I would say I am an exception to the majority of the portuguese. Here, people run red lights quite often. When they are just changing is the main moment. People also drive close up, not quite bumper to bumper but pretty close. I can do that quite well, it just becomes a habit. But I choose to signal when there are no cars in sight (most people here don't signal even on a road full of cars - it makes you good at guessing other drivers' next move - i.e. he's veering off towards your lane, probably going to slide on in, yep, there ya go), and I don't run red lights. They change after x time, no sensors here. As far as I gather, in the US you can't roll by stop signs too easily. Here people do it all the time, no big deal. People also jaywalk like nuts and rarely respect the red light at crossings. I stop for red lights at crossings because I was hit by a car on a crossing once (even though there were no lights). Sometimes it's safer to jaywalk. The parking here is also mad, and we have crazy narrow streets. We are the European country with the highest number of road accidents I believe. All I can say for myself is that I've never had a serious accident in over 10 years of driving.
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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.
Fernando Pessoa, 1918
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