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!

People say on here all the time that it's easy to join a motorway on a slip road but it isn't, because there are some really dangerous drivers around. There's no obligation to move over, and I often don't (and often can't anyway because there's someone in the next lane over) but I will either speed up or slow down to let them on if I can. But sometimes, people just stay alongside you so you can't get on. Or, if the slip road has two lanes, they overtake you and get on before you do and make it difficult for you to get on.

Generally I am quite shocked at the driving at the moment. It's pretty awful and there are quite a few incidents where if I (or cars I can see in front of me) didn't back down, there would be an accident - people just pulling across other people or not giving way when an obstruction is on their side, etc. They just drive on regardless and the only way to avoid an accident is to stop. They assume everyone will want to avoid an accident - well in most cases that is true, but what happens when they meet someone as aggressive as they are?

And then of course you have all the people playing on their mobile phones, and I bet by the law of averages quite a few of them are MNers.

BlaueLagune It was really scary for me. Unfortunately, I'm a target as I still have my P plates on. I could easily have been run off the road.

Most of the time people see the P plates and acknowledge that I may struggle a little, so understand if I don't have the experience to react correctly to some of the idiots I end up driving past, but sometimes they work against me.

I think the rise of Chelsea tractors has made it worse, because people think they are protected and others are more likely to get out of the way. The end of dedicated traffic police and the courts believing all the excuses people come up with does not help.

My outrage list as follows:

1. Tailgaters. There is no need for aggressive, bullying driving. Hate seeing this done to learners in particular.
2. People who toddle along at 30mph in 50mph zones in perfect driving conditions. They make it very, very difficult to not become that which I hate (see above)
3. People who can’t/won’t use both lanes in a zip merge, causing traffic to back up and resulting in chaos at preceding junctions.
4. Manoeuvre then indicate is not a thing! Twats.

What highway code? Most people seem to not know the basic rules of the road or maybe they just don't care. I was driving in fog at 6am in the morning this week, a van right up my bumper. I was in a 30mph zone driving at 29/30. Even at this speed my visibility was 'just' okay for my stopping distance, should I need to. My turning would come up on the left soonish so I indicate and start slowing.... the car behind me decides to overtake on the wrong side of the road, revving round a bend in the road. Another thing that happens daily which irritates me much is cars on the left driving through roundabouts and not giving way to cars on the right; has this changed? They seem to drive straight into the roundabout often blocking it with no care in the world, completely oblivious to any wrongdoing. Maybe we should only have a 10 year licence and have to re-take it every decade. Don't get me started on speeding drivers!!!

Every driver should be retested every 5-10 years. And mobile phones blocked in cars except for emergency/breakdown calls. I guarantee the roads would be a lot safer.

I think driving is way better on average now than it was when I passed my test 30+ years ago but there is a lot more traffic on the road so there may be a few more bad drivers overall. It’s always been bad in the run up to Christmas, though. The weather gets bad, people get impatient and annoyed with the crowds and more people are drink driving.

I only passed my test in June and I officially hate van drivers big or small (no offense to any van drivers here) they just pull out without any consideration or tailgate to force you hurry up even when you are driving at the speed limit 😡😡😡😡😡

Driving has become worse. The amount of drivers who think stopping at a red light or indicating is optional ...

People legitimately don't know how to indicate correctly any more, I think that's the one I hate the most and I see most often.

It’s always been bad in the run up to Christmas, though. The weather gets bad, people get impatient and annoyed with the crowds and more people are drink driving

This. It's particularly bad at this time of year.

I hate the tailgaters who are tailgating you when there is a line of traffic in front of you which is why you are travelling the speed you are. Sitting so close to the back bumper you can't see their number plate. I just make sure there is a nice big gap between me and the car in front so if they run into the back of me, I don't hit the person in front. I am fairly sure the stopping distance for any vehicle, no matter how brilliant their brakes are or how good the driver believes their reaction time to be, is a smidgen more than 1 metre at 45mph !

I found myself saying the other day: “Did everyone else take a different driving test to me or something?”

And then realised yes. They probably did
Although the rules of the road have remained the same, I forget that there are people on the road who would have taken a very different driving test, a very long time ago
I find the most annoying/unsafe things I see are either very young drivers or very old drivers - although yeah there are shit drivers of all ages, those two groups seem to be the worst in my experience!

It's not the run up to Christmas though, it's all the time. The other day traffic was slow moving for some reason and a few cars drove over the intersection and blocked the pedestrian crossing. Why do that? Traffic was stationary and no sign of movement but no they had to block us from crossing the road

@Rockmeamaryllis

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

That suggests that you are driving in the wrong lane - pull over to the left!

@HowlsMovingBungalow

Have you never noticed the give way markings at the bottom at the bottom of the slip road - those on the dual carriageway have right of way!

@ThePolishWombat the driving test is certainly very different from when I took mine.

I dont think the issue is with the test itself. The problem for older drivers is when reaction times slow, spatial awareness declines, night vision is reduced. My DM has just given up driving at the age of 80. This after a string of relatively minor incidents undoubtedly largely caused by her age.

There are now more cars on the road. This time of year more people are driving on unfamiliar roads as they go shopping, visit family and friends. The time of year means people are driving in unfamilar poor light and weather conditions.

My favourites are:

• not using roundabouts correctly/not indicating (or even worse, indicating right WHILE EXITING!!!)
• hogging the middle lane
• hogging the inside lane and not moving for joining traffic
• hogging the fast lane while not actually overtaking (‘but I’m driving at the speed limit’ oh do fuck off)
• not letting others to zip in/change lanes
• indicating to turn last minute so that traffic in the other direction also waiting to turn miss their chance
• cars (especially grey ones....it’s always the grey ones!!) not turning their lights on in reduced vis conditions

All of the above reduces road capacity and puts other drivers in danger. I think it’s down to the volume of traffic increasing while roads stay just as shit but also people in general becoming increasingly lazy, selfish and self absorbed 🤷🏻‍♀️

Not indicating is my particular pet hate. If everyone indicated properly, especially on roundabouts it would speed up the flow of traffic. Add on the poor road positioning that seems to be the norm now and it’s impossible to tell where people intend to exit roundabouts so it’s much harder than it should be to get on them, especially on unfamiliar ones.
Tailgating for absolutely no reason also infuriates me so much that sometimes I involuntarily lift my foot off the accelerator slightly . I had someone so close behind me for three miles of my journey home one day last week that I only caught glimpses of his headlights. We were in heavy traffic, I was keeping a safe distance between me and the van in front yet he seemed to need to be virtually touching me. Eventually I turned right and while waiting to get through the junction I saw him go past, right up the tail of the van that had been in front of me. Surely that must be a stressful way to drive?
Unfortunately my DH drives like an idiot in many ways, it’s a source of great friction, my FIL is even worse, getting behind the wheel turns them into arrogant twats, I have never understood why. Sometimes I just close my eyes and hope for the best.

I forgot people with broken headlights. The number of cyclops cars on the road with their single headlight on full beam amazes me. And people who drive in pouring rain on sidelights (why not just light a candle land put it in your windscreen? It would be as helpful).

We were on a three lane road in the NE, traffic on the slip road, OH pulled into the middle lane to allow traffic to join. Fine, until one car joined then started to pull straight into the middle lane, she was so close that I could count her spots.
There's almost an indirect correlation between driving standards and population, the population goes up, standards go down.

I’ve got another one. Not putting lights on, yes your car has daylight running lights. But that’s not always back lights and actual headlights twat.

Omg yes the roundabouts!!
I live in an area with quite a big American community thanks to the USAF base down the road. They simply do not know how to navigate a roundabout because they don’t have them in the US!!
I tried to tell a friend: “It’s pretty simple, you just give way to the right, and indicate for your exit”....nope. She still just goes and hopes for the best

I lost my shit the other day at a car straddling the merging lanes at each and every traffic light we got through. Not even merging, just immediately cutting up the car next to us to ensure no-one could get past them, causing massive tailbacks. It’s not like they would have “lost their place” in rush hour traffic

I don’t drive but see quite a lot of shit as a pedestrian. So much so I’ve considered wearing a go pro and working for the DVLA! The amount of speeding, running red lights, people with headlights out, and dangerous driving I see is ridiculous. I have taken to walking across a crossing as soon as the light turns red so that people who were clearly going to speed through it have to emergency break. It happens so much and I can always tell which car is going to drive through the red. The look on their faces is priceless. I couldn’t care less if one of them hit me as they would have been driving illegally. You have to slow down when it turns to amber don’t you?

Ooh forgot this jem until I read a PP about not indicating. I was crossing a dead end residential side road and checked to see if anyone was indicating to turn down it. No, great! As I was almost across the road I had some cow beep at me repeatedly and stick her finger up when I turned around. I’m not one for gesticulating but I did the wanker gesture back at her as she didn’t indicate. Pedestrians also have a right of way once on the road if they were crossing first and then the car turns in. I was literally 2 steps away from being on the pavement, impatient entitled mare!