In the old days, when I lived on the other side of the world in Brazil,  Ayrton Senna was a recent Formula One Champion, and Brazilians were mad about car racing. You didn’t have to go the racing circuit to see this—you could see it on the ordinary streets as the macho Brazilians tried to outdo themselves in speed and cornering ability. In the city, when the traffic was bad it was difficult to get up high speed, thank goodness, but on Sundays the roads were quiet and the deaths in car accidents peaked. The first thing I was told in Brazil was “If the light is on green, take extra care. Someone coming across will be ignoring the red”. And sure enough on the first Sunday that I drove to the supermarket I arrived home trembling and grateful to be alive, unlike the drivers of the two cars I had seen crushed on the way.

When I moved across the world to Japan, I knew that the Japanese were also mad keen on Formula One racing, but I could see no sign of this in their day-to day driving. They always went slowly and carefully, and taxi drivers, frustratingly, wouldn’t even change lane to join a shorter queue. It seemed to take an age to get anywhere. I told a friend about my experience in Brazil and asked why the Japanese didn’t carry their motor-racing passion into everyday life. “You foreigners don’t understand” he said. “We Japanese are not stupid. We know the difference between fantasy and reality. We save our fantasies for the race track or watching TV.”  Boring, I have to say, but safe.

Over the past 50 years, my own country, England, has changed from Japan towards Brazil. In the old days the British were renowned as safe and considerate drivers, especially compared with the French and our other dangerous continental neighbours. Since then, however, every time I go back to the UK I see another sign of worsening behaviour. Speeds have increased enormously, just as the distance between cars on the expressways has reduced. 
When the road is crowded people speed down the emergency lane to overtake. It’s still tame compared with Brazil, but deadly compared with Japan. I think it’s because so many British drivers have been successful in Formula One racing. And now there’s another British World Champion. Look out on the roads!

Isn’t it an odd world that we live in?