Does anyone else feel stressed at how busy/overcrowded everything is all the time?

And that’s why I live in London, it’s much quieter. The problem is cars, not people. Traffic is horrendous up and down the UK but public transport is quiet, bearable and easy.

My sister came to stay at the weekend and asked why we didn’t drive to the big posher shopping centre (Bluewater) and I said because traffic is horrible and queuing to get out the center itself can take an hour. Instead we sat on a bus for 30 minutes in the peace and quiet and got out at an almost empty Monday shopping center (Westfield).

perfect

@Numpty908

i feel exactly the same. I’m waiting for my husband to retire so we can move somewhere quieter in England if there is such place any more. I also have home delivery as supermarket car parks are a nightmare. I only go in a supermarket if I just need a few things so I walk.

This is my thread. I cannot stand the crowds, all the people, too busy, roads super busy and everywhere is rammed. I am south UK.

I go to the supermarket at 6-7am or very late at night- if I have to go that is, as I get a home delivery. Likewise petrol, I only go 7am or very late at night. I go no where on a bank holiday as all the pub gardens/beaches/parks are rammed. Queuing for everything. On a sunny weekend the supermarkets have been stripped by 10am of anything BBQ related.

There is no defined rush hour anymore, the roads are constantly too busy. It once took me an hour to drive to the next town in the middle of a working week day. It's 7 miles away. Traffic, road works, temporary traffic lights.

I mostly stay at home nowadays and spend my time going abroad for long weekends when I can. Even then, the crowds through the airport are horrific .. regardless of the time of day,

Yes I was on holiday in Ireland recently and found it a dream to drive around. The roads were not full of potholes either. Went to a few seaside towns and it was noticeable that there was always parking available.

I’ve moved here from England I often think Scot’s have no idea how busy some parts of England have become. Everyone I know who regularly drives up and down the M6 comments on how much the traffic significantly drops back after Blackpool (going north obviously). I regularly drive from one end of Scotland to the other through the busiest bit of the central belt and yes the traffic can be difficult but as a once regular drives round the M25 any difficulties fade into insignificance in comparison.
My purely anecdotal view is that full time working from home is on the decline from its peak in 2020 I suspect this will impact on your area in the medium/long term. And we cannot deny that Scotland needs more people of working age. Where I live we have a exceedingly high number of people of retirement age lack of well paid permanent jobs or even fairly well paid means young people are forced to leave the region many go over the boarder or into the central belt.

As a country we are in urgently we by need of people of working age to pay taxes and of course work in health and social care to prop up our ever aging and inevitability expensive population (I’m not being ageist about this as someone working full time but in my 60’s In aware that I too will soon fall into this category).

I can’t bear it. People everywhere. There’s just too many of us in this small country!

I live in an area popular with walkers and people come here on holiday. Mainly day trippers. Can’t get out my road on sunny days at times. If I want to go for a quiet walk I have to go out of the main area. Town is rammed.

I was recently in Ireland and their population is so much lower and it was bliss. Considering a move!

Well clearly most people agree with you!!! I feel very bad for people who have to live in towns and cities. I went to London recently, I lived there 15 years ago my god has it changed.

Not necessarily. I'm from Northumberland (admittedly the south) and I came on here to say we went to Druridge Bay over the Bank Holiday. Admittedly it was Lanzarote temperatures at probably the most popular time of the year. But I was shocked at how crowded it was. Cars were backed up in queues down the country lanes. People couldn't get parked and were driving away. This is the quiet, off-the-beaten track beach I grew up near – often it would just be a few families and a couple of dog walkers. So many nice places just feel rammed.

dogs' barking certainly contributes to the noise pollution

I live by the town centre in a very busy Surrey town. I love the buzz and all the amenities so can’t complain but I have a secret walk I do most days to a huge empty green space with a river running through it. Usually 0-1 people there. The town planners are apparently wanting to install a proper path and open up access as people don’t seem to have the mindset of using a muddy poorly signposted track to get there.
I find there is usually somewhere you can escape to. But agree too many people. We need to deflate a bit. Maybe 20%.

I think with things like walks, a big difference is everythingis online. "Best hidden places/parks/walk" to visit near (insert their location)" aand what used to be quiet local knowledge only has turned into knowledge of the world all in the space of about 15 years since online really picked up/smartphones gathered momentum.

I have lost a lot of driving confidence now and absolutly hate slip lanes, mororways or driving far from home. Im currently visiting a relative in a town up relatively north scotland and its quiet, theres less noise in the air, only birds or barking dogs but theres very little noise in the air which is peaceful. the train jorney here is 2.5hrs cost £80 - I could have driven for a lot less fuel cost and similar time but wont to do it due to all the motorway drivng, if i do it using google maps and remove motorways the drive increases to 4 hours and theres still lots of slip roads on dual carriageways/A roads etc.

I wish things were quieter in general but i live in central belt Scotland and thers lots more people it feels like. It seems popular with people moving like immigration/refugees etc and also popular with people moving from England, I know 4 (lovely) ladies in my own circle who have packed up and left England for a new life in my small town all over the past year.

Then my area has always been a bit of a tourist place but is absolutly rammed busy everywhere now and its a lot of chinese/indian tourists...which was never the case so even local walks feel a bit off when constantly surrounded by other languages in the air. So I tend to stay on the outskirts of town and only go to main places in winter as parking is also an issue/impossible during spring/summer/autumn.

It is fatiguing, it is definitly busier where I am but I defintitly think the internet has a lot to do with it.

I'm weird because I like either no people or loads of people. No people and you're alone with your thoughts/there's less noise. And lots of people and you're one of many so blend into the crowd. It's hard though nowadays. Way too much access to news and outside noise.

it sounds like hell. Thank goodness I live in a country with a small population and don't have these issues, it can't make life pleasant.

Don't engage. This poster does not do evidence. Or any rational debate.

I agree. There used to be quiet times to go to shops and places. Now busy. I hate constant loud noise and music. Nothing is relaxing.

WTF?

Yes, it is. It's hard when there's no houses for people, yet lots of the green space has been built on, so there isn't the space to walk-but people still can't get houses! And it's frustrating when the services you used to rely on are too busy to help-whether that's transport to get someone you love to hospital, parking, no one answering the phone to help you with that person, and then having to see them left in a chair for 2 days in AE (and yes, they needed to be there).

Don't encourage them. I say this only half jokingly. Most of the people who have recently moved to my rural area are English and are putting property prices out of reach for locals who have grown up and/or work in the countryside . Additionally, they're all work from home types who have no connection to or understanding of the countryside as a living and working landscape.

It's grim isn't it. I live north of the central belt and find the south of England unbearable. I adore London, but the traffic and number of people around towns and villages on the south coast is awful. You expect cities to be bustling, use public transport and get on with it. But rural areas and small towns with queuing traffic and hoardes of people on the streets is something else. It makes me so thankful to live in Scotland.

@RobinEllacotStrike where is this place, love to know, if you would consider sharing.

@JustGiveMeReason which city is this ? I’m in London and very weary of it.

I live in a town in the SE and after years of London living after 8 years here I'm still expecting massive crowds everywhere.

Here there is very little traffic (though the town has grown quite a bit since I moved here 8 years ago). 10 minutes to get anywhere and parking usually OK.
There are good crowds at local events which are well supported, but I've never felt overcrowded here, and our beaches run for miles so even on hot high summer weekends the beach crowds are managable & you can always find a relatively quiet spot somewhere on the beach.

A cafe I like to go to in town is hugely popular but even on busy days I can usually get a seat/table.

I love it.

I’m finding that people have become more aggressive. I know I’m intolerant, I always have been but I’m noticing that people give less of a shit. Why block my drivers door of my car when there are umpteen spaces further away from me that are empty?? Why just blithely drive into the space at an angle so that getting into my car is made awkward? Didn’t we used to check we had parked correctly? I do. No. Just sling the motor where you like and fuck everyone else. No wonder I’m happiest at home.

Not my experience at all.

We live in a big City (not London), and yes, there is lots of traffic, but there are also lots of green spaces I can walk to, and, LOADS if you include those I could get to on a bus / train / or by driving to, but still within our City.

I mean, when we want a day out, we are more likely to head to the Countryside than to a shopping Centre, but within walking distance from where I live it is easy to sit in a cafe or spend time in the library or pop into some shops, or go and watch sports or wander round a museum, without it feeling crowded or overly busy. We do have the sense to avoid half term for bigger attractions.

But even if we decide to make the long trip to the beach, we choose beaches that are quieter, as that is our preference.. 'Everything' and 'everywhere' isn't busy all the time.

I think it is partly because everything is slightly shitter than it was and it frays our nerves, making us less tolerant.

Bus services. Shit outside of London. I live in a city and can't get to the city centre by bus after 6pm.
I finally get into town after paying over £10 for a taxi to find the restaurant has seated me next to a massive party of drunken wankers that give their kids Ipads with no headphones.

I eat my underwhelming food and pay close to £100 for the privilege.
Then it's £15 for a taxi home because the rate goes up after a certain time.

It's awful, and that's meant to be a treat.

Everything is ruined by enshitification, and people don't know how to behave any more.
We are having to share increasingly bad services, with an increasing population of people that have no regard for others, and it's really sad.