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.

"Gotten" used to be a British English word hundreds of years ago. I find it annoying though and hope it doesn't become accepted in British English again.

The design is practical, safer, and increases the network's capacity. However, issues with implementation, management, and significant user errors have turned the matter into a political issue. Deathnell.
The original plans did have rest stops and more cameras. An unnamed group of civil servants decided it would be cost-effective to omit those. Hence why the M1 is 50 mph for long stretches.
People need to make up their minds no more capacity means rationing the resources (Taking users off the roads) or widening.

Road infrastructure is shit but there are far too many cars on the road, driving (and parking) standards are piss poor, drivers feel so comfortable and protected in their oversized semi-armoured vehicles that they're disconnected from the road and actively driving isn't a priority (red lights, zebra crossings, indicating ... all optional apparently), and drivers are overindulged (see eg the petulant reaction to 20mph zones because obvs the right of drivers to speed through residential areas should trump the safety of the people who live there) and not held to account. Start a thread about cyclists and see how shamelessly drivers for whom the highway code is just something that happens to other people share why they shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel of a vehicle - it's a frightening insight into why roads are an absolute zoo.
'Motonormativity': The bias that leads to dangerous driving - BBC Future" https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240306-motonormativity-the-bias-that-stops-us-seeing-driving-clearly

I didn't say I was being undertaken.
I observed that frustrated drivers undertake more often. A few years ago people would go around the middle lane roadhogs on the right and pull back in. Now they undertake.

It's dangerous where I live. My theory is a lot of people don't have licenses, post covid. Add in the fucking electric delivery bikes...

I think people have changed since Covid - people seem angrier, entitled and just plain rude. Even walking around the supermarket people seem to be looking for confrontation.

It is almost like people lost their empathy, compassion and manners whilst in lockdown - it is really sad.

You know there’s no obligation for drivers to stop for someone waiting at a zebra crossing, right?

Chronic underinvestment in public transport so more and more people are forced to take to the roads. European trains put ours to shame. They have double decker trains FFS.

doesn't the Highway Code say you 'should' give way to people waiting at a zebra?

It’s about courtesy though. Courteous driving is safe driving. You sound like you might be part of the problem.

Yes, I believe it does which means it’s courteous and not a requirement. I’m certainly not going to get annoyed at a driver for not doing something that they’re not required to do.

I always stop for pedestrians waiting to cross. My point was that it’s weird to get “maddened” by someone not doing something they’re not obligated to do.

I would always give way to a pedestrian on a zebra as 'should' to me means obligation.

I think they were up to 2022. I can't copy the link but the stats came from the official .gov site & also quoted on brake (the road safety charity) website

This could well be the case - it is very difficult to get driving test dates and insurance is expensive.

But most of the problems are because people are incredibly impatient. I am not very patient but self-preservation makes me so when I am behind the wheel of a car!

Examples:

speeding up behind you when you are clearly stuck behind a slower moving vehicle or intending to turn right and waiting for a gap in the traffic

beeping people who don't move off the nanosecond lights turn to green

driving at pedestrians who have the temerity to be crossing a road you only just turned into

never parking on a road when a pavement will do

overtaking bikes and other slower moving vehicles on bends or when cars are coming towards them

The list goes on.

I passed my test earlier this year and I find other people's driving so so scary. No indicating, aggressively tailgating, overtaking because I'm going the speedlimit or I've slowed to let someone out or I'm behind a cyclist.

Huge SUV type cars giving people a ballsy confidence and also not understanding their own size or road positioning.

Definitely think there's a lot more people driving without a licence due to the delay in test dates and lack of getting caught plus more people driving automatic cars. And uninsured too as the cost of new driver insurance (versus learner insurance) is so stratospheric.

Around where I live, it's actually so stressful to drive because the driving etiquette and knowledge is so poor and it seems people are in such a terrifying rush they would rather cause an accident. Letting people out at junctions seems to be none-existent - why?

It certainly has. I don't remember seeing cars without headlights when its totally dark before covid. Then the other day, driving on a major road with thick fog, only about 15% cars had headlights on.

My car has autolights but need to override this when its foggy. This involves moving a switch at end of the indicator stalk.

People are cutting corner when they turn right. They almost hit cars awaiting to turn right from this road. If an accident did occur here, it will gridlock the town.

YABU to use the phrase 'has gotten worse..'

Then get food couriers on mopeds, 95% of them with an L plate. Think needs to be a law to make people only do business work on mopeds and motorbikes ONCE they have passed their test.

These moped couriers have zero road sense, driving down one way streets down the wrong way, ignoring no left/right turn signs, crossing on pedestrian crossings.

Yes, DH says this daily, people can’t drive these days.
And what I see on roads myself is shocking..
People diving themself into a busy roundabout in the last second when I’m giving way, I am always shocked. I wait for a suitable gap but always everyone around me dives in in front of incoming traffic coming from right…

I live a few miles from the motorway, I can tell easily if there's an accident. Fog and rain seems to have more accidents.

People forget that breaking distances when it rains is double. I know ABS brakes reduces that but sometimes these fail.

It’s definitely pandemic related- I’d say speed, impatience and entitlement are so so rife on roads now- everyone just has to be somewhere but yesterday!! Saturday evenings on our road are terrible, people passing out and speeding

Yes there are more accidents now. Part of the reason it feels worse than during the pandemic is that during the lockdowns roads were MUCH quieter in general. Significantly less traffic and fewer non-essential roadworks. So even if things went back to how they were before the pandemic in terms of driver quality, ability and volume, you would see a lot more carnage now than during it.

I think it is getting worse in general though. The main reason is there are too many people in the country driving more vehicles than the roads are able to comfortably support. British road policy has always been backwards, we have always designed solutions a few decades after they were needed. (We had dirt roads when we needed paved ones, we paved single carriageway roads when they needed to be dual carriageways, three lane motorways were constructed when we needed four lane ones.)

We need to limit the number of people who can drive - maybe give every citizen an annual entitlement of 5000 miles, and face a lifetime ban if they exceed it. Perhaps ban under-30s from driving altogether, so people develop a habit of using public transport into adulthood.

Either that, or properly upgrade the road infrastructure. This will take a hell of a lot of money and will take a long time, and we need to avoid the problem I mentioned above about building yesterday's fix tomorrow. Road policy needs to be ahead of the game, not reactive.

There is so much aggression on roads. Angry men people who drive with a sense of entitlement, seemingly wanting to dominant and intimidate. It's just horrible to be tailgated when you're already driving at the speed limit. Or beeped at because you've taken a nanosecond to pull away at lights. I had one guy last week drive pass me beeping making a wanker sign when I had my 3 young kids in the car. It's just vile behaviour and leads to crashes and accidents.

My experience of France is that driving standards are consistent. You know someone will pull out, and can prepare accordingly, for example.