Coming back to work from Quiznos (<don cherry>”toasted tastes better!”</don cherry>) there was an example of how in my mind, Americans and Canadians are different, or at least, how I am different from the driver. It was me, the other coder, and the dirver, a young lady originally from the states but who has recently moved up here and works here. We’re on a two lane road, with pretty much no one else on the road. We pull into the right lane about a block from the turn off to the road where work is. The car ahead of us pulls to the far right of the lane (there is a curb) and stops about half a block from our turn off.
Now if I were the one driving, I’d either pull back into the left lane and pull around the other car, or wait for a few seconds and see he’s not going to go anywhere, check that no one was behind me (remember, hardly anyone on the road) and pull around. I might give a honk on the horn to let him know that stopping in the middle of the road is a stupid thing to do.
But that’s me.
What did happen was my driver sat behind him (obviously an older man behind the wheel by the way) for a few seconds, then honked her horn (and not the “honk” of “hey, whats going on”, but the “hoooooonk” of “hey idiot!“). The old guy pulled forward a bit and a bit further off the road. Another Hoooooooooooonk. The old guy then stuck his arm out the window and signaled for us to go around. We did, but as we pulled around him my driver let another long hooooooooooooooooooonk go as we were pulling around!
Is it just me, or did that seem more agressive and angry than needed? Just pull around, it’s not like this was in the middle of rush hour traffic or the freeway! Of course, I’m also a country boy, not a city boy, so I’m not used to battling idiots, and I have no evidence that this is behaviour typical of Americans except that she (my driver) is American and I’m not, and I would have handled the situation with what I feel was a bit more curtesy and politeness.