We drive fast because we have a reasonable expectation that there won't be huge, wheel-busting potholes caused by the latest freeze around any given bend. I noticed 2 things in a recent trip east. 1) Cars generally looked like sh!t compared to cars here and 2) for good reason because the roads are in such poor condition that there's just can't be much impetus to put much effort into your car's appearance.

And yet, when driving from California to another state you can immediately tell you've crossed a state line because the road quality immediately improves.

I'm with Alex. IMO, California has such great weather that there's little excuse for the roads to be in such poor condition. A few years back when the Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles, the city (or whomever is in charge of this) decided to do a last minute fix up of the major streets out of LAX. Previously, going anywhere that wasn't directly onto the free was like going off-roading, minus the mud. Two blocks away from any major street around LAX was pretty much deemed unnecessary to fix and was left in the sh!ttiest, pot-holiest condition possible. Or maybe they just moved the potholes. It's really hard to say.

The reason why cars are so nice out here, outside of the potholes, is because of the same reason I find no excuse for the crappy roads around me. The weather is too nice. Salted roads = eventual rustbucket. Why get a new car when the salt's going to eat it up next year, anyway?

My experiences on the road in Europe scared the hell out of me. In Italy everyone drove straddling lanes, all the time. They sped up to pass each other and then hit the brakes to avoid hitting the person in front. Our taxi rides felt like video games, except for the impending death part.

Did you go to Germany? My experiences there impressed the heck out of me. Yes, I got to do 200 KPH on the Autobahn for a half hour (would have liked to have gone faster, but that was as fast as the car would comfortably do), but people knew how to drive, The roads were excellent and the Autobahn is well designed and maintained.

One thing I recently saw about the Autobahn and other European highways was that they design IN curves and hills. US highways have long stretches of straight and flat. This leads more to road hypnosis. The curves and hills of the European highways keeps your mind more alert.

This is going to sound like a math word problem...
 

Here's a blinkage question:

Two cars meet at an intersection with stop signs at each crosswalk. One car is going north, the other south. They get to the stop signs at the exact same time. If there's no blinkers on the other car, I go forward. If there is, I usually wave them to go.

But...

Today, this happened to me. I went forward, the car turned towards me in the middle of the intersection. The driver wanted to make a left. No blinkage. There was honking, hand signals yaddah yaddah.

No blinkers, I'm thinking yeah he's going straight.

Or...

Is it supposed to be one at a time only crossing the intersection? Whereby I would be at fault...

He should have had his turn signal on. There is no excuse in that situation.

Then I was right in giving him the middle finger.

:D

Not only that, but the vehicle going straight has the right of way (with both cars arriving at the intersection at the same time).
Yep