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.

The lack of indicators is the one I notice the most. So many accidents, especially on roundabouts could be avoided if people just put on their indicators.

I have to be honest, I'm shit at reversing down a road. It's something that I never practised during driving lessons so the one time I needed to do it, I hit the curb and damaged my tyre.

Agree - it's really really scary! Totally crazy, over aggressive driving. I would have thought that working from home would have meant less cars on the road rushing but it seems even worse these days

It certainly seems to be. I wondered if a large portion of the population either on furlough or wfh during Covid has meant people have got out of practice

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'm not very often driven by anyone else, but I do find it embarrassing being a passenger when someone is committing these driving crimes!

We've also had a few scary incidents which we've suggested might be something to do with people playing car video games. People aggressively swerving in front of us, driving at 100mph on the motorway, driving through red lights as if they're playing Grand Theft auto!

Haven't rtft yet, but my current bugbear is all to do with lights -

Cars, switch your bloody full beams off when a car is coming the opposite direction.

Cyclists, wtf are you thinking cycling in the dark with NO LIGHTS and NO HI-VIZ??? I nearly ran over two this morning on an NSL road.

yep! It was pretty mortifying spending the entire journey from London to Birmingham in the middle lane 😅

sickly This is why I nearly always drive!

Amazed that no-one's mentioned my pet hate here in Glasgow - super-inconsiderate (and illegal) parking - every day I see people double-parked, parked on the zig zags by crossings and on the double yellow lines by junctions - seemingly without any thought about how that might affect everyone else's visibility/ ability to get past. I know it rains a lot, but that's no excuse for not finding a safer place to park then walking a few seconds more to get to your destination.
On a more positive note, I have witnessed lots of other more considerate driving - people letting each other indicate and pull out into the lane in front of them, for example (often as a direct result of the shitty double parking).

A PP commented about people using the wrong lanes on roundabouts.
There's a roundabout near here where the markings have recently been changed and you can go right from either lane entering it. I was surprised when a number of vehicles had done this but then noticed a new road traffic sign showing that this was correct.
I try to be a courteous driver: I give way; allow traffic to pull out from side roads; try not to block junctions when in queuing traffic so other vehicles can turn in; give plenty of room when passing cyclists and acknowledge fellow drivers who give way to me. Most of the time you don't gain anything by driving aggressively.

I was one of the people who mentioned wrong positioning in roundabouts and it definitely is wrong positioning, it can happen when there's a dual carriageway and both lanes approaching the roundabout go straight on, say I'm in the right hand lane I've got somebody in the left-hand lane possibly just a little bit ahead of me and we're both going straight on, they try and take as straight a line across the roundabout as possible so instead of going around in the left-hand lane they just cut straight across the right hand lane close to the central island which means they cut me up.

There are also a few roundabouts near me where two lanes go into three where people can't work out which lane to be in even though they're clearly marked and again just take the shortest line. I am often in the right hand lane of two on approach to go straight on and get pushed from the middle into the right hand turn only lane on a three lane roundabout because the person in the left lane has gone into the middle lane instead of saying in the left lane around the roundabout.

It's basically when the blue car has taken the red line.

Hi @SierraSapphire , I'm not sure but think you might be taught to take that line when you do an advanced driving course. However, it's not acceptable where there's other traffic in the area!

@SierraSapphire The diagram reminds me of another one - I have a slow to accelerate car. If I was the green car, my preference is to come off into the left lane so I don't slow the traffic. What has happened a few times is someone in a fast car comes up close behind me and shoots into the left lane, so I can only go into the right lane. They then hover on my left, refusing to slow just enough to allow me to move over, meanwhile I'm flooring my little car to get some sort of speed up so as not to slow the annoyed queue of fast cars behind me. So irritating as it slows everyone down and is so unnecessary.

I've heard it all now - cyclists (including those who break no rules) are now responsible for the bad behaviour of both rule-breaking cyclists AND rule-breaking drivers!!

How on earth can people think that using one form of transport gives people so much power?!!

Me, I think it's congestion and frustration and just general misery with life. Makes people so impatient and unpleasant...

Sunshineandsuddenshowers

What I'm seeing is lovely people, saving the planet and their own money, by cycling. However, I also believe I'm witnessing people who are attaching too much importance to the ecological issues and ignoring risks to their own safety. I'm also sure that they can't practically, easily stop on those bikes. I think they think that they can't build up momentum quickly enough, after they've stopped, especially when weighed down by their child, attached to the bike. So they risk jumping lights and flinging pedestrians under a bus, metaphorically and maybe literally.

Electric scooterists think they are equivalent to cyclists, even though they're illegal, and swerve where it suits them, circling in the road, as if it were a skateboarding arena. Unless you are an habitual pedestrian, you maybe won't be aware of how protocol and etiquette at pedestrian crossings has eroded. Cyclists started it.

Yes, standards are awful.

I think a lot of it boils down to a mix of arrogance and selfishness.

I'm in Northern Scotland and the standard of driving and number of road deaths are horrendous.
If a car is in front, it must be overtaken - even if the person is turning off in 100m.
You must drive at the maximum speed limit regardless of the road conditions.
Every single time I'm out for as little as 10 miles, I see a near miss.

I HATE driving here and will do everything I can to avoid it.

The A9 is a main tourist route to the highlands but it's a deathtrap as it switches from single to dual carriageway which is particularly confusing for the many tourists who use it.

Well it would seem IANBU!

Don’t get me started on cyclists. Living in the sticks it’s not so much saving the planet types as the serious leisure cyclists, dressed in full Lycra and taking it all very seriously. Will those fuckers move over, even when they have a queue of thirty cars crawling along behind them as they grind their way up a hill? No they will not. Tractors legally have to pull over once in a while if they’re holding traffic up, and cyclists are slower so I’m not sure why it’s ok for them. I had one lately, who I met on a very narrow Lane when I was towing the horse trailer with 2 horses in it. I was maybe about 100 metres along this lane, which I’d turned into from another narrow lane, going up a steep hill. This cyclist appears around the corner, stops, and sits there staring at me waiting for me to reverse back for him. LOL. Ok then pal, I’ll do that then, just you sit there while I reverse the trailer and 2 horses down the hill and around a corner onto another lane when I can’t see if there’s anything else coming. After about 10 seconds he realised he was on a hiding to nothing, angrily turned his bike around and pedalled off whilst slowly shaking his head 😂. What a dick.

I think the bottom line is there’s just a massive increase in the sense of entitlement on the roads, whether it’s on 4 wheels or 2.

Ah ok @Jknow you actually just wanted to hate on cyclists like most other drivers. Was the rant about driving standards not enough?

Given the IANBU about driving standards, do you think the pig headedness of some cyclists might be to do with being bullied on the roads day in day out or even killed? It's very sad that some cyclists are pushing back so negatively but I can understand it.

I haven't rtft but I agree. I drive and cycle and I definitely notice the lack of indicating on roundabouts and people just driving too fast and inconsiderately. I really feel the problem would at least be counteracted if repeat offenders of speeding / driving offences would have to re-take their driving test or face a permanent ban.

As someone who has seen the horse world from the inside, I have to say that a huge percentage of the people in it are myopic and unable to see anything from anyone else's point of view. They especially hate cyclists which is ridiculous because both horse riders and cyclists are at the same level as vulnerable user of roads.
There are so few people now with daily experience of large animals, given to panicking at unlikely moments for unlikely reasons and it's never going to change. Horse boxes and trailers cause the same sort of miles-long hold up as cyclists, why don't you horse people get it? On Saturday, I was in a town where there was some kind of equestrian event, there was about a mile queue of horse boxes, trailers and shiny Range Rovers that went around two roundabouts and about a mile of dual carriageway, queueing to get in the show ground!
I don't think horses should be allowed on the road, sorry they are an anachronism and a danger to themselves.

YANBU

Mirror signal manoeuvre is the first thing I leaned when I sat in a car. Massive lack of it on the roads.

Signalling then just moving out anyway, as if the signal makes it safe.

Indicating for pedestrians is a Highway Code rule, lack of that too.

This one isn't to do with actual driving but is linked to common sense - fuel hoses at petrol stations generally reach to the opposite side.

Diverseopinions, given that motor vehicles are the most lethal mode of transport on the road, and transgress laws most often, blaming cylists and scooters is massively scapegoating. I say that as a pedestrian. The problem is the motor vehicle, nearly always. Just be nice to vulnerable road users.

Yes I've wondered this

Is it ever monitored or do they have license plates for ever or any insurance for that matter

Op - 'sense of entitlement' - do you not see the irony in that?