Has anyone else noticed the sheer amount of road rage about recently?

[dinoma]

I do live in a city and one of the biggest issues is cars park on both sides meaning there’s only room for single traffic meaning a lot of cars meeting and reversing.

I have noticed the anger and rage, mouthing obscenities and hand gestures because someone else happens to be there.

I get the inconvenience of having to pull in or reverse back but I would never feel the need to aggressively stick my fingers up (or worse) or mouth something at another driver for simply using the same road.

I’m sure these people aren’t like this in their homes or businesses.

Wow I can see why road rage is up by the anger emanating from this thread.. Such a shame people are so angry about things which they can’t control. More mindfulness would help 🤭

Whilst not an ‘excuse’ for poor behaviour, I think you’re wrong. There absolutely is long term effects from people not socialising for so long. I don’t believe we’ll know the full impact for a while.

💯 Absolutely. It’s Brexit or Covid or.. anything but taking responsibility for ourselves and getting on with life.

I think there's always the potential to rebuild and recover after a traumatising experience but not everyone has the awareness that there's a problem or the skills to do it by themselves.

In general I think there are a lot of things that we've normalised as a society like "not needing friends" or being "happy with just my little family" that actually aren't healthy for us when it comes to knowing how to interact and share spaces with others.

Can you link to that thread please? I can't seem to find it in search.

Driving standards seem to have dropped through the floor in the last few years. I absolutely refuse to drive on motorways anymore, people seem to follow their own rules nowadays.
None motorway roads are just as bad. Stopping at red lights seems to be optional nowadays. I regularly sit at busy junctions and watch at least 3 cars go through on full red. Box junctions completely ignored. I get that folk are trying to get to work, school run etc, but as the old saying goes, its better to arrive late in this world than arrive early in the next!!

Repeated Covid infections have addled their brains…

theconversation.com/mounting-research-shows-that-covid-19-leaves-its-mark-on-the-brain-including-significant-drops-in-iq-scores-224216

https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/research-stories/even-mild-covid-19-infections-change-the-brain/

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/ultra-powered-mri-scans-show-damage-to-brains-control-centre-is-behind-long-lasting-covid-19

Immediately after lockdowns, you had lots of people who hadn't driven much so were poorer drivers, then other groups of people who had got used to the significantly quieter roads. But roads have been back to normal for a few years now, people should have remembered how to drive!
(Maybe more unlicensed drivers, due to test delays?)

But yes, people do seem less patient now.

I'm generally quite a patient person but there seems to have been an increase in overly-hesitant drivers on the road
Same here. I am naturally a calm person but nothing gets my blood heated up like poor standard driving. That's why I've done everything to minimise driving.

My annoyance falls into two categories, the people who would never pass their test if they took it again yet act like they do nothing wrong and the other drivers are the problem. It's a daily occurrence. People who brake when there is nothing in front of them is a perfect exemple. Another one are those who rush to pull out in front of you, making you brake, and then drive mu h under the speed limit...when there was no car behind you.

Then there are the drivers who act like complete assholes like they do on social media because they think being in their car makes them anonymous. Those who go around roundabouts to avoid queuing when turning left. Those who have space to let cars go but will speed up to the point of facing another car and then expects the other car to reverse. I could go on.

I agree with this.
when shopping in supermarkets you’d give way to people with trollies they’d at least smile and or say thanks. You’d have an interaction. Now everyone’s invisible and just barge through.

it’s the same on the roads. Everyone’s just so angry, and don’t see others as people anymore.

Agree.
The posters complaining about other drivers not going fast enough and not being where they want them to be seem incandescent.

In the last few years driving seems to have become faster, less courteous and full of anger and impatience. It's like many people are hunched over their wheel seething, wanting the person in front to go faster because they're in a rush. Sometimes the rage and speed on the motorway is ridiculous. How there are not more terrible accidents is beyond me.

People need to understand that being rude, abusive and nasty towards other people - members of the public, staff in front line roles (shop workers, nurses etc) achieves NOTHING positive.

All it does it upset people, give them MH issues - either starting or making existing ones worse, makes people leave their work etc.

I have noticed that courtesy has reduced a fair bit, I’m fed up with the number of people who don’t bother with a thank you for letting them into a queue or out of a side road. The only people who never fail to give thanks are delivery drivers and tradespeople, I guess it’s because they are driving such a lot that it makes quite a difference to them time wise to be let in.

The situation on the roads has become untenable. Roads that were built for horses and carts have to sustain households each with 3 cars. There’s nowhere to park, there’s roadworks everywhere, the concept of rush hour has disappeared, it’s just permanent congestion. In my town someone thought it was a good idea to build 3 separate housing estates at the end of what used to be a farm track.

I hate driving now. No wonder people are irritated and angry. I’m irritated and angry. We can’t go on like this. If I knew the answer I’d be Prime Minister. I’d make public transport free of charge, I can’t see any other means of getting people off the roads.

I can't say that I've really noticed much more road rage, but I have noticed a lot of very bad driving. More people going through red lights, more people taking stupid risks, fewer people seeming to be familiar with the highway code etc. Maybe that's contributing to the rage?

It's this idea that drivers have to get to where they're going as quickly as possible with as little inconvenience as possible. Here is a list of what I have observed as "inconvenient" for the road raging driver of 2025

Red lights
Slower driver
Learner driver
Lost driver unsure of correct lanes
Not breaking the speed limit on a motorway
Slowing down to correct speed limit
Recognising its a limit not a target drivers
Buses
Lorries
Road works
Drivers who drive to the weather conditions
Drivers wanting to turn
Taking a perceived "too long" to park

I'm sure this list isn't exhaustive and could be added to.

Me, I just want to get from A to B alive. I may drive a bit slower (not slow) and I allow myself the additional time for this and also for allowing for any of the above possible delays.

If anyone just chilled the fuck out and recognised that they will get to where they want to go, and be much less stressed by leaving plenty of time..

Which thread was this? I don’t think she’s alone in not understanding this ( and failing to understand WHY it’s in place)!

It does seem to have got worse since Covid. Whenever I drove out, especially during the first lockdown, I could almost drive as though I owned the road and that was certainly was my experience of the rare number of drivers coming the other way. That’s where it started and many drivers just haven’t got back to normal. Likewise, many pedestrians cross right out into the road without waiting, as though there are so few vehicles that they think they own the roads as well. Not everyone obviously, but quite a sizable number IMO.

Everywhere feels so much busier, traffic is heavier. I think that leads to stress. Also more people are struggling with bills and life generally. I agree with anger- more seem to be on short fuses now.

I think it could be a lot worse, it was certainly bad after the pandemic but seems to have settled down, to me. The amount of terrible driving seems to be just as bad or worse though.

The amount of time I do not react at all other than a sotto voce comment to myself about someone cutting me up on a roundabout, driving slowly and hesitantly, random braking, speeding and tailgating, blocking the road unnecessarily...

I try to counterbalance it all by driving well, defensively and letting people out with a cheery wave, always thanking people when they let me in etc. Spread the positivity and politeness.

Ps. People here might want to try driving in Riyadh or similar, you’ll find the uk a driving haven, in comparison!

lol. I drove in New Delhi once. Made the M25 at 4pm on a Friday look like a gentle country lane.

😂😂🤣 quite

I don’t think it’s Covid per se, but since Brexit which happened almost same time as Covid, we’ve had a huge drop in living standards and people are stressed

Everything is doom and gloom, there’s not much cheer or optimism.

This has seeped into everyday life - being at work school on time, petrol prices higher, school routes, LTNs affecting routes, people pushed into cars cos transport more expensive.

I don’t necessarily disagree with some developments (traffic calming) but I do find driving more stressful.

Everyone is like a bad apple