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.

Far more cars on road, and then people on here think everyone should have a licence.. my god can you imagine how grid locked it would be.

Accidents are virtually daily in my small area we have houses being built nearby we had to heckle the council to provide road clean up due to the massive amount of mud being tracked onto the road causing slips and skids there was still an accident we have a long term road closure people are using the town bypass which is a very fast road several people have died now they can't navigate it maybe? Recently a baby died during a late night drive (not their fault) the road was empty yet two cars collided

Yes driving has got worse

Pulling onto the A1 last week I followed someone off the Roundabout onto the slip road. They were using the Hard Shoulder as the inside lane. This is where the A1, the A1M and the A64 all merge. Chaos ensued. Luckily there was no crash.

I blame the delivery drivers that became so much more common during COVID. They are everywhere and their driving is dreadful. Others follow suit.

Gotten?

The statistics show a different story

There's been a decrease in deaths on the roads in the UK since 2019.

The number of incidents has remained stable (except for an obvious dip during the lockdowns).

It may be that there is something specific happening in the road you are referring to or more likely you are noticing it more. You've decided there's an increase so you notice evidence that confirms your theory & discount evidence against.

I agree. I work in a built up area where the driving is often horrendous. Drivers come barrelling down narrow streets, don’t signal, don’t stop at junctions. I’d like to see increased use of cameras to fine dangerous driving and driving whilst distracted.

It's really not helped by people moving further away from the office during the pandemic and therefore now needing to drive on motorways without never having learned how to. I'm from another country and I'm genuinely shocked that you can get your license which allows you to drive on a motorway without ever having been on one before!

And yes, distractions while driving are also largely to blame.

Yep, it is awful - the amount of times I’ve been waiting at a zebra crossing and cars just sail through it is maddening!

When did it become acceptable to use the word ‘gotten’ in the uk?

Fork learner drivers do learn on motorways now. It changed a few years back. DS was on them with his instructor after about 4 months of lessons.

YANBU - the standard of people's driving has gone way down. There were two accidents on one small stretch of the A41 a couple of weeks ago - both with police in attendance. The way people drive though I'm not surprised they have accidents. Speeding, dangerous overtaking and undertaking, tail-gating, pulling out in front of people when they don't have space, not respecting zebra crossings/pedestrians, jumping lights. The level of aggression has gone way up.

That’s interesting, when are those statistics up to?

Personal experience was 2022 the roads were still quieter, more people still WFH, 2024 roads are back to being busy (I track my driving time to locations I go to each autumn, so I know when to leave the house). So 2022 data would be different to 2023 and 2024.

Not true where I am. Close friend learned last year and has never been on the motorway.

No they don’t. They can pay for extra lessons on Motorway, in the dark etc but motorway driving is not part of the driving test.

I keep saying this!

The thing is you had 2 groups of people during the pandemic, those who WFH for the best part of 12 months & weren't driving anywhere and then there was the group that had the roads to themselves for 12 months!

Now those 2 groups are back on the road together!

The levels of anger you see from drivers is astounding! Hooting, over taking in a blooming 30 miles an hour zone, roaring off in front of you only to be sat in front of you at the next set of traffic lights it's ridiculous!

I think another problem is that different countries have different rules and styles of driving. What is normal in France might lead to a dangerous situation if implemented in Britain.

When you think about the number of people moving to Britain, and the number of different countries they've learned to drive in, it's clearly going to cause problems.

I wonder if it's instructor dependent then. DS was doing 10+ mile stretches of motorways and back in his lessons.

I am presume it also depends where you live - not everyone has a handy stretch of motorway.

The smart motorway system is statistically safer and has increased our capacity. However, the main issue in the UK is the lack of an integrated transport policy. Ideally, roads would work in conjunction with trains to better meet our transportation needs. Implementing a pay-per-drive scheme could further reduce congestion by encouraging people to make alternative choices.

I no longer drive on the motorway regularly and only really drive locally now. I've noticed how people drive far too close to you so if you had to suddenly stop you run the risk in them appearing in your back seat.

I'm never sure whether they have such poor eyesight they do not realise how close they are or they are so important and in such a hurry that they want you to drive faster even though you are already doing the limit of the road and have a line of traffic ahead of you.

The amount of speeding on residential roads is also much worse and it's not always white van man doing parcel deliveries either.

In my view it is:

• smart motorways (our local one was started in 2020)
• phones
• bad habits that started during periods of loads of roadworks - eg near me there were shed loads of roadworks with huge delays from 2019 to 2022. People started going right on a particular roundabout from the left hand lane then and they still do it now. That never ever happened before the roadworks.
• headlights continue to get brighter, I find it very hard to drive at night on country roads.

I don't think it's the norm, as a PP said it's not tested so most people will not "waste" precious expensive lesson time on this.

Smart motorway roll out has been halted by the DoT because of the number of accidents. Private Eye have been reporting on it for years. They are not safe.

YABU for using the word "gotten" unless you're American