highlander1

This from The Local.

Why are Italians such crazy drivers? - The Local

philat98

Once you get used to the poor road markings and the give way to the right rule things are not too bad.

Shaz's comment is true for central Italy ....."I find Italian drivers way more courteous than the English - particularly when 2 lanes go into one or when coming onto a motorway. English drivers tend to be more selfish - an Italian will let another driver in much more readily"

cardi

The concept of allowing someone to overtake seems not to exist.

In south Italy and Sicily when slowly driving around the countryside I
often signal right and slow down for a following car but they all slow down as well and don't try to overtake. I haven't worked out what the method might be or perhaps it is an alien concept.

cardi

[Q

Pulaski

Overtaking is rarely seen in the US either, and seems to be a dying art in the UK.

Lorna at Vicenza

I do not understand most of the comments in this thread. The Italian drivers I meet everyday do not use indicators, they do not give way even when the road markings at roundabouts clearly signal who has to give way. They play hopscotch on motorway lanes. They inch their way forwards at every stop sign /give way / roundabout even if it means that you have to slow down to check up on their movements because you are afraid they will hit you if you carry on. They speed up and slow down and speed up. They talk on their phones. They park like ****ing idiots. And no ****er ever stops at a pedestrian crossing even if 15 kids are waiting to cross.

Pulaski

It's worse than even that! They don't want to stop even if the kids are already crossing the road!

I used to assist in taking groups of 32 or 64 high school students on trips to Italy, and crossing the roads whether on the outskirts of Venice, at Pompeii, or anywhere in between was a memorable challenge. We would find the best available gap in the traffic then I and other teachers would stride into the road and stand blocking each lane and staring down the idiot drivers, sometimes blasting their horns. Meanwhile we would yell at the children to hurry them along.

Over the years we got quite good at it, and by the end of each trip the students got quite good at hurrying across each road before I and other teachers/adults got mowed down. I was never hit, but it got close some times!

modicasa

BUt the law on pedestrian crossings only changed last year. Now you are meant to stop if someone wants to cross the road. Before it wasnt necessary.

ononno

Whether it's law or not won't make a blind bit of difference in our neck of the woods. Parking manouvres whilst talking on the phone, no seat belts, 2 up on a 50 cc moped with no helmets, parking contra flow on a stop sign no less! overtaking me at a zebra crossing when I stop for a pedestrian, overtaking me on a blind bend on a mountain road, overtaking me if I stop at a 'stop' sign. Oh I could go on and on but what's the use, when folk can buy a driving licence for 3/400 eurines.
'o nonno

highlander1

[The Italian drivers I meet everyday do not use indicators, they do not give way even when the road markings at roundabouts clearly signal who has to give way. They play hopscotch on motorway lanes. They inch their way forwards at every stop sign /give way / roundabout even if it means that you have to slow down to check up on their movements because you are afraid they will hit you if you carry on. They speed up and slow down and speed up. They talk on their phones. They park like ****ing idiots. And no ****er ever stops at a pedestrian crossing even if 15 kids are waiting to cross.[/QUOTE]

I tend to agree with your statement !

highlander1

garfagnino

Reading all the comments brought a smile to my face as they reflected my experiences of driving in Italy, especially around Rome and Naples areas. My last visit was 5 years ago, I was well prepared for the vagarities of Italian roads and drivers having driven extensively in Italy during many visits.
The instances that stick in my mind are:- Italians doing a three point turn in the middle of the traffic lights, passing a traffic jam by simply going onto the parallel railway track and driving up the track, Dad, Mum and 3 small children on a vespa scooter the kids standing holding the handlebars with Dad - none with helmets, meeting a scooter coming in the opposite direction carrying a 5 metre aluminium ladder - VERTICALLY tied to the handlebars , being cut up by and dodging scooters that decided that the footpath was an easy option to pass cars only to shoot back out onto the road at speed with only a millimetre to spare, a motorway incident where the hapless driver had managed to shunt his car into the concrete centre barrier at 90 degrees to the road then proceeded to run round like a man posessed waving his arms whilst the traffic totally ignored the event and continued to pass within centimetres of him at full speed, a mini driver on a narrow mountain road with no barrier who tried to roar past a coach and other vehicles and to avoid a head on with another car swerved towards the edge of the cliff with brakes locked skidding on the gravelly surface just coming to a stop barely 30 cm from the edge of a 300 metre drop, the lorry driver that got stuck under a railway bridge because he failed to check for clearance only to get out, check how he was stuck, decided that force was needed, got back in his lorry, revved as hard as the engine would permit let out the clutch and with much screeching of metal managed to exit leaving a good portion of his roof behind, no doubt congratulating himself on a lucky escape. I could go on, but I think that says it all!
Driving in the UK is a walk in the park on a sunny Sunday by comparison

Pinco Pallino

I've noticed that since the introduction of fixed speed cameras there has been a general tendency for Italians (in Piedmont and Lombardy at least) to drive a bit less like racing drivers (all the time; and not only where they expect there to be a speed camera). You still get the idiots who think nothing of doing 200+ KmH, but in my experience they're not as numerous as they used to be.

Don't get me started on the members of the 'Middle Lane Owners' Club Italia'!

extremeld

YES,

TODAY i did this, guy 1 inch from sitting beside me, made alittle gap, indicated and slowed on a straight.. idiot just got closer and closer to me, sounded his horn in the end! WTF, i should have stopped!

Have to say though it was stressful driving here to begin, after a few years I now drive like a local, i can enter a roundabout with many cars already on it, of course in the uk that would be a crash right of way but here, its cool, just go!

Lorna at Vicenza

I pedoni hanno la precedenza nel momento in cui attraversano le strisce pedonali?

Si, la nuova legge è più severa rispetto alla precedente in proposito. Prima l'automobilista doveva dare la precedenza, rallentare e all'occorrenza fermarsi. Ora, quando il pedone è sulle strisce l'automobilista deve fermarsi punto e basta.

Nobody stops anyway. Alex was waiting at the zebra crossing to get home from the park the other day when a carabiniere passed him to go to the chemist. When the carabiniere came out of the chemist some time later, Alex was still there. He told Alex not to hang about near the road. Alex said he wasn't and that he was waiting to cross the road but nobody stopped for him. He knows damn well that I don't want him dashing across between cars. Quick as a flash the carabiniere pulled his paletta from his boot and strode out onto the zebra crossing. Of course they all stopped then. Twats.