Entitlement of drivers

[HarryPotterDucks]

I’m not from the uk so I have learnt to drive elsewhere.

the entitlement of drivers is shocking.

park on double yellows is ok when hazards lights are on.

drive on the hard shoulder when there’s slow moving traffic

drive in lanes marked X on the motorway

speed

FaceTime and watching videos whilst driving.

kids not wearing seat belts

res light jumpers

tinted from windows

illegal number plates

etc

AIBU ti get so annoyed by this?

Having driven extensively in both Australia and the UK give me the UK anytime

I have seen most of the things you mention from time to time but not often and I think incidence is lower now than it used be 20 or 30 years ago.

I wouldn’t go around comparing UK driving favourably to Australian, though. Road traffic fatality rates are 50% higher per capita in Aus.

*unfavourably

I would 100% compare uk drivers to aus.

in aus it’s much safer.

death rates are just a raw stastic. Their cars are generally older, further to hospitals as a lot of people live in rural areas etc.

i would much rather drive in aus…. Drivers follow the rules, aren’t as entitled, cyclists respected and much safer for your children.

this is also reflected in insurance

Indeeeedddddd. The most laughable one was being told I'd made someone 20 mins late for work! They wouldn't back down even when I pointed out it took less than 10 minutes to WALK that stretch of road.

I feel bad for them. Scammed out of road tax, it doesn’t exist.

I pay vehicle tax, as well as cycle.

One time (as a passenger) we stopped at a junction and I looked over at the next car to see a driver eating a bowl of cereal. A bowl of fucking cereal......whilst driving 🤯

Don't ever drive in Italy, or France will you! Or Vietnam.

Well as my BIL was seriously hurt in a car accident in Australia by someone speeding, prehaps I'm not the best person to ask.

I see a fair bit of this in our affluent Home Counties town. The main offenders are parking on double yellows with hazards on, and parking far too close to a junction.

I’ve driven extensively in Australia and the UK. I think Brits drive better & more considerately in built up areas (by quite a long way) but atrociously on motorways. Relative to Australia I frequently see seemingly limited merging skills, an absence of distance judgement, and no one seems to perform a shoulder check before changing lanes.

OMG - a whinging Aussie Mancunian - does not get much worse than that!

As someone who has driven in both countries and lived in both countries and not British. Australian driving far worse - the use of indicators is not optional!

Having worked in a major ED in both countries - same number of idiots but far more pissed ones in Oz

I've never seen anyone other than emergency services driving on the hard shoulder or x lameness. I've rarely seen kids not in appropriate restraints - most use extended rear facing until 5 ish then boosters until 10 or so. I've never seen a driver watching their phone nor tinted front windows. Illegally spaced plates are a city thing, yes people speed but the only people in double yellows are disabled (legal)

I live in Birmingham and I see all of the things OP mentioned frequently, especially driving on hard shoulders and using closed lanes. The hard shoulder driving is likely down to confusing rules whereby sometimes it’s okay to use the hard shoulder when there’s traffic and other times it’s not. Drivers should definitely check though as it’s displayed on the electronic signs whether you can use them or not.

Is it not quite easy to tell what a hard shoulder is. Has a big red X in the lane?

I was on the m60 and it was clear the lane with no traffic was the hard shoulder.

I'm nowhere near the OP and I see this sort of stuff regularly. In rural areas, I often see people driving with babies on their knee, using phones, drinking, no insurance... It's frightening the risks people take with their own lives and their children's, let alone other road users.

Yes I see it a lot, especially the hazards on! So many people put hazards on when they’re stopped somewhere they shouldn’t with no real emergency and it’s okay but it can be misleading especially when it’s on busy A roads or worse the hard shoulder

Drivers think they own the road and are indestructible, it makes for some very arrogant and selfish behaviours

I haven’t seen the vast majority of what you’ve described.

I lived all over the world and the UK, y a country mile, has the most considerate drivers. I got a shock in the US where absolutely nobody lets you out a junction and they go absolutely beserk if you try and change lanes and take longer than 0.2 seconds

do you prefer it when middle class people use disabled parking bays?

How can you tell they have no insurance??

I drink when driving (as in water)

My car came with a factory fitted front window tint. Can’t be dangerous if the manufacturer is fitting them from
new.

"death rates are just a raw stastic. Their cars are generally older, further to hospitals as a lot of people live in rural areas etc."
I don't know about Australian cars being older, but the bit about rural areas is wrong. The vast majority of Australians live in cities, it's one of the most urbanised countries in the world.

Is it not quite easy to tell what a hard shoulder is. Has a big red X in the lane?

The signs are only on if there's a variable speed limit.
If the speed limit is 70 at that time and the hard shoulder is closed, there's no signs to tell you that.

They do it on the M6 a lot. There'll be variable speed limits every day for 2 weeks with the hard shoulder used as a 4th lane then randomly one day, at the same time with equally heavy traffic, they'll revert it back to a 3 lane motorway.

I live in Manchester and commute daily to Liverpool. Most of these things are daily occurrences on one of the four motorways that make up the drive. And there's at least a couple of crashes a week

Lack of indicating and drivers weaving in and out of traffic undertaking to get a bit further ahead is rife along with aggressive tailgating. Some serious speeding too. And few people take notice if local speed restrictions are showing.

I just get on with my own drive and don't sweat it.

I see all of these and more every day I drive to work. I'd add

• not indicating
• swerving across lanes to exit at the last minute
• Lane dodging at speed to get past drivers who are allowed (think 80-90 mph)
• on their mobile with kids in the back (90% of the time women driving 4x4s)
• speeding in residential areas with 20mph restrictions