And the difference is?

A recent article on the English language website, Deutsche Well, cites some statistics about how many Germans fail to sit down for a meal, but rather choose to eat while driving. Apparently, the main tenet of the article was that as compared to their Swedish, Polish, Italian, British, Dutch, Belgian, French, and Spanish counterparts, they do not hold the “sit-down” meal as sacred as these other countries. Almost 60% of those surveyed eat behind the wheel of the car, as compared to 1 out of 5 Italians or Spaniards.

No real conclusions were drawn as to why the Germans hold this record, which would have been an interesting side note. Another statistic revealed in this survey is that German drivers also hold a poor record when it comes to using the blinker; a third of drivers saying they forget to use it.

So, it was not surprising that the main “take-away” I had from this article was less related to the disintegration of the quintessential sit-down meal but rather driver safety. I mean, if using a hand-held cell phone is banned while driving in Germany, surely the pretzel and a cup of coffee would also contribute to safety issues.

At the very minimum, it might explain the lack of use of the blinker….