The Swedish Way of Driving
As I’ve travelled around I’ve noticed that one thing that is significant with Sweden is our sweet way of driving. While Polish people would speed, overtake and pay no attention to other cars, we obey the rules and drive pretty carefully.
I spent three months in Kenya, the country of car-accidents. In Kenya you overtake all the time. Times when us Swedes wouldn’t even think of overtaking, Kenyans just hit the pedal and go. The Swedish saying “Honk and drive” suddenly gets a new meaning. That’s exactly what they do; they honk instead of braking if they see a car coming too close to them.
In Sweden most of us are very aware of how dangerous it is to drive, and how easily you can die if you crash. For most of us there’s not a question weather to wear seatbelt or not, you just do it. But it seems like in many countries, for example Poland and Kenya, where I’ve witnessed it myself, and other places I’ve been told about, people either don’t know how dangerous it is, or maybe don’t care.
The Swedish Way of driving simply is:
- We don’t overtake if the road isn’t free.
- We respect other drivers
- We patiently (at least that’s what it looks like from outside) wait for our turn.
- We don’t push our way trough
- We wear seatbelts
- We know the rules and we obey them
