That everywhere has got busier?!

[JudesBiggestFan]

I can't decide if it's because I'm older and less patient or whether everywhere is just busier? I find myself frustrated so often...sitting in traffic on the way to work, on the way back, on the school run. Queuing for hours in the barbers to have my sons' haircuts no matter when I go, never being able to find a parking space when I go to to the supermarket/cinema, shops just mad all the time! I live in a decent sized town near Birmingham but then I've always lived here...it just seems so busy! Is there anywhere in the Uk that feels more peaceful that's still hear a big town for work etc?! I feel I would be so much calmer if I was t always in a bloody queue!

All the above, plus these days it seems everyone has to be out somewhere all the time.
Not many people seem to just enjoy being at home, doing hobbies or reading, they’ve got to be on the roads , going to the shopping centre for something to do or going to some sort of event.

Cornwall is getting like this now, especially around Truro. Developments with hundreds of houses are popping up everywhere and the roads are gridlocks without the seasonal traffic.

Gridlocked

We've moved out of the UK for this very reason. It's just so busy all the time, everyone's in such a rush, green spaces are all being covered with soulless housing estates and traffic is unbearable. We lived in a quiet beauty spot which became ruined by mass tourism. It's sad to see. DH's mental health was awful in the UK, now we are somewhere the roads are quiet, there's less commercialism and life moves more slowly, he's off treatment entirely.

Northern tourist city and Same here. Land is sparse so lots of apartment buildings rather than houses being built which can suddenly add 200 plus people to a community. I can think of at least 6 of these developments in the last year yet no extra schools, doctors, dentists. Class sizes upto x32 and two per year and at least a 3week wait for a doctors appointment.
The houses are obviously much needed though as they all sell so it's just the infrastructure that can't keep up fast enough.
We live in a tourist area too so are used to busy and queues, it keeps us in jobs but it's getting to the point now where it's unmoving on weekends, especially the last xmas market can't have been fun for anyone, visitors or locals.

the immigrants aren't leaving, the babies aren't disappearing.

Actually we need more babies (and our immigrant populations have higher birth rates) as babies = lovely future tax payers.

As our population expands due to longer lifespans (actual birth rates are falling, population growth is down to us living longer) we need tax payers to be able to afford to continue with the NHS and Social Care, which have already suffered dreadfully. Either that, or yes, we have to accept higher taxation of the few young people we do have.

It's a pretty shitty burden to place on our young people but I am not sure what the answer is......

This makes for an interesting read - 93% of the UK is not urban...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18623096

@2020newme I was thinking this only yesterday. We went to a National Trust place further North and it was just massive....acres and acres of land. And on the drive North just fields as far as the eye could see either side of the motorway. Meanwhile all the new housing estates are being built on tiny areas of land,small over-priced and really lacking any privacy. The neighbour issues must be terrible! I love our countryside but you wonder how long our greenbelt laws can survive? And should they? Playing devil's advocate but while new towns could be built,real communities, if some of that land was sacrificed.

There are plenty of run down towns that need to be upgraded and empty shops converted to housing, not destroying yet more countryside. Also 300,000 immigrants a year adds to the problem.

I was out of the country for many decades and when I returned I was shocked. Really shocked. Everything was over-crowed, run down, dirty. Houses where there used to be agricultural fields and lovely little country lanes. People being nasty to each other in public. Shouting even. Trash, graffiti and vandalism to bus shelters etc. Metal shutters on shops. We used to keep Britain tidy and were so polite to each other.

From wiki;

"The boiling frog is a fable describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of sinister threats that arise gradually rather than suddenly".

When my plane took off from Heathrow I looked down knowing I would never return. It made me very sad but grateful I somewhere better to go.

My family can trace our family back to at least the 1100's in England. We were Knights, fought in all the wars. We defended our shores. Worked hard at everything we did - pulled our weight. I'd intended to retire in England....

England is not my country anymore.

Strange as we were saying everywhere is quieter now. No queues in shops and never anyone in restaurant even on a Sunday lunchtime which used to be heaving.

YANBU, it's so busy everywhere, it's also claustrophobic. huge waits for Drs appointments, hospital appts etc.

Yes everywhere is busier because there are far too many people in the UK. People say we need more because people are living longer but the country can't even cope with the numbers now so why are we adding to it all the time?

There is not enough housing, the schools can't cope, the hospitals can't cope, GP surgeries can't cope, trains and tubes are ridiculously (sometimes dangerously) overcrowded. The roads are a joke. Just about every time we drive somewhere we get stuck in traffic. Journeys that should take half an hour take an hour or longer.

All true! But what is the answer?! I feel like Brexit is our only national debate but there is so much else that needs to be discussed that affects our quality of life.
Immigration is part of the debate but longer lifespans, changing lifestyles, lack of investment in services, outdated planning rules...all of this and so much more should be being discussed. Things could be so much better than they are I think.

but the country can't even cope with the numbers now so why are we adding to it all the time?

Because if we don't massively increase the birth rate, increase the number of younger people, there will be nobody paying taxes that will support the enormous number of older people. The few taxpayers available won't be able to generate enough money to adequately fund Old Age Pensions, the NHS or Social Services.

The only reason we have got away with it so far is because we had immigrants from Eastern Europe (largely Catholic) and the Middle East/Asia who have a much higher birth rate than us indigenous white Brits.

If that stops I probably won't get a pension and neither will millions of others..............

Prevegen4U I grew up in an English village in the 1960s and 70s and it wasn't like that then, bless you. Either you are 150 or nostalgia has got to you

Is it still a city the size of Newcastle-upon-Tyne being added every year population-wise?

Probably Aquila.

But a city of OAPs........

Of course the UK isn't evenly full - thank goodness. I live somewhere that isn't overcrowded, and that was one of the big reasons for getting out of the south-east. Lots of lovely places to go, wonderful scenery here. Public transport not good and would need to commute if I didn't work from home - but then everyone in the south-east has to do that anyway.

not telling you where it is though...

we don't need to get rid of anyone, we just need to be prepared to pay for all the extra people in our 'house'. But we won't, hence the problem.

Useful info from AGE UK that probably explains it all better than I can

www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/reports-and-publications/later_life_uk_factsheet.pdf

Stop driving for a start

After listening to much Ephebiphobia from some over 70s, they said they will not be leaving money in their wills to anything that will benefit young people, how the youth blame them for house prices - how interest rates are low for their savings and their mortgage interest rates were high. I ended up having to explain to them that their tax hasn't been put away in a pot/savings scheme for them - that their tax supported the old people when they were young.

They were raging about the younger generation telling them to give up their home - they aren't well enough to move, they don't have or want removal, legal and stamp duty costs and are socially attached to the area. They complain about the younger generation expecting them to be a postie for their packages, they shop outside working hours to avoid being pushed about and tutted at for being slow and are fed up of youth not offering them seats and are tutting at people in the way of their tank prams on the bus, how they had to lift an umbrella buggy, shopping and children up steps in a bus and stand for old people. I couldn't argue that it's like they are second class citizens, we have all seen "OK Boomer" on social media and polling shows 25-40 year olds don't want to give up seats to the vulnerable, morals have changed.

I live in the same part of the world as you, OP. At 44, I think that if I can live for another 20 - 25 years I'll feel like I have got the country to myself

And yes, the single biggest contribution you could make to improving your local environment for you and everyone else would be to stop driving.

Two reasons - as a pp said, we have a growing population (not just immigration, people are having lots of kids, too).

Second reason, people work in less regimented ways now, so they're nto necessarily out of the way 9-5 but working from home, going out in the middle of the morning, etc. So there are more people around all of the time, it's not as quiet at certain times as it used to be.

more children are needed to care for the elderly maybe robots can take care of us when we're old and grey

People are buying more and more cars, when we moved to our house 15 years ago there was one car per household on the whole,

On our road now we have 2 houses with no cars, 2 with 1 car and the rest all have 2 or 3 cars as children have grown up and learnt to drive. I think more young people are having cars rather than using public transport and as more houses have two adults working full time now than they did 15-20 years ago so more houses have two cars.

Added to that the massive new housing estate that has been built and no new schools means that the roads round the existing schools have more congestion.

I agree OP, although I avoid busy places.

Went to Tesco at 8.30am this morning though- it was packed!