Like in NYC, traffic can be bad in Paris. The streets are narrow and modern cars are wide. In NYC there are the wider avenues and crosstown streets. Paris has a few wider streets but not a lot. Americans love their cars; New Yorkers tolerate them as a luxury item.
Parisians I think have no time for cars at all. I have been told that car insurance used to not cover any accident at the famous traffic circle, the Arc de Triomphe. You drive there, you are on your own.
What I find truly amazing, though, is the patience of drivers in Paris (notice I did not say Parisian drivers, since I think most of these are out-of-towers). In NYC if drivers get caught behind a slow car, delivery vehicle or garbage truck, you will hear a symphony of car horns blaring(not that it does any good). Not here. Since Paris does not pride itself on never sleeping, garbage trucks need to do their thing during working hours, but you cannot get around them because of the street width. The drivers here seem to understand this and just wait patiently for them to finish. No horns, no tempers.
Also amazing is the amount of noise the recycling truck makes. Because of the amount of wine Parisians drink, there is an amazing amount of bottles to recycle. They have their own recycling bins and public receptacles. The system here takes these bins vertically over the truck and dumps them. You can hear the breaking glass for blocks. You can understand why the "garbage truck folies" at 6:00 am in NYC just would not fly with that much racket.
I am just glad I don't have a car. I would not want to import the NYC impatience here.
Parisians I think have no time for cars at all. I have been told that car insurance used to not cover any accident at the famous traffic circle, the Arc de Triomphe. You drive there, you are on your own.
What I find truly amazing, though, is the patience of drivers in Paris (notice I did not say Parisian drivers, since I think most of these are out-of-towers). In NYC if drivers get caught behind a slow car, delivery vehicle or garbage truck, you will hear a symphony of car horns blaring(not that it does any good). Not here. Since Paris does not pride itself on never sleeping, garbage trucks need to do their thing during working hours, but you cannot get around them because of the street width. The drivers here seem to understand this and just wait patiently for them to finish. No horns, no tempers.
Also amazing is the amount of noise the recycling truck makes. Because of the amount of wine Parisians drink, there is an amazing amount of bottles to recycle. They have their own recycling bins and public receptacles. The system here takes these bins vertically over the truck and dumps them. You can hear the breaking glass for blocks. You can understand why the "garbage truck folies" at 6:00 am in NYC just would not fly with that much racket.
I am just glad I don't have a car. I would not want to import the NYC impatience here.
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