Driving, Dutch-style

Yesterday was a long distance day, and my husband, who likes to drive, did all of it, in about four hours.

His driving scares me. Not all the time: just now and then, and I got to thinking today about the cultural differences in driving behavior.

I’m sure there are lots of examples, but I’ll just use two of them here: tailgating and passing.

Tailgating

Lots of Dutch people, including my husband, do this. If they’re in the left lane, moving faster than the right lane, they do not want to slow down under any circumstances.

So Dutch Person (who could be either male or female) is in the left lane, passing lots of cars and trucks that are in the right lane. No problem.

Now another car moves into the left lane in front of Dutch Person, perhaps to pass another car that is going more slowly, or to pass a truck. It passes that car, but does not immediately move back into the right lane. Perhaps there’s another truck not far ahead, and the driver decides to stay in the left lane to pass that one too.

Dutch Person is most decidedly not happy. Instead of slowing down and matching the other driver’s speed, he tailgates. It’s as if he takes it as a challenge: how close can I get to this car in front of me before scaring the bejeezus out of him enough to get him to move into the right lane, even if he ends up squeezed between two slow-moving trucks?

Which, of course, the slower driver does, often in a rather wobbly way, since he’s been so startled by the sight of Dutch Person’s car looming up so close in the rearview mirror. Dutch Person can now speed up again and go merrily on his way.

This terrifies me when my particular Dutch person does it. I have visions of the car in front of us suddenly braking for an animal in the road and us meeting a horrifying, fiery end.

I should point out, though, that my particular Dutch person doesn’t do it nearly as much or follow as closely as he used to, or at least not when I’m in the car. Thank goodness! I don’t think my heart could take the strain.

Tailgating is illegal in Holland, but, nevertheless, lots of Dutch people do it routinely.

Passing on the right

What never ceases to amaze me, though, is that while they readily break that law, they will never ever deal with the problem by passing the slower car on the right. That just isn’t done.

So while it’s okay to break one law by tailgating, it’s absolutely taboo to break the other law by passing on the right.

As I already noted, Dutch people never do this. Americans do, all the time. Although it is illegal, as far as I know, it’s become routine to do it anyway. And tailgating is taboo.

(I know there are Americans who will read this and think “Now wait a minute, people tailgate terribly here too!” Believe me, you haven’t experienced tailgating until you experience it in the Netherlands!)

So why is this? One culture chooses to flout law #1 and obey law #2, while another culture obeys law #1 and flouts law #2. Is it something else about their culture that leads them to make these choices? Some culturally-determined personality trait?

Or perhaps it’s genetic: the gene that makes Dutch people so tall, on average, also endows them with nerves of steel.

Either way, no matter how long I live in Holland, I will never be able to assimilate to such an extent that I can tailgate like that.

Rachel Heller

Rachel Heller is a writer living in Groningen, the Netherlands. She is the owner and primary author of this website, Rachel’s Ruminations, a travel blog focused on independent travel with an emphasis on cultural and historical sites/sights. Read more here about her and about this website. Rachel also owns and operates a website about travel to UNESCO World Heritage sites.

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