In reply to:

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For those of you in California, if some days you notice a particularly acrid smog hanging above the 101, those'll be all the swearwords let out by Rob, on his visits to Rio HQ, while comparing Californian road courtesy unfavourably with British road courtesy.

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That surprises me. As a relatively new driver (4 years since I passed my test), when I went out to California at Christmas I was amazed by how courteous the drivers were, and how relaxing it all was.

Sure, nobody will let you out of junctions into a stream of traffic, but nobody expects you to, and when I did, the look of shock and gratitude on people's faces was quite something, compared to the brief wave (if you're lucky) that you get in the UK.

And driving on the freeway was a lot more pleasant than over here. 55mph sounds so slow, but when everyone is doing it you don't notice! People would always let me in to a lane if I was accidentally in the wrong one, and there was none of the general pushing and aggression you get on UK motorways, even at rush hour.

When I got back and drove back from the airport, I was scared rigid. Going over 80mph felt like I was travelling at Mach 2, people cut you up, and it generally feels very unpleasant. Sure, in about 2 weeks I was back to doing 90mph+, moaning about right-lane hoggers, etc. But considering all I'd heard about driving on the west coast, I found it far more pleasant and relaxing than it ever is over here!