To realise very few people care about road rules or the Highway Code any more

Well, that’s it. You’re now crowned minister for department of driving @@JacquesHarlow

keep up the good work.

also drive a lot for work and couldn’t agree more with what you’ve said!

There are also the dickheads who join the motorway and immediately speed into the outside lane, usually by cutting in front without a safe distance. Everyone else can be driving in the correct lane and overtaking those on the left properly, but it doesn’t stop these clowns undertaking.

Ah I see what you mean now. Yes the weaving is very dangerous!

If you're sitting in the middle lane and not overtaking however, you should move over to lane 1 as otherwise you are adding to the hazard. So if you're stuck behind a middle lane hogger it is best to move left and wait for the traffic to clear.

The tailgating has become ridiculous. It’s so dangerous. Why do people do it?

No, I know what you mean, but it’s not what I meant.
I’m thinking about congested traffic where all traffic is slow, and they weave in and out trying to get one car ahead, then move back over to the middle lane, then briefly into the fast lane, then undertake agin in the middle lane. It’s very common and very dangerous. Or, I am behind a middle lane hogger, unable to overtake due to faster cars in the fast lane, and they undertake the middle lane hogger.

Hogging the third lane is a new annoyance I’ve only really noticed in the last couple of years. I have to assume these drivers are so oblivious that they just don’t notice the aggressive tailgaters who also stick to this lane.

But the most aggravating aspect of modern driving is the barrelling through thing you mention. At full speed too, so you’re forced to stop even though your side is clear when if they slowed a little both could safely proceed. I’m also noticing an increase in drivers who overtake cyclists even though they have to drive into oncoming traffic to do so. Either forcing those vehicles to brake or leaving hardly any room. Really dangerous.

If someone is able to undertake you at speed on motorways, you are in the wrong lane

If I were a benevolent dictator I would make the requirements to hold a licence much stricter. You'd need a much more advanced licence to drive anything larger than a hatchback for a start.

I would introduce random mandatory testing, I would do away with the hardship plea, and I would impose a three-strikes rule which covers everything; speeding, impaired driving, phone driving, poor lane discipline (including cutting corners and middle lane hogging), dangerous / aggressive driving, and poor parking (yes I would bring parking badly into the offence regime too). I wouldn't have speed or traffic cameras visible either. They deter people for a few metres, that's it.

I would also fund a lot more traffic police.

The standards of driving in this country are, as a rule, appalling.

Driving nowadays is just a giant, dangerous game of chicken.
All my regular journeys are sub 15 minutes, 3x a week 7.20am and between 5-6pm.
Every single time I am almost run off the road by people coming towards me on the wrong side of the road, even when I have priority.
Every red light has multiple cars go through, every roundabout has people not indicating or indicating wrongly.
I don’t understand why traffic lights don’t have cameras, they could be making a fortune from fines.

DH is a bus driver and moved from
town driving to longer distance coaches because he was fed up of people thinking they had the right of way because the parked cars were on the same side as the bus (usually longer roads where the bus was fine to move out when it got there but someone flying up the other way didn’t think to wait to let the bus through the whole way) and would refuse to reverse causing a total roadblock. It’s usually not safe for buses to reverse on public roads so it’s better for the car to reverse, but the amount of people adamant they were in the right because of where the parked cars were was crazy.

And don’t get me started on undertaking at speed on motorways

Add to this, people driving through red lights in busy built up areas. Not just one, but routinely 2 or 3 cars in a row. Often driving through when the green man is telling pedestrians they can cross. How are we meant to teach children to cross the road safely?

It's not "entitled"
I think it is entitlement for many. The same way every day, you get people going into the turning lane to bypass the one queuing and then expect to be let through at the light.

There are two very busy roads with such two lanes in my town. Every single day during rush hours, you get cars doing just that.

Yes, there might be some who do genuinely get frustrated that people don't use both lanes in the instance of roadworks and use the outside lane for that reason, but many, just like those in the above instance, do it because they genuinely believe waiting and queuing shouldn't apply to them.

No they are following the signs and merging as is lawful.
I don't sit and wait I carry on in the lane that is still open until I can merge safely, the ones not letting people in are the arseholes!
I agree OP I'm on the motorway every day an now tend to use the first lane as its bloody empty!

In your Example 1 I am surprised at them using the indicator to exit left. In my experience as a pedestrian at the roundabout exit in the centre of town, many don't use the indicator. There are always pedestrians there coming from the busy station and always cars going to it (including many taxis going to the station taxi stand.)

It happens regularly in other local roads too, when simply turning off the road into a road to their left or right. No indicator. Several times I could have run into the back of some car while cycling down a local hill because it turned across in front of me without any signal.

Failure to use the indicator is not just by speedsters or boy racers, either. The solid men and women who are parents of children in my neighbourhood regularly turn into the road they live in without indicating. Oddly enough, a lot of these non-indicator users, whether turning off roundabout or road, will stop and wave across pedestrians waiting for the car to pass. The mentality seems to be 'Who needs an indicator'?

But if everyone queued in both lanes no one could just barge past everyone else. The people queuing in one lane for 1000 yards before the merge cause the issues as they effectively leave a completely empty lane for people to drive up to the merge. Madness

Yep. Loads of people don't understand it. A driver just turned from a main road wham into a side road I was crossing, got out his car and yelled at me. Even if I was waiting to cross I would've had have right of way - this was a rule introduced in 2022, but he didn't believe me and refused to. It's dangerous people like him can drive.

This morning I’ve driven from the Western Lake District to Manchester - so, tiny winding lanes, up and over the Honister Pass, through Keswick town centre and down the M6 - a wide range of driving environments. The standard of driving left me utterly aghast. Adding to your list, the need to give way to a vehicle coming up a hill where possible was ignored - luckily I’m good enough at hill starts to be able to do one climbing a 20% incline on Honister. The number of women hogging lanes 2 and 3 was really disappointing I checked everyone one, and 100% were women. And as someone who usually cycles a lot more than she drives I am in full agreement with @Colourpurplepalette that people don’t indicate enough, especially when turning right at roundabouts. Do they no longer teach mirror-signal-manoeuvre?

Agree with all of that. I’ve been driving more than usual recently and I just cannot believe the lane 2 and 3 hogging on the motorways, it’s never been this bad before. Although I have to say I don’t care if people indicate or not because, quite frankly, the amount of times you see someone indicating one way but then going the other is also nuts, so I don’t really trust them anyway 🤷‍♀️.

Add to that people who park on pavements when there are no signs telling them to do so (which is the only time you supposed to do it).

People who don't stop to allow pedestrians to cross at junctions, as required by the highway code..

People who think they can drive at their usual speed in wet conditions regardless - I regularly get soaked on my walk to and from work.

The signs say use both lanes
My experience is that when there is a sign that says to use both lanes, people do, but it is rare that it does. Instead you get signs that tell you to merge 300 yards before the merge, so people do....and then you gave the entitled who pass everyone, and then worse, who get cross when the first car doesn't let them through immediately!

But you're literally supposed to use both lanes. I used to always sit in the left hand lane, but now seeing sign after sign saying 'use both lanes' and 'merge in turn' I do so. If you choose to queue in the left lane then more fool you. The signs say use both lanes, so I now do so and merge when the signs say to merge in turn. We'd all get where we're going quicker if people used both lanes and left a gap for cars to zip.

Driving instructors use our road for learners as it’s pretty much circular. The number of students that come to a stop without indicating and then park across people’s drives is astounding. Also, the vast majority set off - again, without indicating or checking there is another vehicle coming up behind them.
If they’re not being taught the basics, there’s no hope.