Does anyone else feel stressed at how busy/overcrowded everything is all the time?

[Walkyrie]

Just that really. Supermarkets, the roads, even what used to be fairly quiet dog walks. Pavements, beaches, bus stops, it just feels like everything is really busy and there are very few places you can go outside your home, even at off peak hours, that are peaceful and quiet. Even then our house is very overlooked with constant traffic and mopeds outside.

I totally appreciate I am also a person and therefore contributing to this by the way! It just feels like everything is so hectic. I’m having a tough time at the moment and just went out to what used to be a fairly quiet dog walking route, hoping for a bit of quiet, but nope - people everywhere. Just constant mental noise.

It’s the incessant road works which make going anywhere a chore and I think makes drivers even more irritable. Still it puts us off going out so that’s one less car on the road I suppose.

I can't say I have noticed anywhere more busy that it used to be.

And who decides what the population level 'should' be?

I never said that at all there’s good and bad in all ethnicities and cultures. Having brown skin doesn’t make a person evil. Just like having white skin doesn’t make someone a saint. There’s a lot of right wing men with convictions against them.

Yes OP I feel this INTENSELY.
I hardly bother going out at the weekends these days (work all week so weekends are our only free time). It doesn't matter where we go, local beauty spot, shopping in town, local attraction, you always have to plan the day on the basis that the traffic will be a nightmare, parking will be impossible, cafes full and huge queues will be a big part of the day.
It really gets me down actually, I don't know what to do.

Yup, I've taken to working weekends and taking a couple of days off mid week instead as it's so much nicer when everything is quieter whether car parks, shopping centres, attractions or even parks, etc. Weekends are just a nightmare now and I'd rather stay in and avoid it all.

We do quite a few short breaks in the UK and have moved away from the "long weekend" kind, and now generally do 4 nights, Monday to Friday, and can actually enjoy the area where we're visiting, attractions are quieter, roads are quieter, etc.

We live around an hour from the Lake District and when we were young, we'd go pretty frequently on Sundays as a day out for boat trips on the lakes, or walking around a lake or up a hill, or shopping, etc. It was actually pretty pleasant and never too busy. Nowadays, you'd be insane to go somewhere like Bowness on a Sunday, even more insane in Summer, as it's just so obviously a lot busier everywhere and that makes it uncomfortable and unpleasant.

Where do you live OP - I associate southwest with lots of retired to the country types and summer holiday cottages!

I think it is partly because everything is slightly shitter than it was and it frays our nerves, making us less tolerant.

Bus services. Shit outside of London. I live in a city and can't get to the city centre by bus after 6pm.
I finally get into town after paying over £10 for a taxi to find the restaurant has seated me next to a massive party of drunken wankers that give their kids Ipads with no headphones.

I eat my underwhelming food and pay close to £100 for the privilege.
Then it's £15 for a taxi home because the rate goes up after a certain time.

It's awful, and that's meant to be a treat.

Everything is ruined by enshitification, and people don't know how to behave any more.
We are having to share increasingly bad services, with an increasing population of people that have no regard for others, and it's really sad.

Not my experience at all.

We live in a big City (not London), and yes, there is lots of traffic, but there are also lots of green spaces I can walk to, and, LOADS if you include those I could get to on a bus / train / or by driving to, but still within our City.

I mean, when we want a day out, we are more likely to head to the Countryside than to a shopping Centre, but within walking distance from where I live it is easy to sit in a cafe or spend time in the library or pop into some shops, or go and watch sports or wander round a museum, without it feeling crowded or overly busy. We do have the sense to avoid half term for bigger attractions.

But even if we decide to make the long trip to the beach, we choose beaches that are quieter, as that is our preference.. 'Everything' and 'everywhere' isn't busy all the time.

I’m finding that people have become more aggressive. I know I’m intolerant, I always have been but I’m noticing that people give less of a shit. Why block my drivers door of my car when there are umpteen spaces further away from me that are empty?? Why just blithely drive into the space at an angle so that getting into my car is made awkward? Didn’t we used to check we had parked correctly? I do. No. Just sling the motor where you like and fuck everyone else. No wonder I’m happiest at home.

I live in a town in the SE and after years of London living after 8 years here I'm still expecting massive crowds everywhere.

Here there is very little traffic (though the town has grown quite a bit since I moved here 8 years ago). 10 minutes to get anywhere and parking usually OK.
There are good crowds at local events which are well supported, but I've never felt overcrowded here, and our beaches run for miles so even on hot high summer weekends the beach crowds are managable & you can always find a relatively quiet spot somewhere on the beach.

A cafe I like to go to in town is hugely popular but even on busy days I can usually get a seat/table.

I love it.

@RobinEllacotStrike where is this place, love to know, if you would consider sharing.

@JustGiveMeReason which city is this ? I’m in London and very weary of it.

It's grim isn't it. I live north of the central belt and find the south of England unbearable. I adore London, but the traffic and number of people around towns and villages on the south coast is awful. You expect cities to be bustling, use public transport and get on with it. But rural areas and small towns with queuing traffic and hoardes of people on the streets is something else. It makes me so thankful to live in Scotland.

Don't encourage them. I say this only half jokingly. Most of the people who have recently moved to my rural area are English and are putting property prices out of reach for locals who have grown up and/or work in the countryside . Additionally, they're all work from home types who have no connection to or understanding of the countryside as a living and working landscape.

Yes, it is. It's hard when there's no houses for people, yet lots of the green space has been built on, so there isn't the space to walk-but people still can't get houses! And it's frustrating when the services you used to rely on are too busy to help-whether that's transport to get someone you love to hospital, parking, no one answering the phone to help you with that person, and then having to see them left in a chair for 2 days in AE (and yes, they needed to be there).

WTF?

I agree. There used to be quiet times to go to shops and places. Now busy. I hate constant loud noise and music. Nothing is relaxing.

Don't engage. This poster does not do evidence. Or any rational debate.

it sounds like hell. Thank goodness I live in a country with a small population and don't have these issues, it can't make life pleasant.

I'm weird because I like either no people or loads of people. No people and you're alone with your thoughts/there's less noise. And lots of people and you're one of many so blend into the crowd. It's hard though nowadays. Way too much access to news and outside noise.

I think with things like walks, a big difference is everythingis online. "Best hidden places/parks/walk" to visit near (insert their location)" aand what used to be quiet local knowledge only has turned into knowledge of the world all in the space of about 15 years since online really picked up/smartphones gathered momentum.

I have lost a lot of driving confidence now and absolutly hate slip lanes, mororways or driving far from home. Im currently visiting a relative in a town up relatively north scotland and its quiet, theres less noise in the air, only birds or barking dogs but theres very little noise in the air which is peaceful. the train jorney here is 2.5hrs cost £80 - I could have driven for a lot less fuel cost and similar time but wont to do it due to all the motorway drivng, if i do it using google maps and remove motorways the drive increases to 4 hours and theres still lots of slip roads on dual carriageways/A roads etc.

I wish things were quieter in general but i live in central belt Scotland and thers lots more people it feels like. It seems popular with people moving like immigration/refugees etc and also popular with people moving from England, I know 4 (lovely) ladies in my own circle who have packed up and left England for a new life in my small town all over the past year.

Then my area has always been a bit of a tourist place but is absolutly rammed busy everywhere now and its a lot of chinese/indian tourists...which was never the case so even local walks feel a bit off when constantly surrounded by other languages in the air. So I tend to stay on the outskirts of town and only go to main places in winter as parking is also an issue/impossible during spring/summer/autumn.

It is fatiguing, it is definitly busier where I am but I defintitly think the internet has a lot to do with it.

I live by the town centre in a very busy Surrey town. I love the buzz and all the amenities so can’t complain but I have a secret walk I do most days to a huge empty green space with a river running through it. Usually 0-1 people there. The town planners are apparently wanting to install a proper path and open up access as people don’t seem to have the mindset of using a muddy poorly signposted track to get there.
I find there is usually somewhere you can escape to. But agree too many people. We need to deflate a bit. Maybe 20%.

dogs' barking certainly contributes to the noise pollution

Not necessarily. I'm from Northumberland (admittedly the south) and I came on here to say we went to Druridge Bay over the Bank Holiday. Admittedly it was Lanzarote temperatures at probably the most popular time of the year. But I was shocked at how crowded it was. Cars were backed up in queues down the country lanes. People couldn't get parked and were driving away. This is the quiet, off-the-beaten track beach I grew up near – often it would just be a few families and a couple of dog walkers. So many nice places just feel rammed.