To think that driving has gotten worse since the pandemic?

[CyanSnake]

I have commuted to work ever since I got my first job, and for the past 10 years my commute has been 45/50mins. My commute takes me through both country roads and dual carriageway/motorway.

Before the pandemic I could count the number of times I was delayed due to an accident on one hand. Even seeing minor accidents, like driving past two cars on the side of the road who’d had a bit of a bump, was very rare.

Since the pandemic, I see about 2-3 accidents a month. That’s no exaggeration. Most of these are again, “minor” but I’ve only been at my current job 8 months and been late 4 times due a more major accidents!

I’m currently 4/4 for accidents.

On Sunday I was diverted due to a major accident. On Monday, I drove past another major incident (on the other carriage way), on Tuesday morning I drove past two cars on the hard shoulder who’d had a bump, and yesterday my 45min journey home from work became 3 hours due, according to the news, multiple accidents that shut sections of two motorways. And to be honest I’m not surprised, because some of the reckless driving and serving I noticed as traffic began to become snarled made me seriously think I was about to be in a multi car pileup.

i know the people in the accident are having a much worse day than me being delayed - I’m not challenging that at all. I’m just asking if aibu to think the number of accidents has increased noticeably, if anyone else had noticed anything like this, or has on theories on why.

Im on the motorway everyday almost every day there is an accident. I think far more people are on the roads, and far more people have addictions while driving, to their phones, vapes and ive also smelled cannabis far more than Id like when cars go past.

I think there are an increasing number of people on the roads without a driving licence or insurance. Accidents follow x

I feel like I'm constantly avoiding crashes, people driving crazy, not signalling on roundabouts, pulling out of junctions and not looking, speeding. I could go on ...

I have a very similar commute to you and I agree. I think a lot of it is impatience. Drivers have become more selfish and less tolerant. I’m noticing more incidents of beeping horns eg at roundabouts/junctions, dangerous overtaking, undertaking, squeezing into spaces too small, speeding, driving too close etc.

I agree. And just see terrible driving every day.

I completely agree. Even just watching the behaviour of drivers around me I think the standard of driving has got worse in recent years. I originally put it down to the fact people didn't drive for long periods during the pandemic & were therefore out of practice, but it seems to have continued and I can only imagine it's the selfishness a pp mentioned. It feels like an increasing number of people (and businesses) are out for themselves, with very little awareness of how their actions affect others. Is it a generational thing? 🤷‍♀️

or maybe it’s because there has been a population explosion in this country over the last 5 years without adding to infrastructure.

You can add a Leeds sized population to the UK each year without building more infrastructure. The quality of life inevitably gets poorer for everyone else.

Our population is being increased by a huge slab every year. Many of the newcomers will drive. More drivers usually means more accidents. But yes, I agree, so many more cars on the roads in the last five years and much more discourtesy.

Investment in roads has been awful with the last government so our local roads have literally gone to pot. Maintenance of hedges also doesn't happen. Road signs don't get replaced, markings aren't re-painted. I'm sure all of this contributes.

The amount of people I see on the phone, even lorry drivers makes me so so sad

I think the roads in the uk especially motor are unsafe. Especially the smart motorway… there is no hard shoulder.

also night driving has become difficult with less road lights. People are using LED lights which blind others.

I think road standards in the UK have fallen over the last 10 years.

Yes, driving is increasingly poor, roads are increasingly bad.

However, lockdown is not to blame for everything! 🙄

Behaviour in general is getting worse - more entitlement and more aggression. I don't know why this is, but it isn't a surprise that the same dreadful behavioural traits come out in their driving. People are more and more rude, angry and selfish.

Yes, on the motorway undertaking seems much more commonplace now.

I think since the roads are so clogged up, people can't use roundabouts anymore and they tailgate constantly. Both cause accidents.

It’s phone use.

I drive but also cycle.
So many people on phones it’s scary, especially as a cyclist

1 in 10 people are on their phone while driving (I walk and count them when I'm bored). Then you've got the people smoking weed. I think there's a lot more people driving without passing a test too.

I agree that nighttime driving is more dangerous now. The energy saving streetlights are too dark and newer cars have blinding lights.

You're not wrong.
Today, I drove from rural SW, to a Northern city, so drove on pretty much every type of UK road.
OP suggests it's generational, but I reckon it's also geographical. From being waved out of tricky junctions, and through tight squeezes on narrow lanes, with a smile, in Dorset, to impatient men, tailgating, shoving in, beeping and gesticulating, in Leeds. I just sat waiting at precarious junctions, for a gap to dash out of, because I was definitely NOT going to be let out!

But what struck me most, was just how many drivers, seemingly, don't understand how motorways work. I was actively observing this phenomenon, and it's not an exaggeration to say that 90% were using the motorways incorrectly.
Here, in the UK, we drive on the left. On a motorway, or dual carriageway, we drive on the left. If we catch up with a slower moving vehicle, we use the lane to our right to overtake, then pull back over to the left hand lane.
Except, we don't. On at least 20 occasions, I was unable to pull out, because of the overtaking lanes being blocked. Those drivers were not overtaking me, as I was driving faster than them, to their left. I was forced to 'undertake' a number of times. OP mentions 'undertaking' as an example of poor driving. But, if you are being undertaken, you are in the wrong lane. You cannot simultaneously be overtakING and untertakEN. If you are not actively overtaking, you have no business being in an overtaking lane.
Obviously, where there are speed restrictions/queues/roadworks (so, pretty much the whole 70 mile section of the M1 I had to use), everyone is just doing the specified 40 or 50 mph, spread across all lanes. But the M40 wasn't busy, so why sit in the middle or outer overtaking lanes, especially at 60mph, when drivers in the left hand lane, are driving at the speed limit of 70?

Oh, and yes, I passed one crash that looked pretty bad, and a minor shunt. Both on motorways.

'Undertaking' isn't the issue.
If you are being undertaken, you are in the wrong lane.
If I'm driving in the correct lane, ie the left, at the speed limit (70) and you are in the middle lane, doing 60, you are forcing me to undertake you. What am I supposed to do? Slow down to 50, so as not to undertake you?
You have no business being in an overtaking lane, unless you are actively overtaking.

Undertaking is only more commonplace, because middle and outer lane 'hogging' is.
It's the knock on effect of others using the motorways incorrectly.

Lack of traffic police, long delays in the courts, no surprise. Also the last Tory Prime Minister believing there was a war on the motorist, which is only the case when it applies to parking charges.

Please everyone stop using the phrase accidents, call them crashes. Most are avoidable.

I would agree. Yesterday I did a 3 mile journey and I had 2 different cars cut right in front of me with no indicator and really close to my car. If I wasn't so aware it would have been very easy to not stop in time to avoid a crash. On the same journey going around a 3 lane roundabout I had someone been at me for being in their way despite them being in complete wrong lane (inside lane when going left).

There seem to be more people on the road, more people distracted and more people who don't seem to care how they drive and think they own the road.

It is interesting because we live in France and I would also say that driving has got more aggresive and selfish since the pandemic. We have good roads with plenty of space, but you still see cars and particularly motorbikes weaving in and out of lanes with centimetres to spare. I don't knw how much accidents have increased, but we see a lot of near misses.

Totally agree. Standards have dropped. People also seem frustrated by the 20mph so drive too fast when they can.
No one seems to indicate on the roundabout. It’s a nightmare.