We sometimes hear that the reason Mexicans are killing so many Americans on US roadways is that they are pueblo boys who never drove a car before (along with the propensity for excessive drinking of course).

As it happens, well practiced Mexican drivers are not a whole lot better, according to la Times in an article today, How am I driving? In Mexico City, like a jerk.

Bad symptoms include disrespect for traffic lights and driving the wrong way on one-way streets. It gets dangerous too.

People park on the sidewalks, Hernandez Garcia says, which forces pedestrians to walk in traffic. Even though the city's notoriously slow traffic mitigates the danger, on average 1,500 drivers and pedestrians are killed in accidents in Mexico City each year, a rate significantly higher than that in Los Angeles County.

Once, driving tests were required, but they were scrapped because so many people paid bribes to get their licenses. Now the city is drawing up proposals to reinstate the tests. In the meantime, the city has launched a program to educate schoolchildren about traffic laws, Hernandez Garcia says.

No driving tests because of bribery? That sounds familiar.