What surprises me is I meet normal and mild-mannered Poles who when behind a wheel turn into a maniac
Yes. A very chracteristic attitude. Driving here is more annoying then terrifying for me because many drivers don't care about the others at all.
There is a few reasons I believe:
- a minority of nuts prevails a majority of decent drivers (I am interested in your honest opinion about that)
- there are many new-born drivers - it takes decades (not months) to learn how to drive! Yet many people didn't have a driving licence 20 years ago. Their parents didn't have a driving licence too, what is very important.
- experience with a traffic. I.e. in Cracow I can frequently recognize nonresident through his driving style - if he is living in a small town or village. Usually he is not familiar with a driving culture. Or, at last, local driving culture.
- just local style - my acquaintances were terrified of driving style in Grece, but from the other side a Slovak girl-custom officer I was lifted once was terrified of my driving style though I am rather decent and careful driver (on empty 4-lane straight road I exceed speed a little)
- many aggressive young lower class people (males) are afford to buy a car. Courtesy is as unknown in family relationships as on the roads.
- regional differences - significant - Upper Silesia had a very high driving culture some time ago. Now it is getting worse. In Mazowsze it looks much worse, but driving in Lower Silesia is a horror for me.
- race motocycle drivers - eeh...