simon stingray

South Africa

Slow moving vehicles will drive in the hard shoulder/emergency lane of the freeway to allow faster moving vehicles to pass-this is unheard of and quite a serious offence here in the UK.

The emergency lane is also there for the benefit of minibus taxi drivers during rush hour when the lines of traffic come to a standstill on the freeways around Johannesburg. The hundreds of minibus Taxis just drive at high speed down the emergency lane and push in at the front of the line of traffic much to the annoyance of all the other drivers who are waiting.

Making U-turns across the centre of the freeway is quite common in South Africa.

During the 1980's & 1990's when I lived in South Africa it was quite the norm to drink and drive. Whilst it was officially illegal, offenders were rarely booked by the police as long as they were not involved in an accident.

I once observed a traffic officer telling a very drunk driver (could barely walk straight) to get back into his bakkie (pick up truck) and "go straight home-do not stop at anymore bars along the way". I believe the police are now clamping down on this practice as a result of the high number of road deaths every year and there have been a number of arrests recently- unless the offender and the police officer can agree to an "on the spot fine" (Bribe).

The sad thing is that South Africas "Odd Driving customs" are too numerous to list and cost many lives every year-during the month of December last year there were 1162 persons killed on South Africas roads.This is however, a slight improvement on December 2004 where 1234 persons lost thier lives on SA's roads.

Kiwi Flyer

One of Auckland's main motorway exits was from the fast lane (until fairly recently) and caused no end of grief clogging up the motorway for miles.

Kiwi Flyer

Melbourne's hook turn is fun for novices. After doing a couple see the driver try to find a way around without any right hand turns

cblaisd

Indeed, indeed. Happens, thankfully, here in Hawai`i too, unlike the California Bay Area where funeral processions simply seemed to be an irritant to most drivers.

Yup, that's how I was taught in Texas. I find that I am the only one who does this in Hawai`i.

An odd one in Hawai`i that hasn't been mentioned: signaling for a right turn and then right before the turn moving left before turning right. It gets your attention

ContinentalFan

New Jersey has driving traditions all of its own.

Route 1 traffic lights
On Route 1, those traffic lights stay orange forever. If you came to a stop like people do in other states, the car would be rear-ended.

Jug Handles
The "Jug Handles": turn right if you want to turn left, are a real surprise! It took me a while to get use to them.

Traffic Circles
Also called "roundabouts" in some parts. The driver manual has (or had) an interesting comment at what one should do at Traffic Circles: follow the local custom!

Of course, after a month in Jersey I was shaking my head and the idiot out-of-state drivers who didn't understand the lights, jug handles and, particularly, the traffic circles!

Dromomaniac

Regarding driving on the left or right: I find that there can be lots of variance - even especially within the United States - regarding how to treat traffic signals.

In many places - Phoenix area comes to mind - Green means go, Yellow means speed up, and Red means next 2 cars can go. In other places, Yellow means slam on your brakes. (This just comes to mind, but I wonder if there's a difference in traffic codes regarding it being legal to enter the intersection on a yellow light, and being legal to be in an intersection when the light turns red. Anyone?)

I also find wide differences in motorists' habits when the light turns green. In some places - Bay Area comes to mind, as well as L.A. - you had better have the foot on the accelerator the moment the light turns green, or suffer The Horn. In other places - like the Pacific Northwest - a Green light means that one should disengage the emergency brake, perhaps start the engine, take a sip of coffee, ensure the intersection is clear, and then proceed. This is especially puzzling in Oregon and Washington, where motorists are usually so good about stopping at Yellow lights (see paragraph above), so you end up with a good 10 seconds where there is just NO activity in the intersection.

sany2

Here in Detroit, you speed up for yellow lights and you floor it at the green lights. Traffic is bad enough without slowpokes.

sany2

Calling them orange lights seems to be an interesting custom. Here we call them yellow lights.

What about michigan Lefts, where you go past the intersection, do a u turn, then turn right, all to get left. Is that what you are refering to as a milk jug? Or are you referring to when you turn right to go left?

Dromomaniac

Oh, I completely agree.

I am always trying to encourage the expeditious flow of traffic.

At least, that's what I tell the police officers.

On another note, I think it came up in another FT thread: Motorists putting on their hazard flashers when coming to an abrupt stop, especially on highways. Seems more common in Europe than in the U.S., at least as far as I have seen.

cblaisd

One of the wonderfully odd customs in the part of Hawai`i where I live is that honking the horn is considered incredibly rude. It is to be done for situations of imminent danger. I have been at intersections where someone was inattentive to it being his/her turn to go and we waited right through the light cycle because it would have been rude to honk.

It's very, very nice after too many years in the Bay Area.

The last two times I heard a horn honk, I (and everyone else around me) looked: California plates both times.

cpx

New Jersey jug handles are one of a kind. you go right before the intersection
and wait at the traffic light to make your left. You cannot make a simple left.
(its an official term, not just a local custom)
I've rarely seen these anywhere else on the planet.

bluewatersail

Simon Stingray you are so right. One other thing about South Africa is that there are many auto/pedestrian accidents. I've been told by about 3 or 4 white South African males that if they're driving and accidentally strike a black pedestrian they will not or would not stop, but would simply drive to the nearest police station and report it. They say if they hit a black pedestrian chances are a crowd would gather and create "trouble".

Road rage also is incredible down there.

deltajfk

LOL, but you’re forgetting to have your window rolled down, so you can curse the people out. Also to have your hand always ready to beep the horn. :-)

BamaVol

I think I recall reading them described as "amber" in a state-issued driver license book.

Although, I can think of one Amber that merits a red light.

Teacher49

I call them "amber", my kids call them yellow and tease me. But then what I call trousers they insist on calling pants. Canadian with Californian kids ...

First time I was being driven in Milan, I asked my friend why she stopped at some red lights and not at others. "Some red lights are more important than others," was the straight faced reply.