And certainly not when it comes to driving abroad!
We love to whinge and whine about all those Johnny Foreigners on our roads, and how bad they are compared to us. Particularly strong feelings (coupled with limited intelligence) might be shown by also flying a Union Jack or George Cross outside their houses.
But… and this might just come as a bit of surprise to many… the Europeans see us and rubbish drivers when we’re in their countries.
This survey by AXA suggests that around 7 million British drivers will head abroad with their cars and caravans this summer. However, according to the Europeans (that is the wording of the article – I consider myself to be “European”, so let’s just take this as a collective phrase), only 20% drive carefully and only 25% understand local laws.
Main complaints about us were:
- confusion at roundabouts
- confusion at junctions
- driving too slowly
- driving on the wrong side
- driving too fast
The article says 2 million Brits have had driving accidents abroad. British drivers were ranked 7th out of 11 European countries. Germans were voted best, and Greeks the worst.
Before I continue, if you looked at a list of what annoys British drivers about… well, British drivers, the list would be almost identical, wouldn’t it?
Well, AXA approached it from that angle and their survey reveals that 27% don’t know if a GB sticker is needed, and 21% think it isn’t. Or in other words, 48% haven’t got a clue. Furthermore, 33% didn’t know if their insurance covered them, and 66% of those thought that it did!
When asked to identify 6 Eurpean road signs, the average correct answer was 28% – so 72% were clueless there. In fact, the lowest result from these six signs suggested 85% were clueless.
I’m amazed that 51% didn’t know that their headlight beams need correcting for places where you drive on the right hand side of the road. I’ve known that since I was ten!
The article stopped short of reporting what people thought of these Johnny Foreigners daring to have different rules to us. It’s pretty clear, though: we’re not as good as we think we are – at home, or abroad.