Europe (especially Italy), you echo my sentiments on driving 150%! I could have written this just about verbatim, and it’s great advice.

It’s crazy how unreasonably low the speed limits are, and while I don’t think I will ever be able to go as fast as I totally want, at least on this side of the Atlantic, I am doing a pretty good job of avoiding getting pulled over with my turbocharged Subaru. That’s right, I drive the breadbox Forester XT, the 2004 with the extra steep gearing that was ranked the 91st fastest car ever sold in the USA to the 1/4 mile! Them short gears and the stickshift also help to bleed off speed…. undramatically. It’s such an unsexy car to look at, but that’s OK because just about anything short of an AMG mercedes will be seeing its taillights at most quite briefly. Of course, I totally live by your advice regarding situational awareness, radar detector, how/where to speed and the constant use of a “rabbit”. Yes indeed, those boy ricers with the wings and fart cans are most useful!

I would add to the list that perhaps the best tool someone intent on driving as driving should be who wants to do in in the USA needs a PBA card. The lowest level ones you can get by donating to the “scholarship fund of families of officers who died in the line of duty”. Even better if you can get one from a local department, and often time state police have personalized ones with direct contact info specific to that officer that they give their closest relative, friends, and people for whom they do favors. That one especially is a guaranteed “get out of jail” unless you are caught doing something that will get you arrested even in Europe, such as DWI or street racing which is moronic and should be punished accordingly.

Thanks for sharing and regards
A

–chuck