Michael How disciplined the Germans drive! When the number of lanes is reduced at a construction site, almost everyone drives up to the narrowing as prescribed and then merges alternately from the right and left, in accordance with the regulation issued by the Ministry of Transport. Although drivers reduce their speed, there is usually no stopping or traffic jams.
In California, with its millions of citizens completely incapable of driving motor vehicles, these bottlenecks often cause complete standstills, traffic jams stretching for kilometers occur. The reason for this is that "late merging," meaning driving up to the bottleneck and squeezing in there, is considered rude and often provokes aggressive reactions.
In the book "Traffic - Why We Drive the Way We Do," the problem is described along with many other facts about the American madness in traffic. The "polite" drivers change lanes well in advance depending on their level of politeness and then refuse to let "late mergers" in front of them. Ugly exchanges of words and unfriendly hand gestures are commonplace, and another traffic jam ensues.
Or did you know that cars in America drive around with two different side mirrors? The side mirror on the driver side has no curvature, so it is flat and its reflection is therefore undistorted. The right side mirror, on the other hand, is convex, meaning it provides a kind of wide-angle reflection and helps to minimize the blind spot on the passenger side. However, this leads to objects, such as cars zipping by on the side, being closer than the mirror with its wide angle suggests (and yes, in America, you are allowed to pass on the right).
To prevent American drivers from immediately going to court with million-dollar lawsuits for quickly changing lanes even though someone is already approaching in the right lane, every right side mirror in the USA has the warning: "Objects are closer than they appear." In contrast, Europe equips all cars with two wide-angle mirrors. Warnings are unnecessary.