Tonight my husband and I went to a sports bar to watch NCAA women's basketball. At a major intersection, 35W exit ramp and Cty Rd 42, the traffic lights were out and no police officer had arrived to direct traffic.

Chaos? No. One direction at a time, American drivers simply took turns going through the intersection. No honking, no "jumping out of turn", no rude manners - just a logical, patient approach to a sticky situation.

We Americans do these things, we just do them. So many places on the planet can't or won't. The last time my husband visited cities across China, he saw no queueing up or taking turns in any major city.

We take this behavior for granted - perhaps we should remember to be grateful we behave this well.