Safe driving
Due to my personal experiences, safe driving is quite important for me, even more so when I visit other countries, and I have to get used to how local drivers behave in that country.
First of all, I am from Spain, and I cannot say that I am proud of my fellow drivers. I consider many of them to be rude, impatient and, sometimes reckless. That is why when I am abroad, I like to compare them with local drivers and make my own opinion separate from stereotypes.
As far as I know, many Spaniards say that Italian drivers are the most aggressive. I agree that many of them are quite reckless. However, after spending a month in Northern Italy two years ago, I realized that after comparing several aspects of driving, they respect more driving rules than Spanish drivers do. Something similar happened in countries such as the Czech Republic or Poland.
By contrast, my better experiences as a driver have been in Scotland and Estonia. In the first case, I drove for almost 20 days on worse roads than in Spain, and the vast majority of drivers were quite respectful to those who were not as fast as them. Besides, I didn't see any reckless overtaking that I saw in other places. That is why, comparing accident casualty figures between United Kingdom and Spain, my country does not end up in a good place.
Finally, traveling is a good way to compare how your country could improve by comparing what things are not working in relation to the country visited. Therefore, it could be something like a vaccine against stereotypes and gossip.
