Does driving get crazier the further south you go?

[Tailtwister]

For the first time in a good number of years I was driving on the M25/M4 today and was taken aback by some of the crazy driving I witnessed. Undertaking and cutting people up seemed the norm, along with tail gating and generally dangerous driving.

I was amazed at how aggressive the general driving style was. Granted, you see plenty of dodgy driving in Scotland too, but today almost everyone seemed to have a death wish! Is this normal or have I caught a particularly bad day? If this is the normal state of affairs I'm amazed there aren't huge numbers of accidents.

[ouryve]

It's pretty crazy on any busy road. The A1 and A1M around Washington and Gateshead can be terrifying.

[BewitchedBotheredandBewildered]

Well, if we're going international, Lima is pretty exciting, they drive and overtake four and five abreast on a three lane highway.

Saigon is amazing for the loads that people pile on to bicycles and scooters; 10 foot long poles, 100s of footballs, 8x4 foot sheets of wood, crates of live pigs, ditto ducks. Sometimes the load blocks the driver's view! And they completely ignore traffic lights.

I've heard Bangkok is even worse.

[Onesleeptillwembley]

Lady West Yorkshire is a very large and varied place. The fact you lump it all together shows a lack of knowledge of at least some of the areas. Bimbling around Skipton is completely different to, as stated before, parts of, say, Bradford. London driving holds no fears for me, driving around the city I live on the outskirts of is horrendous at times. There's no comparison. I've driven for 30 years, lived in a few countries, driven in many more.

[Owllady]

the M1 is the worst motorway ime

I found Kent driving fine. I live in the home counties now and I have never been overtaken or swore at so much tbh whilst in the car! That said people are more polite as well and will always thank you if you let them through etc. so I like to think the aggressive people don't live here which isn't true as I had some woman stick her fingers up at me before she realised she knew me and I did want to get out of my car and slap her but I am not a person of violence

[Owllady]

I live the A1 too and find that okay tbh, but we use the cambs/beds/herts bit

sex shop central!

[Owllady]

My husband had a car accident in India, his taxi drove into the side of a lorry. They all got out just before the lorry started driving off, taxi still lodged in side He said it was awful. But not quite as awful as his Air India flight

[BewitchedBotheredandBewildered]

Oh God Kim my daughter did that top-of-the-bus trip!
Thank goodness I didn't know till it was over (shudder)

[noblegiraffe]

I call the M4 'My First Motorway' because it is so easy to drive on! Wide lanes, hardly any traffic most of the time. Mind in neutral.

Driving up north was awful, one of the motorways (can't remember which) seems to have speed cameras every two minutes, my sat nav was going crazy with the beeping.

[slug]

I refuse to drive anywhere in what a colleague once described as "The Kebab Belt" i.e. anything to the east of Italy.

[LadyBryan]

Thanks awfully onesleeptowembley I do live here and travel throughout regularly I am regularly in Bradford, Leeds, Castleford, Wakefield, Skipton, Keighley, Addingham, Otley, Ilkley and all surrounding villages.

There is absolutely nothing to compare driving around Bradford with driving around London.

[Onesleeptillwembley]

I agree, there's nothing to compare driving round Bradford with around London. Parts of Bradford are infinitely worse.

[Scrounger]

M62 / M60 is scary, I used to drive on it every day during rush hour and 'drove with confidence'. Now I live more rurally and only drive on it every so often and it leaves me a gibbering wreak. I think the northbound m60 junction where the M62 joins it is horrendous. It has one motorway joining another using two slips in and then 1/4 mile later there is a busy turning off to Worsley / Eccles, cars are crossing two / three lanes at a time whilst coming on / going off. It feels like the Wacky Races or Star Wars when the rebels are attacking the Death Star.

BTW - Skipton is in North Yorkshire - Gateway to the Dales.

[SilverOldie]

I lived in London and drove every day to my office. People who have said you have to be a confident driver are correct. You have to be assertive without being aggressive.

[LadyBryan]

Scrounger - almost, the outskirts are classed as West. That's my address

The post office had a bit of a fit when we mistakenly put "North" on our address.

[Scrounger]

Ooh you don't want to upset the Post Office.

[wintertimeisfun]

A406 (north circular) & M25 stink. tailgate city :)

[Lovecat]

I love driving in London and regularly cross it/go into the centre. I live in the area that came top of the 'no insurance, no licence, no MOT' survey the police did a few years back and if you can survive that (a friend who visited from Delhi said it was on a par with that) everything else seems really slow and ponderous. YY to everything AmandaP said about drivers out of London waiting seven years til it's clear to go... my BIL came down from Nottingham to collect some furniture and I was giving him directions in his hire van - he actually slowed down approaching a clear green light 'in case it might change' [THE RAGE]

I regularly drive up to my mum's via the M6/M56/M53 and I'd agree with Gobbolino, no-one seems to signal or give way to anybody. That bit on the M6 between Congleton and Knutsford is a bastard.

[patatasbravas]

Everyone said Rome was bad and it was just mildly chaotic, then we went to Sicily and I was genuinely gripping onto my seat squeaking in fear.

When I did manage to open my eyes, I saw people doing three point turns on the motorway, the give ways are in English so completely ignored by all the locals, the horns, the scooters, they either drive at 10 or 100 mph, they just fire onto the roundabouts...

NEVER AGAIN

[WireCat]

I am in SE Essex. Many drivers are nutters.

I have family from elsewhere. They always notice how aggressive the driving is here.

[burberryqueen]

i am in Wales and you notice the difference as soon as you are on the M4.

[WireCat]

The m4 past Reading (towards London) changes to super aggressive.
Joining the m25 from the m4 is a joy (as is vice versa).

Lorries in the m25 panic me. They indicate & pull out. No waiting. I am going faster then them & can go faster.

The a13 is bonkers.

[grovel]

The drivers of County Durham are kamikaze.

[burberryqueen]

oooh the A13....nasty...

[TedMoseby]

I used to commute on the M25 every day so didn't notice it but now I live in Devon I notice how craaazy it is as soon as I hit it. People just pick a lane (say 3rd lane) and sit in it at 60mph.

That said, driving down here is just as insane. People here fly out of side junctions and stamp on the break when they're already in the road that I'm driving along. They park in ridiculous places-e.g. opposite a parked car on an empty road creating chaos and drive super fast on very narrow roads that they can't possibly see very far ahead on.

I'm confident and I drive a lot for my job, but I find it so stressful. In my ideal world, everyone would just follow the rules and then there'd be far less road rage and stress.