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

Where do you live OP - I associate southwest with lots of retired to the country types and summer holiday cottages!

Yup, I've taken to working weekends and taking a couple of days off mid week instead as it's so much nicer when everything is quieter whether car parks, shopping centres, attractions or even parks, etc. Weekends are just a nightmare now and I'd rather stay in and avoid it all.

We do quite a few short breaks in the UK and have moved away from the "long weekend" kind, and now generally do 4 nights, Monday to Friday, and can actually enjoy the area where we're visiting, attractions are quieter, roads are quieter, etc.

We live around an hour from the Lake District and when we were young, we'd go pretty frequently on Sundays as a day out for boat trips on the lakes, or walking around a lake or up a hill, or shopping, etc. It was actually pretty pleasant and never too busy. Nowadays, you'd be insane to go somewhere like Bowness on a Sunday, even more insane in Summer, as it's just so obviously a lot busier everywhere and that makes it uncomfortable and unpleasant.

Yes OP I feel this INTENSELY.
I hardly bother going out at the weekends these days (work all week so weekends are our only free time). It doesn't matter where we go, local beauty spot, shopping in town, local attraction, you always have to plan the day on the basis that the traffic will be a nightmare, parking will be impossible, cafes full and huge queues will be a big part of the day.
It really gets me down actually, I don't know what to do.

I never said that at all there’s good and bad in all ethnicities and cultures. Having brown skin doesn’t make a person evil. Just like having white skin doesn’t make someone a saint. There’s a lot of right wing men with convictions against them.

And who decides what the population level 'should' be?

I can't say I have noticed anywhere more busy that it used to be.

It’s the incessant road works which make going anywhere a chore and I think makes drivers even more irritable. Still it puts us off going out so that’s one less car on the road I suppose.

Obviously it depends where you live. Do you live in a town/city centre?

We moved overseas for this reason and can't believe how busy the UK is now when we return. We don't have to add on extra time for travelling in rush hour, never think about whether will be able to park and don't add on extra time 'in case'.

Here, we have birds nesting that I've never seen in the UK, people have time for each other and everything just feels under less pressure. Where we lived in the UK, there are now plans for hundreds of houses. It's a small town with a full school and no parking for the shops. There's so much traffic that is really only safe to cross the road at traffic lights. I can't imagine what it'll be like if those houses are built, nor what will happen to the animals living on that land.

The noise is the main difference though, the UK is so noisy now.

I absolutely loathe how crowded it is now. I loathe lime bikes littering the pavements. I loathe lime bikes whizzing through what used to be a park for pedestrians and is now just a cut through for fast cyclists. I loathe the amount of cars going down my residential street nowadays, blasting crap ‘music’. I loathe crap music in shops. I ragingly hate that even on an out of the way quiet walk there are always, but always, men blasting away into their phones. I loathe it, I really really do. I’d love to go back in time, for respite, it has escalated phenomenally in the last few years.

That was after going with DH to his oncology appointment last week, where we had to stand for 90 minutes in the waiting room

That's disgraceful

I don't suppose you have the energy to make a complaint!

I work unusual hours and can tell you it’s because everyone’s free time is squeezed into weekends and evenings.

Everywhere is practically deserted at 11am on a weekday.

Agree heartily OP. I have hyperacusis and tinnitus. I would happily live away from most noise except for bird sounds. Railway station platforms are near unbearable these days, last time I went to Clapham Junction at rush hour I had to control my breathing, I was with my dad and he is getting on and needed help navigating a journey. He has hearing aids and he just switches them off...

Why is the music played loud by idiots in cars always crap music too? It's never Bach's violin concerto is it?

I live in London so accept overcrowding as part of daily life.
But I rarely go in to central, other than to the theatre, and I go straight there and home again.

A few times recently had visitors, and so meals out and sightseeing needed, and the crowds were insane. Covent Garden could not move without pushing.

You must all be very sensitive. I live on a post war estate in the suburbs of a large city, 2 mins walk from a very busy main road, and I don’t experience any of this at all. Trains and buses are busy between 8am and. 9am, and a bit more spread out in the afternoon but nothing noticeable. The city centre, beaches and attractions are busier in the sunshine but not in a way that makes me not enjoy it. I can hear birdsong outside my window the garden is full of bees and butterflies and my neighbours are rarely noisy.

I find a mental note when driving and there are aggressive drivers needing to be in front, that if you are important, truly important, people wait for you. People having to drive dangerously because they can’t wait 15 seconds must be so low down the pecking order to have that urgency.

This can be applied to many situations.

i hate the music in shops
i went into a shop with low lighting and classical music, a danish shop - Søstrene Grene

why can't they all be like that?

Try early morning for your dog walk. Only quiet people around then.

Where did you pluck that nonsense figure out of your head?? 😂

To paraphrase..,

”Ugh, those awful people who don’t love immigration. I live in a place with nearly none and think immigrants are all just lovely.”

There are far too many people in this country for the infrastructure of a small island to support. There is pressure created by housing shortages, overcrowding and affordability problems. These are all getting worse and are strongly linked to stress, frustration, and social tension. People are turning against those who were not born here and any whom they see as outliers or non contributors.

I was waiting for someone to mention immigration. I live in a town where the ethnic minority population is like 4%. Some work at the hospital or are GO’s. Some own businesses or work in restaurants. The supported housing my son lives in would struggle to have enough staff without migrant carers and yes they speak good English.

Yes everywhere is busy but our town is the largest in the area. People come from neighbouring towns to shop in the retail parks or eat out. But it’s also down to contractors working at the biggest employer in our area with average of 60’000 working there. We have multiple HMO’s mainly to provide accommodation for contractors. A friend of mine works at the local travelodge they are fully booked Monday to Friday with contractors. It’s rare they have any rooms to accommodate walk in’s. We also have a recently opened university.

Same here. I live in a village in South East.Busy high street with everything you need,amazing walks 2 mins away on foot with every imaginable choice of wild life ,45 mins on train to enjoy the buzz of life in Covent Garden .

OP, it is because you drive. There are more people and noise in central London but it is mostly public transport. With public transport, you pop on your headphones and zone out in your small personal bubble. I also zone out automatically dodging slow walking tourists and doddlers on pavements whilst I speed past them. Yep, there are police sirens but I barely notice as they are part of the background noise.

That is central London and the City where I work. In my area of South East London, it is leafy and quiet and the roads generally only congested in small stretches.

I am not stressed in London.

I don't particularly like crowds OP. I live in north Hampshire so hardly remote, and manage to avoid them. I food shop early on a Saturday morning. Tesco is almost deserted at 7.30am. The same out running. Go early and it's quiet & beautiful. Choose lane swimming and the pool is quiet, Cycle on the common and there are no cars. Book a table for early supper and the same, no queues.

London is different, no peace anywhere which is why I moved out. Have you considered moving?