1) You start to believe that if it weren't for Norway's efforts the world would probably collapse pretty soon.

2) You can only buy your own drink at the bar even when you are with a group of people.

3) Can't remember to say, "Please" and "excuse me".

4) Always prepare to catch the closing door if following too closely behind somebody.

5) When a stranger on the street smiles at you, you assume that:

a) he is a drunk b) he is insane c) he is Australian d) he is all of the above

6) Silence is fun.

7) You use "mmmm" as a conversation filler.

8) You think there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

9) You know 's results in the last three years in the Melodi Grand Prix song-contest.

10) It seems nice to spend a week in a small wooden cottage up the mountains with no running water and no electricity.

11) You know at least five different words for describing different kinds of snow.

12) An outside temperature of 9 degrees Celsius is mild in mid June.

13) You know the difference between blue and red ski wax.

14) You don't fall over when walking on ice.

15) You associate Friday afternoon with a trip to Vinmonopolet (government liquor store).

16) You think nothing of paying 400 NOK (ca $ 80) on drinks one night.

17) You know that "religious holiday" means "lets' get pissed".

18) You find yourself more interested in the alcohol content than in the name of the wine.

19) You enjoy the taste of lutefisk (jelly-like, bad-smelling fish).

20) You think it's acceptable to wrap your hot dog on a cold pancake.

21) You associate warm rice porridge with Saturday and Xmas-eve.

22) You can prepare fish in five different ways without cooking it.

23) You don't question the habit of always making "matpakke" (sandwich in paper).

24) It feels natural to wear sport clothes and backpack in the cinema as everywhere else.

25) You find yourself speaking halfway Swedish with Swedes.

26) You can't understand why foreigners haven't heard about Bjorn Daehlie.

27) You know the meaning of life has something to do with the word "koselig"

28) You get scared when a stranger randomly starts up a conversation with you

29) You can't stand leaving the country because people everywhere else are so nice, it's annoying

30) You look away when you walk by people on the street.

Sorry, guys, but none of you seems to have been in Kenya? Even though I also react on Norwegian drivers - it is getting worse and worse for every time I get home, the Kenyan pattern of driving is very simple: Drive wherever there is space! (including in the wrong lane...). This of course results in jams and accidents, but who cares as long as I get there before the others? With this simple rule, a road network meant for around 30 per cent of the present number of cars, actually functions... Stop complaining about Norwegian drivers and come to Kenya to learn how to drive efficient! Best greetings to all of you!

Try driving in Belgium in general, or Brussels especially. I've never been so happy to be alive as the day I left Brussels!

They behave as "holly cows" on the road. I do not understand why they are cycling on the road since there is a pretty good system of paths for cyclists.

Every day I meet "phantoms" on bicycles on streets of Stavanger early in rainy mornings without single reflex or light. They do not follow any traffic rules.

Mobile phones in car that is a separate story! Once I followed the car with driver talking on mobile phone, drinking coffee and smoking cigarette!!! I was waiting for a moment when he put cigarette to his ear and mobile phone to his mouth!

I think Norway is one of the worst countries to drive a car in Europe. Drivers are selfish and do not use their brains at all. Now i understand why there are so ridiculous speed limits in Norwey. If they were higher population would be reduced by half ii one year.

How does no.1 and no.5 combine..? If your experience is that norwegians drive close to your bumper AND below the speed limit, maybe you ought to look at yourself in the mirror... Anyway; driving in south-european countries are far worse. Portugal and Greece for instance. Insane.

In no other country in this world have anyone found a more efficient way to make unnecessary queue on the freeway by the way of the acceleration lane.

During rush hours, a fraction away from everybody use the acceleration lane drives as fast as possible all the way to the end of the lane, before hitting the brakes hard, to try to squeeze in where there is no room, thus bringing all traffic to an almost complete standstill.

In their limited capacity brain they all think that this will save them close to 37 second on the way to or from work, when in fact they are making sure that everybody, included themselves, loose 15 minutes.

If we, like the rest of the world do, would use the intended "zipper-system" from the start of the acceleration lane, the cue could be moving at 50 km/h in lieu of between 0 and 7.

I do not understand why people in all other countries only accelerate to the speed of the traffic on the road they are turning on to, in lieu of doing like us and making full use of the acceleration lane.

By our innovative use of the acceleration lane, we now make cues where there need not be one

Exactly! Why stop at 10??? I can think of at least 10 more points... Like if I stick to a given tempo limit of 80 km/h, I always get overtaken by trucks driving at least 120 km/h on the E 39...

I guess the bad driving of Americans and Norwegians comes from this:

They all are learning and taking over the mistakes and bad habits of their parents, since there are no or only very few driving schools in these countries.

But some things are also very good in Norwegian traffic (although they are few): Tractors usually let the cars in the queue pass.

Somebody finally hit the soar spot. I get annoyed on a daily basis over the poor quality of norwegian driver skills (or should I write non existing skills). Have anybody noticed that when a norwegian get in the car, the first thing they do is put the mobile next to the ear?? And then before getting out of the car they stop calling, what is the point, is it impossible to phone while not driving????

And why is it suddenly legal to speed when you are out of Norway, I have on several occassion seen norwegian drivers drive completely carelessly on danish motorways which I find disturbing since norwegian drivers have absolutely no experience in driving over 90km/hr......

Selv irriterer jeg meg mest over at så mange ligger og "dasser" i forbikjøringsfila på motorvegen, og at folk flest mer eller mindre

har sluttet å bruke blinklysene.

PS

Denne tråden handler om nordmenns oppførsel i trafikken, ikke om å vise hvor god man er i engelsk ;-)

I guess the reason is that we are only 4,5 million people in this country. We got just too low traffic density, so that we do not have to "care" what other people do in the traffic - or more straight: We can continue our (norwegian) egoistical way of living also in the traffic!

Agree with the writer about driving in Norway. However, when driving in Tunisia, I did pick up some good overtaking tips that I think we could introduce here. It basically works like this: Overtake with head-on traffic approaching at top speed. As long as you have one second to swerve back into your lane, there's no problem. If other drivers express annoyance, stop the car and have a punch-up in the middle of the road. All traffic will come to a halt, as other drivers join the fight. This should make Norwegian driving less of an isolated activity!

90 of drivers think they drive better than average. The writer of this article too. Norwegians are no worse or better than british or american drivers! And probably better than a lof of others drivers. A writer from Africa was very impressed that we stop for people at zebra-crossings. So there!

And the sad thing is, many more ways could be added.

E der någen betraktningar på Norske syklistar og?

(Are there any reflections on Norwegian cyclists as well?)

If Norway was ever to build a motor car, they would save a lot of money by not putting traffic indicators on the car as 95% of Norwegians don't use them¨anyway and prefer to make other drivers "guess" in which direction they might take!

There're many things that could be improved, norwegian should practice a little bit of defensive driving.

Det som Sandelson skriver om er fordi nordmenn er så utrolig uhøflige, men hva som er verre er særnorske vaner slik som å gå ut i fotgjengerfelt uten så mye som å se om det kommer en bil; og å brase ut i trafikken uten å kikke bare fordi du kommer fra høyre, og å blinke to-tre ganger ETTER du har kjørt ut av en rundkjøring.

Is that why some "american" drivers are so bad? They're really Norwegian?

I totally agree, but wonder why you stop at 10, Michael?