Why are there so many bad drivers on the roads?

[Mydinosaurnest]

Every day I seem to encounter awful drivers doing dangerous things and it’s beginning to make me nervous and anxious about driving, particularly when my children are in the car.
Where I live people are constantly speeding, they pull out at junctions without checking, rarely any indicating going on, road rage incidents, tailgating, serious accidents at least once a week and so on.
I like to consider myself a good driver. I obey the rules of the roads, I stick to the speed limit, I let people go in front of me, I wait my turn, I do everything I consider safe driving. I have never had an accident, near miss or any reason to contact my insurer. Yet there are idiots like previously described all over the roads putting us in danger with no care in the world. How do they pass their tests?
Just today I had 2 cab drivers who were parked up suddenly pull out onto the road in front of me. Neither indicated or reacted.
At the weekend my husband was on a motorway driving at 70mph when the car next to him pulled in front very closely without indicating and then slowed down to 50mph so he had to brake fast.
I just witnessed a young girl being intimated by a van driver who was tailgating because she was at the speed limit. Who then preceded to speed off through a bus Lane and should hopefully receive a fine.
I hate driving because I know I will be met with at least one asshole. It scares me knowing one wrong move and we could be involved in a serious accident.
Has anyone else found the roads are loitered with bad drivers lately?

Yes I definitely see this! People are always in a rush and don’t seem to think about the devastation they could cause in a second. I’ve never had any points on my license and I drive within the speed limits and suitable for the road. Our road has recently been made a 20mph road as there’s lots of houses, shops and a primary school but it’s not changed a thing. Drivers continue to speed up and down.

It's definitely got far worse in the last couple of years.

I passed my test in 1981, so I've a good few decades of driving experience under my belt. In the good old days, 'White Van Man' was widely considered to be the worst, but these days they are generally pretty good. So either they have improved out of all recognition, or everybody else's driving standard has plummeted to new depths of awfulness. My money is on the latter.

I find the lack of indicating SO infuriating. People are so lazy.

I definitely noticed over the last ten years that there are more problematic drivers on the road. My theory is that in general we (as in society/population in general) are more selfish than ever, with much less consideration for others than we used to have.

Are you in Birmingham OP? It’s horrendous here. And to top it all off the lack of manners/acknowledging that someone has given you way is infuriating.

I had a similar conversation with DH today. A woman in Sainsbury’s car park just stopped randomly, blocking traffic both ways and despite plenty of spaces, another one parked so close to our car that DH had to reverse out of the space before I could get in.

The worst are those huge lorries, who seem to take a particular delight in pulling out at roundabouts, ignoring priority from the right, intimidating and forcing braking. I get that lorries and vans probably have deadlines, but it doesn’t mean they can attempt to intimidate other road users and drive dangerously.

The 20 mph roads seem to have made it worse for sure, impatient drivers blaming those ahead driving at 20mph then becoming aggressive towards them.
I totally agree with the comment that humans in general have become extremely selfish. It’s everyone for themselves these days.
Also agree the majority of van drivers have improved from their previous stereotypes.

I've noticed this, and after watching those traffic police tv programmes I've learnt that there are way way more people driving while on drugs than we realise. Plus of course the aggressive drivers and drunks.

I'm still convinced there are more people driving around without licenses since covid. It is dangerous where I am.

London unfortunately so there is no escaping the volume of cars!
Roundabouts are definitely the worse, people just drive without giving way or don’t Indicate so you are sat like there a pleb with the person behind becoming impatient because you haven’t gone yet. But I don’t want to risk an accident and hurting my children so I trust my instinct more than the bully behind.
I wish driving tests needed to be retaken every so many years, especially for those who have caused an accident.

Re vans, I think a big consideration these days is that most company vehicles are tracked. My partners fleet van is speed restricted and the data is shared with his manager every week. Might be what's making some of the difference there!

After many years living abroad and driving in several countries I can confidently say it's foreigners. Seriously.

It's often people who have learnt to drive in other countries where the driving culture is very different and the rules are more lax. They drive much faster and much more aggressively, pay little attention to lane etiquette, they tailgate as standard practice, overtake on the inside, and they navigate roundabouts in a completely different way as that's often how they've been taught. It's dog eat dog and no-one obeys the rules. They park where they like. They go up the pavement to skip a queue at a junction. Either that or they are like a rabbit in the headlights and do daft things like try to reverse back up a motorway slip road if they've taken a wrong turn. In many places the driving test itself is not anywhere near as rigorous as ours and the rules of the road are just very er...loose.

When everyone drives roughly the same way, even if it's abominably, it works okay because people roughly know what to expect from others on the road. Even if that means always expect the unexpected. You look out from every angle. You drive with your wing mirrors more than your rear view mirror because you never know what side anyone is going to be coming at you from. Whereas in the Uk we tend to assume that other drivers are going to follow the same rules and drive to the same standards as us. When you have lots of people from different driving cultures all on the road at the same time, as it is in large British cities, it's utter chaos.

Entitled, ignorant, aggressive, rude, self centred? Yup, this is how a lot of people behave anyway, so put them in a car....😟

Yes all of these! Last year I had a no fault accident where a car pulled out of a side street onto a main road into the side of me. His response "you should have stopped".

Oh and I've just been out on a 40mph main road to be faced with a cyclist head on, riding in the wrong direction in the middle of the lane.

And it's the abuse you get if you dare to point out that anyone is wrong / dangerous.

It gets even better around primary schools at drop off and collection time…. Unbelievable considering they are surrounded by small children and have their own small children to consider… daily there is double parking, speeding, parking on the no parking zones, pulling out in front of children. People just don’t care.

Because people are selfish and more than you would care to imagine will be high on drugs or booze.

I don't think that driving tests make any difference to the way drivers subsequently act on the road. Retaking them every three years, five years or five minutes wouldn't change a damn thing, because people are being taught to pass the test, not to drive a car safely and considerately. There's no sense of driving "well", "good" driving is seen as getting there first or fastest by so many people. Arrogance, ignorance, road rage, bloody mindedness are the result, and a making it a misery for anyone else who wants to drive without aggro or hassle. It's definitely getting worse. It really is now literally (using the word correctly) impossible to go out without someone intimidating you if you drive to the speed limits. And 95% of people don't give a damn.

There probably aren't enough traffic police to crack down on the idiots.
If I had it my way anyone driving while using a mobile would get a lifetime ban, that's 10% of cars off the road for a start.
Lots smoking weed too.
I'm glad I have a front and rear dash cam and did advanced driving.

There are some posters who post on here proud of their dangerous motorway driving.

I've noticed an increase in drivers being incredibly trigger happy on the horn in traffic - usually because someone hasn't moved off as quickly as they would like (and usually there is a perfectly valid reason for this, like someone is still cross the road or the box junction exit isn't clear).

And people driving really aggressively - I'm in London so sometimes you need to drive assertively otherwise you'd never get anywhere, but people just aggressively moving into a gap in the road which then cocks up the whole flow of traffic.

Partly because even if you rack up enough penalty points to get a ban, you can get it overturned because you need to get to work or something equally basic. Never mind the safety of other people or that it should be the driver's responsibility to keep their licence.

Because there’s basically no usable public transport outside of London, so the roads are far far too busy. Add to that the cars are far far too big, and too “safe” so people feel they can bully their way round.
I hate driving now. There’s NEVER a quiet time ( since COVID all the wfh people are popping out in their cars all day long) and half the drivers are arseholes.

Do you mean people or men doing this?

Men have been aggressive drivers since cars were invented. The reason they have more accidents and their insurance premiums are higher.

I have definitely noticed this and I believe it's got worse over the last 10 years or so.

Speeding, way over the speed limit too, and near schools and built up areas.

Tailgaters everywhere.

People not indicating.

People going over at an island in whatever lane they fancy.

People are inheritatly ignorant and selfish.

Driving lessons are very expensive, so are tests so a lot dont bother.