On the Road Europeans Excel

I'm of the belief that as Americans if we see that someone is clearly
doing something better than us our national duty is to copy it and
make it our own. This is basically the Microsoft approach (except
they make it better), and it has served us well over the years.

Why is it then that we don't copy the two most obviously brilliant
innovations to come from Europe since Led Zepellin showed us Hard
Rock?

For those of you who haven't been to a major European city, you've
never seen the brilliance of the yellow light flash before the light
turns green. The origin of this must be due to the number of people
who drive manual transmissions in Europe. Aside from the coolness
affect (makes you feel like a race car driver) it gives drivers the
equivalent of "on your marks/set" before telling you to "go". The
result is that you don't have to wait nearly as long at a traffic
light for cars to start moving.

The other brilliant innovation that the Europeas have developed is
really a custom, and it would stun any American driver (especially one
from California) -- slower cars stay to the right (except in the UK
where they stay to the left, but the idea is the same)! Why is it
that people in the US will almost randomly select a speed and lane in
which to travel? Not only do Europeans really respect this concept
(and it really opens up a road, especially two lane highways which are
plentful there) they go one step further: if you're passing in the
left lane you keep your left blinker on so cars in that lane who are
passing (but going slower than you) move to the right to let you by!
I can't even count the number of times in a week where I'm stuck
behind someone going faster than the speed "limit" (but slower than
me) who don't get out of the way even though they're not passing
anyone and could easily get out of my way. I know some states (nj?)
Have laws that say that you need to go faster than the person to your
right, but when does it get enforced? And even if it did, we need to
instill the etiquette in people so that they're accustomed to getting
out of the way when a faster car is behind them.

I don't know how to get the US to adopt the light policy, but I'm
going to start using my left blinker to signal to people in the left
lane that I want to pass them. Perhaps in 20 years it will catch on.