To think driving standards are generally awful?

[Jknow]

I’ve been driving for 24 years, and I realise that there’s a lot more traffic on the roads now than there used to be. Which is obviously going to mean a higher total number of people who don’t have a bloody clue, but honestly it seems endemic at the moment.

Things I’ve noticed in particular lately:

Indicators appear to have become entirely optional, not just at roundabouts but also pulling over or turning into a junction.

People don’t give way when they’re supposed to. When it’s your right of way and you’re approaching a parked car on the other side of the road, or one of those traffic calming bits where the road narrows and signs show it’s your right of way, drivers coming the other way seem to be increasingly taking the view that if they can nip in there first then they do so, causing you to stop when it’s your right of way.

Undertaking. Was on a fairly busy motorway today and saw two separate cars going like stink, cutting into whichever lane they could make the most progress in and undertaking time and time again.

People who seemingly have no idea how to reverse their car. I live in the countryside and on narrow lanes frequently have to reverse back bloody miles, when the person I meet coming the other way has a place much closer they could reverse to, because they sit there looking panicked and helpless rather than just bloody well reverse back.

I used to enjoy driving. I don’t anymore.

Too many apparently have no idea about turning right, I.e. at a right angle, not cutting across the corner. I’ve had two near misses when trying to turn out of my road, caused by idiots cutting corners.

As for driving far too close, especially at speed on motorways, I see it every time.

I think people also drive without licenses because there doesn’t seem to be harsh enough consequences sometimes. It’s frustrating to watch programs like Traffic Cops or Police Interceptors. They’re chasing a car that’s failed to stop, the driver is putting other road users at risk, sometimes crashing into innocent people .. the outcome is either the driver gets another ban, despite the fact they’re already banned and ignored it, sometimes more than once before, or “there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute” even though it’s all caught on camera! I don’t understand why drivers with no license or insurance are dealt with so leniently, or maybe I’m missing something 🤷‍♀️

There's a lot of cutting across roundabouts into the right hand lane when in the left hand lane and going straight on, so that if I'm turning right I have to hang back because I can see they're going to drift into my lane.

Also middle lane hoggers. Even when you go from the inside to the outside lane and back to overtake them.

And twats who drive up your arse when you're clearly in a queue of traffic and can't go any faster.

And men in (modern) sports cars who drive at 40mph on a straight A road - why not just drive a Nissan Micra if you're going to drive like that?

People don’t give way when they’re supposed to. When it’s your right of way and you’re approaching a parked car on the other side of the road....drivers coming the other way seem to be increasingly taking the view that if they can nip in there first then they do so, causing you to stop when it’s your right of way.

If they start the manoeuvre before you reach the line of parked cars it's their right if way, even if you have to stop let them complete the manoeuvre. Being on the 'clear' side doesn't give you automatic right of way.

Oh gosh yes those who cut the corner massively when turning into a side road. And then THEY always look annoyed!
Also the obsession with priority. Occasionally in certain situations the driver with priority would be better off just easing off a bit, if safe to do so after a mirror check, to let vehicles through and keep traffic flowing (can't think of an exact example but if there's some sort of unusual situation like a skip being unloaded or something blocking part of the road) but they just barrel through barking the whole well it's my priority thing. When it should just be about what's best for the particular situation. Not sure if that's making much sense but hopefully it does!

For me its the middle lane hoggers on the motorway. They are so scared of moving lanes but its not hard and its not scary to be switching lanes on a motorway just make sure there is plenty of space to do so. Hardly rocket science! Yet they cause all the issues on motorways because they just cannot move over to the left and overtake when they need to.

I also agree with others about not properly positioning your car when turning into a minor road and cutting the corner - fine if its completely empty but not when there is a car there or a car approaching.

And I think we should be like America - get rid of the roundabouts since hardly anyone uses them correctly. If its not the wrong lane they are in, its the inability to indicate, there is a stop line at the roundabout for a reason - you know stop your car and check its clear to go - sometime think they have a god given right to just carry on driving. If its empty I get it but not the middle of the day when there are plenty of other cars approaching.

Actually do most drivers even know what a stop line is - most drivers seem to ignore it, whether its at junctions, roundabouts or lights.

Perhaps for balance we should have a thread where we all to confess to driving mistakes we've made. We've all done something, even if minor, right?!

It wouldnt be a busy post. MN drivers are perfect and never make mistakes

My husband had to go on the speed awareness course. He told me that the person taking the course said "Most people who rather be called a bad parent than a bad driver!" So true lol.

I seem to be going against the tide here, but I find driving standards pretty good here in Perthshire and on the M90 down to Edinburgh!
Drivers will flash you to let you pull out if you are coming up behind a slow tractor on the dual carriageway, or tuck in to let you overtake if you approach at speed behind them. Signalling when entering roundabouts seems pretty much universal, (although exiting not so much).
Drivers on my local dual carriageway regularly pull over to allow traffic to join from slip roads. And in town, a long traffic queue will often pause to let someone join from a side street, or come out to turn right.

Absolutely. And I think people should be able to make minor errors - it's human- without people going all ragey on them.

But things that do make me inwardly seethe are angry driving, speeding, tailgating, and not paying attention to the road. That is more of a conscious choice - to drive angry, to fiddle with the radio or talk to your passenger and not look at the road ahead, or to try to bully other road users. Anyone can have a simple lapse of judgement but the above are more prolonged actions and also quite dangerous.

Dreamstate, roundabouts are safer and are part of vision zero strategy to cut road deaths
visionzeronetwork.org/about/what-is-vision-zero/

I was at a roundabout the other day and forgot to indicate left. I felt soo bad

For me its the middle lane hoggers on the motorway. They are so scared of moving lanes but its not hard and its not scary to be switching lanes on a motorway just make sure there is plenty of space to do so. Hardly rocket science!

There is another problem where I am actually overtaking someone in the middle lane, and making good speed at 70, or have pulled into the middle to be in the correct lane at a junction, and another driver comes up behind me appears to think I am hogging the middle lane, but because I am going at 70mph and they are driving at 80mph plus it appears I am moving slowly whereas they are actually going way too fast, and they tailgate me until I can safely pull to the left.

What do they expect me to do before that? Speed up and exceed the speed limit? No mate, there are speed cameras on that section. Pull over and crash into the car on the left? Levitate my vehicle so they can pass?

And yes the rage when someone makes a little silly error. OK it is irritating but instead of doing a five hour horn beep whilst shouting and having kittens just makes it worse. Just accept it might be a good driver on a bad day and move on. Drive defensively and be prepared for others to not always do what they should do.

I agree with some PPs saying SUVs are partly to blame - I had to drive one as a hire car while ours was being fixed, and apart from being unnecessarily wide, the visibility out the rear and side windows was awful, and the mirrors were poor as well. I'd say I'm an adequate driver - not great, not terrible, but I made some real mistakes on a new-to-me roundabout in that thing as I couldn't see the lane markings or other traffic properly and ended up accidentally cutting people up.

I'm now back in my lovely tank of a Skoda Octavia and driving is a nice experience again. And I've been round that tricky roundabout with no issues whatsoever.

I don't think you can generalise with SUVs, some have excellent visbility, much better than other cars. Probably safest to say that some cars have better visibility than others. And the one we used to have had amazing fuel consumption, and nor was it overly large - it was still very much dwarved by parking next to a Range Rover! Also we live on a narrow country lane with passing places and I could see over the hedges if anything was coming the other way, well in advance.

Two thing bug me

lane discipline on roundabouts - ffs move over as you go round and indicate!

lack of patience- I got beeped repeatedly recently for refusing to unsafely overtake a cyclist on a blind bend! Be patient with other road users - especially cyclists!

I don't think there's more traffic in my area since 2019, there seems to be less congestion so I don't think that's triggered a recent change.

I think a lot of people de-skilled during lockdowns from either lack of practice or just being complacent about having empty roads to themselves.

Indicators have certainly died. I find that makes me more cautious/ hestitant at junctions because reading the behaviour of the vehicle is so critical and I'm often glad I hung back because my instinct was right and it wasn't safe to manouver.

The going ridiculously slow is a trend of 2022 with people thinking about fuel economy over the flow of traffic. You don't expect modern cars to be doing 45-50mph in free flowing traffic and it causes sharp braking and heavy goods vehicles to make abrupt decisions to change lanes into faster flowing traffic. Failure to make progress is an offence and different to adapting to road conditions. Today I've been car 2 in a trail merging from a perfectly good slip road onto a free-flowing dual carriageway at 43mph by my speedometer. It is dangerous to the flowing traffic and the bunching from reduced stopping distance makes it hard for cars 2, 3, 4+ to accelerate to the flow of traffic.

My milage is fairly light but in the past 2 months I've encountered the immediate aftermath of 4 disruptive accidents either prior to or as emergency vehicles responded to the scene. One, regrettably was probably a fatality due to the scale of response and road closures that followed. Weather conditions were good.
In that time I've also had a vehicle u-turn around me as I drove straight on at 30mph, and vehicle decide without indicating to turn right around a vehicle in the space to turn right and cutting up an oncoming vehicle. That's aside from the standard range of twattery.

Some vehicles are very chunky and blind. I like having a good range of vision. Poor road markings and signage don't help. Blazing, blinding lights also don't help... then there's the ones driving in the dark unlit on their DLRs with no lighting to their rear.

There always were jokes about Audis/ BMWs but that style of driving is now widespread. There's enough crap driving that my untrained DCs often notice and comment on it!

I agree, I would say this is down to a combination of inexperienced drivers and commuters clashing. There some serious ditherers.
Another problem I've noticed is pedestrians just striding across the road rather than waiting, letting traffic stop. Now they just walk across without taking notice of the car positions.
It's all very chaotic and entitled.

If you think it’s bad in England, you have no idea how bad it is in SE Asia where I live. Seatbelts for children are hardly used so children of all ages just moving around inside the car, phones often used brazenly, people drive having had several drinks and the roads are awfully designed with exits of highways merging with lanes joining the road so they cross over. Motorbikes are also everywhere and wiz right up to you, beep or bang on your bonnet to get you to move. We are in the top 3 countries in the world for fatal accidents and it’s terrifying. I always notice how much safer the roads are when I’m back in the UK.

Red apple, this may be, but if you're driving safely should be too much if a problem.

That may be if people actually use them correctly but since alot of people don't then its more of a hazard

I tend to agree that driving standards are poorer (slow people, middle lane hogs etc) but they are still vastly better than New Zealand, where I am from.

Also some battles aren't worth fighting. My DP can be a bit of a middle lane hog but other than that he drives pretty safely and I think he is starting to realise himself, it's not worth me nagging at him.

I am not perfect and definitely make mistakes, not least because I only drive maybe once a month! But I learned in London and am super conscious when I do drive as a result. The road layouts are sometimes so confusing, just have to be patient with people. I don't see the point in beeping at others and hate it

I've been driving longer than you (over 30 years) and this is nothing new. There have always been terrible drivers around.