Good work!
You mention one point that is truly international: There is a common saying in Germany that Mercedes and BMW are so expensive because they come with "eingebaute Vorfahrt" - built-in right-of-way.
There is much more focus in Europe on keeping a cushion in front of you. The driving instructors here teach their students to keep 50% of the speed in meters. In other words, if you are travelling at 100 kmh, there should be at least 50 meters of space between you and the car in front of you. This is easy to measure, since the road markers are always 50 meters apart. The other rule is the rule of 2 seconds. When the vehicle in front of you passes a marker (a sign or a shadow), you should be at least 2 seconds behind them.
The traffic laws over here also make it a bit safer. Most highways are 2 lanes (only expanded to 3 lanes where additional capacity is needed). The law says that you drive in the right lane, and the left lane is for passing. Passing on the right is strictly prohibited, and is considered a major offense - up to $1000 fine and 1 month suspended license. Constantly driving in the left lane (holding up traffic) is a lesser offence and can be fined up to $250. Tailgating is also a major offense and can result in up to 3 months suspended license.
That said, we don't have any kind of traffic like in the USA (with the exception of the holiday traffic that rolls through a few times per year). I drive one of the most heavily travelled sections of the Swiss motorway, but traffic rarely comes to a complete stand-still. On a bad day, I need about 45 minutes to get to work (15 miles). On a good day, I'm door-to-door in 25 minutes.
The most important thing to remember as a commuter is that most of the cagers are not awake on their way to work. Their eyes are open, but the brain is not processing any visual clues. They are on autopilot, and motorcycles don't appear on the radar. Assume that they don't see you, and that they are about to do something stupid. In most cases, you'll be right.
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