Credits: Social Media
Driving trend that Americans do leaves Brit hanging onto seatbelt for dear life
A driving trend that Americans supposedly do has sparked debate after a British man explained it on social media.
TikTok user Joshua Cauldwell (known by the username @imjoshfromengland2) has earned more than 4.4 million followers on the app thanks to his videos exploring some of the unexpected differences between the United States and the United Kingdom.
Driving trend that Americans do
In a recent video, Josh responded to a comment that revealed American drivers live to beat the arrival time set by their GPS.
Do you know how scary that is for a Brit to get in a car with an American? Josh asked. An American will race like its the F1 to beat that time.
Its like a game to Americans, its fun. Not for me, hanging onto my seatbelt for dear life, he joked.
Every single American Ive encountered, when in a car with them, they will do their best, their utmost, to beat that arrival time. Josh continued. And guess what? They will, they will beat it!
Americans agree
Its safe to say that Joshs video has sparked a reaction from social media users, earning more than 15,000 comments, most of which agreed with the practice of racing the GPS.
One TikTok user said: Yeees!! It’s so satisfying seeing the GPS knocking minutes off the arrival time.
While a second added: One minute less is still a victory.
Here I was all prepared to feel slightly offended, began a third. And then… that’s me. Spot on.
A fourth commented: Honestly, speed limits are just a suggestion.
Sometimes we’ll trash talk the GPS too, said another.
GPS Time is Challenge Accepted! wrote this viewer.
And finally, this commenter said: The real challenge is stopping for gas, getting back on the road, and still trying to beat the original arrival time.
US vs UK driving stats
According to TravelDailyNews, there are a reported six million car accidents in the United States each year. By comparison, the UK has just 150,000 crashes annually.
That equates to 16,400 accidents a day in the US compared with 410 accidents a day in Britain.
Of course, America has a much larger population and higher percentage of car owners than the United Kingdom but the two countries per capita stats still see the US come out on top.
With a population of 331 million in 2021, these figures mean that 1.81% of the US population is involved in car accidents each year. Meanwhile, in the UK, that number is just 0.22% of the population.
These stats transfer into the number of fatal car accidents, too, as the United States has the highest rate of road fatalities of any English-speaking country according to EcoMENA with 11.78 deaths per 100,000.
The second-highest in that ranking is New Zealand with 6.01 deaths per 100,000, while Canada has a fatality rate of 4.59.
In the UK, that figure is just 2.26 road fatalities per 100,000.
