Portuguese Drivers

Sometimes I am Amazed

I have read plenty of posts on expat forums and blogs talking about the recklessness of Portuguese drivers.

A street corner in downtown Cascais.

What I Read

The remarks I read are summarized well by this blog post:

So what’s wrong with Portuguese driving?

1. Extremes of speed – it seems half the country is driving way too fast and the other half way too slow.

2. Tailgating.

3. Failing to indicate.

4. Failing to Give Way.

5. Lack of understanding of how to use a roundabout. It doesn’t help that the country is built on roundabouts of multiple lanes, totally superfluous given the size of the population. Whatever happened to good old fashioned traffic lights? Even a three year old knows that green is for go and red is for stop.

— emmashouseinportugal.com

However, even Emma admits that the Portuguese are not the worst drivers in the world. And we agree. In China, drivers seem to hit the horn simultaneously with the gas and brake pedal. In Italy, it would seem that cars are propelled by how loudly the driver screams and how vigorously he waves his arms. In Greece, I still have nightmares about cars not giving way on one-lane roads.

The driver should get a bonus for driving on these streets.

Give ‘Em Props

But I will give the Portuguese props…especially those that drive in the cities. I recall the first time our realtor Elizabeth took us through the narrow (what I assumed were pedestrian) streets of Cascais. Her skill in turning tight corners often with cars (illegally) parked on either street amazed me. Her ability to identify which way one should drive on one-way streets, and her ability to backup when faced with a street that suddenly dead-ended. And of course, she was all the while maneuvering a manual transmission on steep hills.

Yes, it is true, that in general the Portuguese drive smaller cars than we do in America … but what about the delivery truck drivers. They should get a medal. And perhaps because we are living in Cascais, we have observed our fair share of full-size luxury brands as well. How do they get their Volvo station wagons into these parking spaces perfectly suited for a Smart car?

I see a beater in our future.

Jurys Out

As we wrote before, the jury is out on if and when we will purchase a car. However, in the not too distant future, I’m certain we will rent one. While we are both comfortable driving a stick shift, I suspect we will spring for the more costly automatic transmission. And if we ever purchase a car, I am certain it will be a “beater”. Just large enough to accommodate our golf clubs and Onix. And cheap enough that I won’t mind a ding or scrap which I am certain will occur.