To think that driving has gotten worse since the pandemic?

Fork learner drivers do learn on motorways now. It changed a few years back. DS was on them with his instructor after about 4 months of lessons.

When did it become acceptable to use the word ‘gotten’ in the uk?

Yep, it is awful - the amount of times I’ve been waiting at a zebra crossing and cars just sail through it is maddening!

It's really not helped by people moving further away from the office during the pandemic and therefore now needing to drive on motorways without never having learned how to. I'm from another country and I'm genuinely shocked that you can get your license which allows you to drive on a motorway without ever having been on one before!

And yes, distractions while driving are also largely to blame.

I agree. I work in a built up area where the driving is often horrendous. Drivers come barrelling down narrow streets, don’t signal, don’t stop at junctions. I’d like to see increased use of cameras to fine dangerous driving and driving whilst distracted.

The statistics show a different story

There's been a decrease in deaths on the roads in the UK since 2019.

The number of incidents has remained stable (except for an obvious dip during the lockdowns).

It may be that there is something specific happening in the road you are referring to or more likely you are noticing it more. You've decided there's an increase so you notice evidence that confirms your theory & discount evidence against.

Gotten?

I blame the delivery drivers that became so much more common during COVID. They are everywhere and their driving is dreadful. Others follow suit.

Pulling onto the A1 last week I followed someone off the Roundabout onto the slip road. They were using the Hard Shoulder as the inside lane. This is where the A1, the A1M and the A64 all merge. Chaos ensued. Luckily there was no crash.

Accidents are virtually daily in my small area we have houses being built nearby we had to heckle the council to provide road clean up due to the massive amount of mud being tracked onto the road causing slips and skids there was still an accident we have a long term road closure people are using the town bypass which is a very fast road several people have died now they can't navigate it maybe? Recently a baby died during a late night drive (not their fault) the road was empty yet two cars collided

Yes driving has got worse

Far more cars on road, and then people on here think everyone should have a licence.. my god can you imagine how grid locked it would be.

Totally agree. Standards have dropped. People also seem frustrated by the 20mph so drive too fast when they can.
No one seems to indicate on the roundabout. It’s a nightmare.

It is interesting because we live in France and I would also say that driving has got more aggresive and selfish since the pandemic. We have good roads with plenty of space, but you still see cars and particularly motorbikes weaving in and out of lanes with centimetres to spare. I don't knw how much accidents have increased, but we see a lot of near misses.

I would agree. Yesterday I did a 3 mile journey and I had 2 different cars cut right in front of me with no indicator and really close to my car. If I wasn't so aware it would have been very easy to not stop in time to avoid a crash. On the same journey going around a 3 lane roundabout I had someone been at me for being in their way despite them being in complete wrong lane (inside lane when going left).

There seem to be more people on the road, more people distracted and more people who don't seem to care how they drive and think they own the road.

Please everyone stop using the phrase accidents, call them crashes. Most are avoidable.

Lack of traffic police, long delays in the courts, no surprise. Also the last Tory Prime Minister believing there was a war on the motorist, which is only the case when it applies to parking charges.

Undertaking is only more commonplace, because middle and outer lane 'hogging' is.
It's the knock on effect of others using the motorways incorrectly.

'Undertaking' isn't the issue.
If you are being undertaken, you are in the wrong lane.
If I'm driving in the correct lane, ie the left, at the speed limit (70) and you are in the middle lane, doing 60, you are forcing me to undertake you. What am I supposed to do? Slow down to 50, so as not to undertake you?
You have no business being in an overtaking lane, unless you are actively overtaking.

You're not wrong.
Today, I drove from rural SW, to a Northern city, so drove on pretty much every type of UK road.
OP suggests it's generational, but I reckon it's also geographical. From being waved out of tricky junctions, and through tight squeezes on narrow lanes, with a smile, in Dorset, to impatient men, tailgating, shoving in, beeping and gesticulating, in Leeds. I just sat waiting at precarious junctions, for a gap to dash out of, because I was definitely NOT going to be let out!

But what struck me most, was just how many drivers, seemingly, don't understand how motorways work. I was actively observing this phenomenon, and it's not an exaggeration to say that 90% were using the motorways incorrectly.
Here, in the UK, we drive on the left. On a motorway, or dual carriageway, we drive on the left. If we catch up with a slower moving vehicle, we use the lane to our right to overtake, then pull back over to the left hand lane.
Except, we don't. On at least 20 occasions, I was unable to pull out, because of the overtaking lanes being blocked. Those drivers were not overtaking me, as I was driving faster than them, to their left. I was forced to 'undertake' a number of times. OP mentions 'undertaking' as an example of poor driving. But, if you are being undertaken, you are in the wrong lane. You cannot simultaneously be overtakING and untertakEN. If you are not actively overtaking, you have no business being in an overtaking lane.
Obviously, where there are speed restrictions/queues/roadworks (so, pretty much the whole 70 mile section of the M1 I had to use), everyone is just doing the specified 40 or 50 mph, spread across all lanes. But the M40 wasn't busy, so why sit in the middle or outer overtaking lanes, especially at 60mph, when drivers in the left hand lane, are driving at the speed limit of 70?

Oh, and yes, I passed one crash that looked pretty bad, and a minor shunt. Both on motorways.

1 in 10 people are on their phone while driving (I walk and count them when I'm bored). Then you've got the people smoking weed. I think there's a lot more people driving without passing a test too.

I agree that nighttime driving is more dangerous now. The energy saving streetlights are too dark and newer cars have blinding lights.

It’s phone use.

I drive but also cycle.
So many people on phones it’s scary, especially as a cyclist

I think since the roads are so clogged up, people can't use roundabouts anymore and they tailgate constantly. Both cause accidents.

Yes, on the motorway undertaking seems much more commonplace now.

Behaviour in general is getting worse - more entitlement and more aggression. I don't know why this is, but it isn't a surprise that the same dreadful behavioural traits come out in their driving. People are more and more rude, angry and selfish.

Yes, driving is increasingly poor, roads are increasingly bad.

However, lockdown is not to blame for everything! 🙄