To be shocked at how aggressively people drive?

[CheerfulBunny]

Just moved into a small village and our front door opens onto the street which has a narrow path both sides. There are parked cars on our side of the street meaning that vehicles have to wait if another vehicle is coming the other way. Our house is listed so single glazed so can hear road noise much more now.
I'm absolutely flabbergasted at how aggressive the driving I've observed is - mounting the pavement, accelerating madly, revving engines, blaring horns. It's completely inappropriate to drive so fast from and to the end of the road where you could meet another vehicle head on. I honestly fear for pedestrians as well. I'd really be worried if I had a cat or dog (if it accidentally got out).
AIBU to be concerned? Why is everyone so impatient and angry behind the wheel now?

@BalletCat I am so sorry you went through that. She was a gorgeous horse.

I've been saying the same OP. My car broke at the beginning of lockdowns. I had just given up my job to be mams full time carer so didn't have the funds to replace it until this June. It's awful out there now. Folk doing 120k on the motorway veering all over. Riding up your arse when you are doing the speed limit. Cutting corners badly. Flying out without stopping (special shout to the fella who did that and when I honked he did a slow down gesture at me. I had right of way and was doing 15k in a 30k zone ya plonker). Just all round awful driving. I don't feel safe anymore.

That's really interesting because I drive a Toyota Aygo and just thought drivers were always like that, I didn't think it was because I was driving a small car!

Small cars and 'P' plates, seem to bring out the worst in drivers.

Although, I find some of the most aggressive drivers near me are the young men. Those 17-30 age brackets, driving a Golf or equivalent. The aggressive nature of their driving is insane. It's like they feel the need to drive everywhere at the max speed possible and woe betide if there is heavy traffic or a slower vehicle.

I think its something in a lot of society across the board. Not just driving.
No thoughts about anyone else.
I witness bad driving daily and I'm now pretty certain I'm going to get a dashcam (front and rear) . Our police force has a site where you can upload videos and they do seem to follow it up.
A relative and his DP were driving on a roundabout that led up to traffic lights. They were cut up by a female in an Audi, had to slam breaks on and swerve to not hit anything. DP hit the horn, once, and when they pulled up to the traffic lights the male passenger in the Audi got out and approached their car with a fucking machete! Lights changed , Audi started to pull away with passenger door wide open, he then jogged back to the car and they drove off. ALL caught on dashcam! Now due up in court (funnily enough with a raft of other charges!)

@BalletCat I'm so sorry about your horse, what a gorgeous girl. My friends horse got hit while we were out riding, they just drove straight into his back legs, turned him right over, my horse affectionately known as ASBO because he was an opinionated bugger! Carted me literally over a stone wall into someone's garden to escape as my friends horse crashed into us trying to get away. My friend was thrown clear, her horse though he survived had to retire and went a few years later - probably due to the damage. He was only early teens. Driver drove off, with a caved in bonnet and bits hanging off. Never found. Was the days before hat cams. Some people are oblivious around horses, some just truly do not care and others are deliberately dangerous.

I've just read an article in the Yorkshire Post about a petrol station worker in critical condition because he tried to stop someone driving away without paying for petrol. I mean is a tank of petrol really worth someone else's life?!

Coming home from work the other night, 60mph road, twisty turny country road then a long straight bit. Car up my arse through the turns and just as I got to the straight bit a reflector caught my eye, there were 3 kids, pedal bikes, no lights, all in dark clothing in front of me, dickhead behind was already overtaking me, but thankfully as I hadn't built up much speed I had enough time to brake, it was a hefty brake though, not quite an emergency stop, but not far off. I'm grateful actually I was in front because if he hadn't overtaken me and had rounded that corner at the speed he clearly wanted to do, I dread to think what would have happened, hopefully he'd have seen them in time to at least swerve. I mean sure, the kids were pretty bloody stupid doing that in the first place on an unlit road with no lights - I struggled to see them at all in my mirror as I was looking to pull back in after overtaking, because the reflectors were clearly only on the back of the bikes, nothing at all on the front - but would that have really been a consolation when you've killed 3 kids driving like a twat?

I do sometimes have to take some deep breaths and not react when someone is beeping, tailgating, flashing, gestures etc, because there's times I want to slam the brakes on, leap out the car and give them what for!

I recently watched crash detectives on iPlayer - some of the accidents on there and the driving that led to them is mind boggling!

Edited to say - the pp who mentioned young men - I had this yesterday, single lane 40mph to a roundabout then a 60 uphill with an overtaking lane, the other side, then another roundabout and I take the road off that comes down to 30.
Some sort of little nosy farty car behind me, in my boot on the 40 and round the round about, straight on my outside itching to get to the overtaking lane, well I was doing about 60-65 by the time we hit the hill and the overtaking lane starts and he heads to the outside lane, but his car struggles with the hill and he doesn't get past me. He was never even close to being past, and I didn't accelerate just maintained the same speed I had already been at on the flat bit, my car carried on at the same speed, and he sat in the outside lane, all the way up, dropping further and further back.
He then sat on my bumper when it dropped to 30, revved when I needed to stop at a roundabout and was moving to the white line and back looking to overtake.
It must have really fucked him off that he couldn't overtake a middle aged woman in a 1.2 hatchback 🤷🏼‍♀️.

The road I live on goes off to 2 other roads, people treat it like a race course. We've asked highways for speed bumps but they won't do it.

Yesterday one of the women who drives like a prat hit a cat a few doors up. Apparently she was 'devastated' but I have little sympathy because had she have been driving at a decent speed instead of roaring up the road the way she always does that poor animal may have stood a chance.

People don't think about potential consequences, it's reckless selfish behaviour that gets on my pip.

I am so sorry about your horse @BalletCat ❤️‍🩹

Driving standards have definitely got worse. No one has any patience any more. I've been driving 25+ years and it's never been so bad. I'm going to invest in a dash cam soon as well. It's only luck I haven't hit anyone recently.

I drive on the M25 for 2 junctions on a daily basis. I tend to just stay in the left lane as it's only 6 miles and in rush hour the traffic is busy plus that section is on a 50mph limit at the moment anyway so everyone is doing 50 or under anyway. The amount of people that try desperately to get round as many people as possible in the middle or right lane then when there's only 0.2 miles left until the turn off try and ram their way over 1 or 2 lanes at the last second even if there isn't any gaps. They just move into the lane causing everyone to break hard. The other day there was a queue on the slip road I come off at and THREE cars came into the hatched area and tried to get in front of me. After I let the first one force his way in another 2 tried and when I closed the gap they both started honking horns and I'm assuming swearing from all the gesticulating they were doing. I mean I need to get where I'm going as well. And I've already sat in this queue for 10 mins. I can't just let every single car in that decides to force their way in or I'd never move. Sure enough looking in the mirror behind at least another 5/6 cars were causing chaos in the other lanes trying to force over last min into the slip road because they clearly don't want to wait in the queue.

And the middle lane hoggers are getting worse. Another part of the M25 I use sometimes has is own lane. As I join there are already 3 lanes so the slip road creates a 4th. I join at speed doing 60/70 by the time I am on the main carriageway. I'm flying past (undertaking??) NOBODY in the lane to my direct right at all, its totally empty, and the next 2 lanes are rammed full of people doing 50/60!

I was told not to get P plates when I passed my test, even though I was a very nervous driver. My instructor said it's just flagging your car for bullying.

A lot of cars on the roads actually have no purpose, they are just bored men who are out to assert their dominance in the only way they ca. A lot of them are sexually frustrated and/or have ED. I'm sure of it.

Is it mostly tourists/visitors or locals? Maybe some traffic calming measures are in order.

@BalletCat so sorry for your loss of your poor horse and injury. How horrible for you. Hope you can recover fully. Thank goodness you survived and are still around for your baby.

She was so beautiful ♥️😢

I’m so sorry that happened. To you and your poor horse. The standard of driving is truly terrible and there’s little regard for vulnerable road users. I’m a regular cyclist and there’s a close pass, or revving almost every journey. I think basically there’s too many cars and a sense of entitlement which means some drivers do think they own the road, perpetuated by the media and war on motorists narrative.

I think people are very desensitised to just how many people are injured or killed on roads and car advertising never shows traffic jams or sharing the space with cyclists, motorcycles, horse riders. It’s all empty mountain roads or cruising along empty city streets so they are annoyed they can’t get faster and other people are in their way and cars are bigger and more powerful than ever before.

sadly the “I didn’t see you” is too often accepted as an excuse- I wasn’t looking is more accurate. Some the couldn’t see a large animal on the road should never drive again in my opinion.

This!
The amount of aggression is massively increased when I’m in the small car (Fiat 500). The tailgating(although it happens in the bigger car sometimes too)happens more often, if not every time I drive it. What are they trying to prove? Congrats, your car is bigger than mine!

@balletcat I'm so sorry for your loss

I came on to say since Ive started riding again I've really noticed how bad traffic is now around horses- people have no consideration at all. When I was a teen I saw a horse rear up on a car bonnet and it made me a hugely careful driver around horses.

As a cyclist as well, I'm regularly cut up, pushed into the side of the road and face abuse. It's shocking.

I don't know what you can do though. The British seem to love to hate now.

@SensibleSigma

whatever.

if you can't see a HORSE, let alone one in high viz, people waving and shouting at you, you shouldn't be driving!!

@BalletCat

I'm so so sorry, being hit like that must have been SO traumatic in itself and then to have her die like that, & so young 💔 she was beautiful, gorgeous.

I hope you are physically healing.

mentally it's going to take a very long time, if ever. Brains are incredible though, it will stop being the first image you see of her. Keep looking at nice images of her, if you can cope with it.

Having a baby makes you feel like the roads are full of dangerous drivers anyway, I can only imagine how much more keenly you feel this now.

I hope he's taken off the road for good, if he's a decent bloke he'll surrender his licence anyway. Not that it helps you now.

🤗

I think in England it has really, really changed and quite fast? I live in Ireland (where traditionally I would have found motorway driving a bit more chaotic), but lived and drove in England, mostly in London for 20 years until 6 years ago - very, very experienced with all the motorways and driving the length and breadth of GB… have been back and forward a lot on car ferries.

Last year I drove Bristol to London M4 and it was truly terrifying, a road I’d driven so many times before and it was like I was trapped in a computer game with no off switch. We saw FOUR major accidents and the bit where we joined the M25 was actually surreally terrifying.

Drove in France this summer and it was almost surreally the opposite - calm, measured, polite, rational.

Is there some kind of social discontent that’s being expressed do you think?

Or is it the impact of gaming? I notice a lot of young men change lanes by suddenly going sharply sideways at high speed?

(Have also had very hair raising experiences on Dublin’s M50 in case anyone thinks I’m implying it’s much better here- it’s all young men in seat leons hurtling about)

Bring on autonomous driving.

balletcat, so incredibly sorry you went through that.

@BalletCat so sorry to hear about your horse and your accident.

I don't drive in UK much, but i had read so much about bad driving that i invested in front & rear dashcams for when i come over to visit my mum.

Sometimes i look back at the videos before deleting, and it is pretty scary.

I live in a small, 1,000 year old, village. There is very little parking, so the cars park 4 or 5 at a time on one side, then the other, so you can slowly slalom through with space to wait for oncoming cars. The amount of non-local drivers who cause issues (you can tell here because of how number plates are issued) is phenomenal.

Several local villages near me along a major A road had this issue. It was fixed only when people with houses like yours stopped being able to park on the kerb outside their house. It frustrates me that people buy houses without parking on a major throughfare but still expect to park outside their house despite it making it so dangerous for everyone.

I hate driving now, I used to love driving. I had (I say had as its just been written off by some twat not looking where he was going) a Fiesta, and people were arseholes to me even when I was doing the speed limit(or occasionally above on the motorway). I was driving in the pouring rain and people were driving too close, if I had to stop suddenly neither of us would make it. I've seen people do u turns at traffic lights because they've got in the wrong lane, cutting people up on roundabouts and instead of going round again they just cut across not indicating either.

People also don't give a shit about other people's property, they'll bang their car doors into other cars, they'll scrape them, and they'll reverse into them etc. So even if you have a nice car some careless dick will make sure it gets a nice scratch or dent.

I was thinking this just yesterday, it really is shocking. You have to steel yourself to drive almost anywhere, knowing that along your journey you will almost certainly be tailgated or cut up. My husband is very 'zen' and pretty good at ignoring the appalling driving, but I can't stand letting people barge in because they think they're entitled to get through a light or off a junction before me. I am trying to be more zen, but it's hard! I agree it's much worse in a small car - I used to drive an Aygo and saw an improvement even moving to a Fiesta. Most cars people drive are far too big, completely unnecessarily, and/or powerful. There seems to be a thought these days that a 'family car' = an SUV. I'm so sick of being shoved out of the way by these bullies.
As for a story, I was once terrified when a very scary man got out of his van and started approaching my car, waving his arms and shouting aggressively. I fiddled with the radio and pretended I hadn't seen him and thankfully he got back in his van. My crime? Giving way at a roundabout.

@Ozanj Interesting point. We have off road parking so it wouldn't affect us if the street parking went but I'm guessing the other residents wouldn't be very pleased. I would very much like bollards outside my house though to stop people routinely mounting the pavement (jeopardising pedestrians and my sodding house!). A chicane or width restriction would slow the traffic down and stop inappropriate vehicles like massive lorries hurtling down the road as well.
None of this will happen I expect. Not until something bad happens anyway.

The B road next to me there's an accident almost every week. Blind bends, farm traffic, animals, very bad in the ice etc... people drive too fast then crawl up your arse if you go a sensible speed.

When it's icy I take it so slow, seen enough cars on their sides, and people do not like it at all. But tough! I want to get to work in one piece, leave earlier!

@BalletCat I'm so sorry about your horse. She was beautiful.

Agree that everyone is impatient and aggressive these days. My last trip through town I got beeped for, variously: waiting at an amber light; keeping at the speed limit; not overtaking a cyclist with a child in a seat behind on a hill with solid white centre lines.

Cars being so big now doesn't help. For a lot of range rovers and jukes etc, their driving "technique" seems to consist of positioning themselves in a way that they take up as much space as possible and wait for everyone else to get out of their way, all the while blaring massive led lights at you. When one of those fuckers is behind me at night it's like the fucking aliens are landing.