I learned to drive in Canada in a rural area. I didn't drive again until I was in LA in the 1980s and LA has the scariest freeways I've ever seen. Because I was in my 20s, I wasn't afraid and drove them anyway, but I would ask my passengers to help me with merging. "Hey, is anyone in my blind spot?" [car whizzes by, then friend say, "No, NOW! Go!" Then, in the late 1990s, I finally got my own car and realized I could have died more than once. I froze at the thought of freeways, avoiding them even if a trip took three hours instead of 30 minutes. It took a year of cognitive-behavioral and desensitization therapy before I'd venture out onto freeways and they still scare me though I drive them if I need to. American highways and freeways are the worst.