Dickish driving behaviour

[chocolatesaltyballs22]

Is it just me or has the standard of driving on the roads in the UK got worse and worse? Have just done around a 4 mile round trip and encountered the following:-

Huge lorry parked on double yellows and blocking the road, causing a big queue of traffic

Someone doing an illegal u-turn and almost causing an accident

Car pulling out on me on a roundabout causing me to slam brakes on

Car in Tesco car park almost reversing into me until I sounded horn and then they stopped

I realise my driving probably isn't perfect but it feels like people don't give a shit on the roads any more and it's just breeding more bad driving behaviour because people think why should I drive carefully if no one else cares?! Maybe I'm just a bit grumpy today but bloody hell I feel like I have to be on high alert every time I get in the car!

Having seen some driving instructors around my area I can understand why drivers are a lot worse. The things some seem to be teaching are truly shocking and accident causing.

One incident was during rush hour, at a fairly small but very busy roundabout, a learner driver was in the lane to go straight ahead (no left turn and only wide enough for 1 car to go around at a time) and indicates to turn right. There were already cars in the right hand turn lane. The learner very nearly caused a nasty accident. Thankfully everyone was in such shock at what they were seeing they stopped.

It’s not he first time I’ve seen learners being taught to do this recently and they will be the cause of lot’s of accidents if they carry on.

@Vulpine, err...because you can't move over or slow down yourself. You must have very quiet motorways near you.

Joining The Motorway is a real MN rite of passage.

Most people drive far too close on the motorway. If you are in Lane 1 and so close to the vehicle in front that a car doing the same speed on the slip road cannot filter into the gap, you're the one at fault and should slow down a bit to make space. The safe spacing on a motorway is nearly 100m, 20 car lengths!

The 4 lane motorways have fucked things right up.
You try to do the right thing, keeping in the left lane. Butyou get stuck, then can’t pull out or back in. And then some twat pulls some shitty manoeuvre under taking by going into everyone’s “safe” 2 second space (although it’s never 2 seconds anymore as everyone under takes you when you leave that gap).

My dh has someone hit him up the arse yesterday as “their automatic brake didn’t work”.

It was a good job the dual carriageway was quiet when the dick driver did an emergency stop next to our car in the sliproad to lose her shit at us - very lucky she didn't cause a fucking massive pile up.

*Vulpine

Shwibble - why are you honking people so regularly?*

@Vulpine where in my post does it say or imply I regularly honk people? Suggest you learn to spell too.

I just walked into my local town centre and was tempted to start a thread on here OP. Mine is more about parking.

I live near a school and the kids come out at 3.20. At 2.40 when I went out, there were several cars already parked in my road and three of them had their engines running.

When I came back at about 3.10, one of them (there may have been more but I didn't notice) still had their engine running! Thanks for polluting the atmosphere, ladies.

And while in town someone decided to drive at me onto the pavement and park her car there. Told me to shut up when I protested.

"I hate the undertaking on motorways and the way they then cut in front of you

If they've got room to do this, you should probably move over tbh

No, if there's something in the inside lane, I'm not moving and out again They come along art 90mph and instead of going round me, decide to scream up behind the car I was going to overtake and pull out at the last impossible second. IN that scenario , I am the sensible driver, looking and planning ahead, they're just impatient and not paying attention to the road conditions.

There are middle lane sitters, and it often happens when a lane disappears and comes back - they don't move over (quickly enough or at all) when it comes back but there is never justification for undertaking. The only reason anyone does it is impatience and being too lazy to use the outside lane.

You should always let people join the motorway if you possibly can, which is almost always.

It’s very dangerous for them to stop. They always say to go along the hard shoulder if this happens but now a lot don’t have a hard shoulder.

People drive around aggressively, and that's the difference now, i was taught defensive driving but so many don't practice it, pull out, ignore parked cars and coming over into my lane not giving a shit I need to swerve, not using indicators and shit lane discipline. Then doing 40 in a dual-carriageway continuing through a 30mph village at 45mph.

I love a nice drive and I drive 10% above the speed limit on open roads, but overall behaviour and quality of driving is utter crap.

I'm trained to IAM level too, where my style of driving was taught, it was brilliant, I really recommend it.

No, if there's something in the inside lane, I'm not moving and out again

I am the sensible driver, looking and planning ahead

It depends how far ahead you're planning though, if you pull out because 'there's a lorry coming up relatively soon that I'll probably want to overtake' then that causes the issue.

You end up with a train of 20 cars sat in the overtaking lane (often too close together with erratic breaking which just brings the lane to a grinding halt). There is then a massive open space in the inside (driving) lane and, if someone uses this (which they should) then they get accused of undertaking.

I'm not saying this is what you do, but this is the problem as I see it.

@SimplySteveRedux I'm not IAM, but RoSPA and also an approved tutor. Do you have to retest every so often with IAM?

It's not mandatory @PhilCornwall1 but they do advise retests. They only cost £39 too. It's the best thing I've ever done with my driving, and it's truly the hundreds of little nuances that make me so much safer and my awareness is top notch.

I grew up in and learned to drive in an Asian megacity notorious for its crazy driving, and spend a lot of time in a part of southern Europe also well known for its crazy driving. I've also driven extensively in places like São Paulo and Johannesburg where normal people carry guns in cars because of the lawlessness, drink driving is the norm, and the police advise you to jump red lights at night because you might get carjacked if you stop.

The UK is different. While the rest of the world combines mind-bending recklessness not aimed at anyone in particular with poor technical driving skills, the UK seems to specialise in combining absent-mindedness and distraction (e.g. with phones) with naked aggression directed at other drivers. I hate driving here.

Agree with pp too about nobody observing give way rules on mini-roundabouts.

@otherpeoplesteens I have never been as scared in my life as I was in a taxi in Dubai so I know what you mean, but UK crap driving is a different kind of crapness!

I only passed my test in March. I am finding some parts of driving nerve wracking.

There is one road from Tesco, which is crowded, complicated and generally terrifying. I have had to slam on because of someone pulling out in front of me, or even someone just opening a car door right in front of me when I've nowhere to go and I've had someone so far up by exhaust that they can check my fuel gauge. I feel like I have had a lot of lucky escapes.

I worry that while I'm making mistakes due to lack of experience, I'm also suffering from not knowing how to respond to idiots like a large lorry pulling out in front of me on a roundabout

London is like a lawless state these days. Seen on almost every drive longer than a couple of miles:

Overtaking on blind bends
Overtaking in to oncoming traffic and swerving in at the last second
Overtaking on hatch markings
Flying up the wrong filter lane then barging in at the front when lights change/just before
Running red lights
Flying over zebra crossings in use at 30+mph
Phone use constantly
Speeding of 20+mph, some doing 50/60 in a 30 zone if traffic not too bad
Boy racers on North Circular/A13 anytime after 9pm
Driving through corner petrol stations to skip crossroad traffic
Occasional driving on pavements if traffic bad/slow light changes
Stopping in middle of road/double yellows to chat or run in to shop with hazards stuck on like they have the power to change solids in to gas

Lived here all my life and it’s changed so much in the past decade. It’s like genuinely no one give a fuck anymore (although drivers have been stoping to chat in the middle of the road round Tottenham way since I was a teenager, selfish twats).

*stopping

Scwibble - 'people who honk back when you honk at them' - it was the plural that led me to think it happened numerous times

@Fi1982 I have it on reliable authority, from more than one source, that even the police don't like driving in Bradford. Bradford is scary Bradford has confusing roads, complicated junctions and insane drivers. My driving instructor wouldn't voluntarily drive in Bradford. Taxi drivers from out of the city avoid it.

I think the highlight of my minimal experience was when I was waiting at a red light and a car shot past me and across the junction and disappeared around the corner at high speed. Though, to be fair, the four or five Audis that cut me up when my satnav took me through there were kind enough to mostly indicate.

@Vulpine - my son tells me that I don't honk enough. I keep getting disapproving looks from the passenger seat and being told I need to up my beep game.

The examples you mention are pretty much par for the course theses days. I see that behaviour (and a lot worse) every single day. And in my 20+ years of driving it’s always been like this. Nothing new, just more traffic and more examples of it.

Defensive driving approach is what you need to adopt. Assume everyone is a bad driver and out to cause an accident. Be aware of potential hazards early and you won’t be involved in so many near misses or frustrations. Many accidents could be avoided if drivers in the right weren’t so stubborn just to prove a point. Not that I’m excusing bad driving (it remains the main cause of accidents), but not allowing for it can be just as bad.

I think the things I see like drivers trying to get through a light turning right but because road is clogged they drive up alongside the person in front at an angle even though it is only one lane.

People who are in the wrong lane at roundabout then cut you up

Drivers who can't wait and cut down a side slip road then expect to be let out higher up😡

Okay, my sat nav hates me, and I went through Leeds town centre and got onto the wrong lane. I ended up on the motorway solo for the first time (going the wrong way!). So I'm on the slip road going ohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuck and I swear this little boxy car kept pace with me Cars behind me could get onto the motorway because there was a gap behind them and I ended up slowing down which I know I shouldn't do and got on to the motorway that way just before I hit the embankment. Looking back, in all honestly, I think I did everything right. It didn't help that the stupid boxy car accelerated like a bat out of hell once I got on to the motorway.

Seriously shaken now I am home. It didn't help that I ended up hopelessly confused around the arse end of South Leeds industrial estates which are grim even on a Saturday.