Re: Game theory and US vs. Italian drivers

["." <maxid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Living in the US for 10 years now, I was born in Denmark and have driven all
over Europe, including Italy.

I second the thoughts posted here about the environment shaping the drivers.
Italy=narrow twisty roads, old cities > small, well handling cars...driver
needs to understand vehicle dynamics; US = wide roads, cities designed
post-automobile in a grid fashion > Caddilac cars and ditto drivers.

However, other factors also play a role. In the US, beginning with Henry Ford,
driving has traditionally been regarded in a much more democratic fashion than
in Europe. Among car acquisition, annual registration, fuel, and insurance,
one or more are generally heavily taxed in most European countries,
perpetuating a residual of exclusivity. This has maintained the idea in Europe
that the driver is a "man taming his machine". In Europe, driver's ed and
testing can be extremely expensive ($2,000) and the tests are demanding both
intellectually and driving wise. Expense and intimidation probably contributes
to why the proportion of licensed women is significantly lower than males even
in an otherwise very gender-unbiased country like Denmark. When married
couples only have one car, it is still most often driven by the male even if
there is no external justification for this. If they have two, the woman's car
is generally a humble econobox. You don't see a woman driving with a man in
the passenger seat as often as you do in the US.

American culture is sometimes contradictory. Despite ideals of "rugged
individualism" and everybody fighting for himself, America also has strong
communal elements, possibly passed on from the first settlers. The latter
shows up in the American tendency to nicely merge from one to two lanes of
traffic if there is an obstacle far ahead. Europeans tend to try to beat each
other to the obstacle, causing friction and probably slowing everybody down in
the process. For those familiar with "game theory", it seems the Americans
have gotten this point better than the Europeans.

Women drivers are not new to Italy, but it is only within the last forty years
that this has been the situation, and most professional drivers are men, so
the culture is still male and assertive. Since older drivers are also less
common, one can better assume that the other driver has acute senses and sharp
reflexes. The relative absence of foreigners also creates less ambiguity about
the other drivers' intentions. This allows for less safety margin than in the
US, sometimes overinterpreted to the point that one accident often results in
a serial crash.

Lastly, a study in the Journal Nature by a dutch group a few years back
compared the American freeway system where you can pass on both sides with the
European one where slower traffic keeps right (or left in the UK). Their
various simulations showed that a given number of lanes could transport more
traffic in the US fashion than in the European fashion. So if you think
European rules are the solution to the clogged freeways of Southern CA or the
DC Beltway, think again.

Sonny
'91 164 S
Baltimore
maxid...
@domain.elided
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