In Mexico I've found the notion of driving to be categorically insane. The roads are narrow, often dirt, and the drivers have an aggressive disposition to them that would make it hard to hold your own. They aren't bad drivers, exactly, though there are certainly plenty of those. The big thing is that the driving culture in Mexico is so radically different that trying to participate would likely end very badly, with a best case scenario being elevated blood pressure and ulcers.

In China the driving situation is compounded by the fact that there are way too many cars on far too few roads. You definitely can't read the signs, and you'll think everyone is trying to kill you. They aren't, it's just aggressive driving necessitated by close quarters, and a cultural divide as long as the Great Wall itself.

Puerto Rico is newer to the car culture than anywhere I've ever been. As such it feels like the maturity of the driving culture is yet a bit unrefined.

The driving mentality in Puerto Rico, and I mean outside San Juan which is jammed curb to curb with tourists and rental cars, can be summed up in three, loud words: me, me, me!

Cars will regularly block intersections when traffic reaches medium levels. Each driver says, "I want to get there five seconds earlier, even if it means fifty cars can't get through the light, and it causes a hundred people to get where they're going two-minutes later."

The problem quickly compounds when the light turns for the other direction, with cars out blocking other would-be blockers. It's insane, and it gets out of control very quickly. You might see a shopping plaza that isn't terribly busy with a fifteen minute traffic jam to get in because people are blocking the traffic lights, and once in the lot, nobody can get to a parking spot because people wanting to get out have blocked all the driveways in and out. Perfectly selfish and everybody loses.

On the open roads it's just as treacherous. You'll find people following at a single car length at speeds of 70mph, even in poor weather. Cars weave in and out as if the traffic was horrific, even when it's light. Slow traffic never stays to the right, despite it being a federal law from the mainland, and most drivers seem to have their cruise control locked at 45mph, whether they're on the wide-open interstate or on one of those scary little winding mountain roads. It's terrifying on small roads when you've got a beaten up 70s era Datsun on your bumper, and frustrating when you're on a wide, broad, mostly empty highway.

And it's not just your interpretation that they're driving crazy, check out the bumper scuffs, banged-in fenders, and 40% Bond-O bodies and you'll know it's not just you.

Not to worry, we've also got a tutorial on how to deal with the often daunting notion of driving in Puerto Rico.

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