Anyone else finding driving more stressful these days? Not sure if it’s perimenopause or all the pot holes

[Stuckinthemiddlewithyouuhoh]

But driving is actually starting to put me off going places

The pot holes are outrageous

Pot holes and bright lights for me. Plus endless roadworks and congestion.

It’s not just potholes, it’s the lack of money being spent on maintaining signage: road markings worn off so you can’t see which lane you need to be in, together with overgrown trees and hedges obscuring signs because councils can’t afford to cut them back. This was not nearly such a problem 5 or so years ago.

A lot of the pot holes are more like massive craters now. I assume they used to be the size of a pot.

I HATE driving. I'm 50 and have only really started to hate it in the last 2 years (roughly). I don't know if it's my age or what.

God yes, how could I have forgotten the lights?
It’s not just headlights, it’s everything else, for instance, the flashing orange lights on the vehicles parked at a roadworks.
I get that they need to be visible but they have gone beyond making everyone safer and become a distraction.

Totally agree with you all, it can't br goid gor the economy either as I'm starting to get put off going places and spending money

Plus I find when I'm somewhere trying to have a nice day, like today, spa day, my mind wanders to ohhhh dreading driving back

People that visit here from abroad must think what the hell, when they see our roads

They are just as bad in other countries - surprisingly. Well maybe not quite as bad, but they certainly don't have lovely smooth roads.

I don't like driving either - especially in the dark because of the overly bright lights.

Hate it. Hate the pot holes, the incessant rain, the ridiculous low sun shining in my face no matter which direction I am going. The bright lights, especially the cars with one long strip of light, and how it shines in your eyes like the Spanish inquisition if they go over a speed bump or decide to helpfully flash at you to let you go through.
I'd give it up totally if public transport was a bit better.

It's the bright headlights and idiots who don't know how to drive!

Last year we went to the Netherlands and you couldn't help but notice how fantastic the roads and cycle paths were. It actually felt embarrassing coming back to the state of our roads.

I used to love driving. I had a provisional bus driving licence at one time. I just don't like it any more. Wet motorways in the rain and dark with heavy traffic are the worst. Thing is car tech is so much better, but it doesn't seem to help. Maybe it's the thick pillars cars have for safety but give less visibility

So many drivers don't indicate now - I'm sure it's got worse in the last few years

Round here it’s the pot holes, the number of silly little badly ridden mopeds and that no one indicates anymore!

Irish roads are also fantastic compared to ours.

I started feeling like this too, in peri. I am fine driving myself, although I suddenly started not looking forward to long journeys which then turn out fine, it's being a passenger I am no longer able to stand. I have to sit in the back! And I can't bear speeding!

This is me.

I have driven since I was 17 and am now 51. The last few years I started to hate driving and dread going places where I would have to drive.

I think for me its been a mixture of being caught unexpectedly in poor weather conditions (wind/heavy rain/flooding), and also being caught behind an accident and having to turn round and drive unfamiliar roads during a diversion where I had no idea where I was.

Journeys I would do in the past with my eyes closed and with no stress I started to dread doing. I would look at road conditions, road closures, weather conditions etc before I drove anywhere and it just started to become stressful.

I think I just lost my confidence behind the wheel and now just don't enjoy the process of driving myself anywhere.

I drive locally now, at best, but even then will not really enjoy it but I want to try and keep my local independence at least.

It sucks.

I went to Brittany and the Vendee last summer and the roads were way better than England. Better condition, visible signage.

The pot holes are ridiculous.

Driving is now more akin to car slalom. I scan the tarmac ahead of me constantly and drive around them.

I absolutely hate the overly bright headlights.
Is that a thing in France too?

Pot holes drive me nuts and the LED headlights. Struggling a lot with the stupidly bright headlights though I have astigmatism and I feel blinded!

Pot holes, blinding lights and endless, endless, endless road closures- I must have done a few hundred extra miles in diversions already this year

It's the other drivers for me
Tailgating
Pot smells wafting into my car in motorway queues
Pulling out into oncoming traffic
Driving over the white lines

And the fear of speed cameras and constantly changing, badly signposted speed limits on roads you're diverted on to because the motorway is closed yet again . . .

Omg absolutely me too.

I get so tense now. Been driving since I was 17 and now nearly 53. Got rear ended by a HUGE lorry 18m ago which had a massive impact in every way.

Now horribly anxious as a passenger and exhausted by doing ALL the driving (compounded by worrying about ancient/crap cars always going wrong and causing hassle and financial stress).

Although I've got an explanation for the worst of it, I do think peri, potholes, blinding lights etc have all contributed. I don't enjoy driving now, I endure it waiting for the next fucking drama.

We weren’t driving in the dark much because the days were so long, but I don’t remember it being any different.

I think it's also the volume of traffic, even on little side streets there are cars parked on both sides of the road so there's not enough room for cars to pass one another, you have to continually pull over and take turns to get through the street. Then there are cars parked right up to the junction, so you can't get a clear view of the road you're trying to pull out onto.

Parking spaces are so narrow aswell, I dread parking in supermarket car parks, shopping centres and so on. I have to pull in and out a million times to get the car into the space, and thdn be soooo careful not to open my door into the car next to me.