I’m a petrolhead through and through. I love cars, talking about them, driving them (sometimes..), even cleaning them.. However, recently I absoutely loath driving anywhere during anything remotely considered peak time.

I don’t think it has helped that every road in Newcastle/Gateshead has been ripped up recently but there seems to be so much agression amongst motorists at the moment; tailgaiting, not merging in turn, beeping, flashing, shouting, giving the “bird”, undertaking and squeezing back in to get 1 car length ahead etc. etc.

Unless the roads are really quiet I just can’t be arsed with it anymore but my job means I’m always driving somewhere different in the UK. Yesterday for example I ended up in the wrong lane coming out of Preston only for it to disappear.. as I indicated and pulled back across the bloke behind went absolutely bananas.. seatbelt off, oot the car, ready for war.. luckily the traffic started moving and that was that.

Does anyone else think it has got a LOT worse recently? Is it just increased volume and general stress levels?!

Winter is usually worse.

Until the first really hot day. 😆

I agree. Drove to London and back yesterday (from Yorkshire) and the amount of idiot/angry drivers was disconcerting.

You like cleaning cars? Does that stretch to motorbikes? Mine *really* needs a good clean…

Rachel

Does anyone else think it has got a LOT worse recently? Is it just increased volume and general stress levels?!

I’m not sure what you mean by recently but I would say year on year it gets worse. Probably in part due to increasing congestion, and in part due to people become more detached from reality and human interaction.

Self service tills, online shopping etc etc modern life in general is becoming more impersonal and less polite. couple that with increased consumerism and importance placed on material possessions, people’s need/right to have cars and how attached or empowered they make them feel and you have a recipe for disaster when someone’s little metal world invades your little metal world. If you commute by bike it’s ten fold in terms of stress and aggression directed at you, and driving a car is relatively detached in comparison.

It’s amazing how people forget themselves. When I was commuting through Belfast by bike I regularly had single women drivers, pensioners etc threaten me, try to run me over, challenge me physically etc…..I had a frail oul boy in a people carrier deliberately ram me at a set of lights because I filtered past him a few times, threatening to beat the **** out of me etc. One punch would have killed him.

People totally forget who they are and how vulnerable they are in the real world.

It’s frickin horrendous – I do 30-40,000 miles a year and it’s a zoo out there. Somehting about stepping inside their tin-box of power that turns ordinary people in to total arseholes. Dunno what it is but we’d all better off without them (cars, that is).

Does anyone else think it has got a LOT worse recently?

Nope. It’s been gradually getting worse and worse as the roads in this country fill up with thick idiots in cars.

Same here, everyone is so territorial and truck drivers are the worst and not understanding the merge in turn principal. Everywhere around the outskirts of manchester is being dug up and where there are lane reductions there are queues, made twice as long by truck drivers blocking the road. Nobody is allowed to get by them, including emergency vehicles stuck in the tailbacks that they can’t see.

I do think the lack of real human interaction means that people are less able to see a situation from any viewpoint other than their own. Combined with increased congestion it’s a recipe for idiots to prosper.

We’re all becoming like Americans online even when we’re offline. Faster, ruder and cruder. This could be the Age of Ego.

It’s definitely not a new thing for sure. Once you accept that about every 3rd driver on the road is a complete cock you get over it. Helps massively to live somewhere away from major traffic congestion too.

they are all angry

i find it gets even worse if you dare to let someone out of a junction infront of you . the number of times ive had folk give me gestures/horn abuse for daring to let someone out into the flow of traffic to help other roads flow…..

but the person behind me will get home 14 seconds later.

Why though? Why is everyone RACING to get to work? “Must get in front of that one more car before my junction, cut in at the last second and I’ll get to the queue before them! There got it 1st place go me! Oh they’ev just passed me in the other lane even though they were sitting behind a lorry going 60mph. DAMMIT tomorrow will be my day I’ll cut across 3 lanes of traffic at the last second without indicating and take them all by surprise. Suckers!”
Its mental.

We’re all becoming like Americans online even when we’re offline. Faster, ruder and cruder.

Well, Americans are generally a lot more friendly and open as long as you don’t disagree with them – and funnily enough they are far more docile on the roads than people are here.

They generally aren’t concentrating on driving though – not sure which is worse!

in part due to people become more detached from reality and human interaction.

+1

I started driving late. I found it quite hard to adjust to people acting aggressively towards me in their cars.

If someone did some of the gestures, physical manoeuvres or horn etc while you passed each other in the street on foot, you’d be likely to knock them out in self defence. I reacted quite badly at first, taking each as a personal attack, when in reality it’s just people who are hiding in their little metal bubble, completely detached from the fact that its other people surrounding them, not anonymous cars.

I was in the wrong lane approaching traffic lights not long after I passed my test and sat for a while with my indicator on trying to get in. I waited for the stream of cars to pass and eventually I edged into space, but as I did so the lights changed and I stopped at the line. The person behind me had obviously wanted to squeeze through on red and wasn’t happy that I’d stopped them, so decided to sit behind me with their hand on the horn…constantly! I lost patience after 30 seconds and got out the car and walked casually towards theirs (I’m not an aggressive guy at all, I just planned to tell them to take their hand off their horn)…but as I approached, the guy in the car threw it into reverse and sped backwards at full tilt, before swinging it round and speeding off in the other direction!! 🙂 It seems that people don’t understand how confrontational their actions can be perceived.

I think British drivers are still the most relaxed and courteous I have ever encountered. Almost too polite e.g. the complete inability to zip merge, but there you go.

Just had two separate incidents as a pedestrian crossing the zebras in Asda car park. First, a jag revs like crazy and charges the crossing trying to intimidate me into not crossing. Then as I’m halfway across the other Zebra the woman in a Qashcow just looks at me and drives across. Nuts.

I can’t get over the amount of people who get all aggro when you have the nerve to overtake.
And I mean overtaking safely with plenty of room, and not tailgating beforehand.
A couple of days ago I overtook a respectable looking old man who was sat at 40 on a national speed limit road, and despite me having my boy in the car, he flipped me the bird!
You also get them flashing lights and beeping.
I haven’t challenged your masculinity, I just drove past you in a car!

Is this a backwards welsh phenomenon, or does this happen elsewhere too?

oh the other one is on round abouts up here – you some times come off in the RH lane.

folks will actively try and undertake you as your moving to the LH lane with your indicator on and get shirty when you have completed your manuver and they had to slow down from their frantic undertake – or worse – they ones that just sit in the vans blind spot on the LH side not undertaking but not dropping back-as you indicate while the guy behind you is on your arse trying to ram you out his way.

or what about the 45mph A road driver – who will always speed up when you overtake him….. my wee van only has 68 bhp so i have no choice but to drop back.

Thats why i like the trains and buses let some one else have all that stress, just wish the bus/train companies would get their acts together and offer a better service.

Is this a backwards welsh phenomenon, or does this happen elsewhere too?

Happens down here. Car in front going slow on the A road, follow at a reasonable distance, overtake when clear…. Flash flash go the headlights! dunno what they’re on.

trail_rat – Member

oh the other one is on round abouts up here – you some times come off in the RH lane.

Round my way it’s people trying to turn left from the RH entrance lane that you have to watch for. Impatient idiots. Saw a nasty crash were one of them drove straight into the car in the LH lane that was (legally and perfectly entitled to) going straight on. Luckily there were plenty of people about because RH left turn driver was adamant that he’d done nothing wrong was ready to properly rage it up.

DezB – Member

Happens down here. Car in front going slow on the A road, follow at a reasonable distance, overtake when clear…. Flash flash go the headlights! dunno what they’re on.

I thought it was just an uptight northern Irish thing, doesn’t matter if I’m overtaking one car or twelve (hello molgrips), quite often flashed lights and tooting horns.

Walking through Tesco car park the other way, some woman driving towards me starts leaning on her horn.

I was all “WTF, what’s her problem, I’m only walking along here,” then she smiled and waved at her friend who was behind me. 😳

There are some right idiots out there! I suspect they’re just a bit tired and scared – I give ’em a wide berth and let them get on with it.

Road speed doesn’t seem to be considered as a factor as to whether you’re ‘allowed’ to overtake or not – just whether or not your car is more expensive than theirs.

Last night, just north of Sheffield on the M1 (about 6.30pm) I came up to an accident and all around me cars were swerving to get off the sliproad, cutting across hatched areas, reversing (despite several plods coming up on the inside using the hard shoulder). It probably took 10 minutes to clear the accidents (there appeared to be two or three separate incidents) so an utterly pointless (on top of being incredibly dangerous) exercise.

Then straight away I saw people accelerating hard, getting up the backs of cars in front of them, undertaking etc – hadn’t any one of them absorbed the fact that they had just passed an accident and driving like that was likely to lead to another?

I don’t think it has helped that every road in Newcastle/Gateshead has been ripped up recently but there seems to be so much agression amongst motorists at the moment; tailgaiting, not merging in turn, beeping, flashing, shouting, giving the “bird”, undertaking and squeezing back in to get 1 car length ahead etc. etc.

I don’t think you can underestimate that. The town is a spectacular mess at the moment. It took me over two hours to get from Wylam to the QE and back at about ten pm last friday. If I was doing that every day I’d throw myself in the river.

I certainly think that red light jumping by cars has got much worse. Been commuting the same route by bike for 14 years and recently it seems at every junction cars just keep going through after it’s changed to red and just don’t seem to care that they’re endangering pedestrians / cyclists by speeding through red lights.

I think British drivers are still the most relaxed and courteous I have ever encountered

crikey, where are you from? British drivers are at times shocking.

Had one a few weeks ago coming down a residential street in his fancy little Audi at a ridiculous speed; obstacle on his side but he barges through anyway, making me brake although there’s nothing on my (uphill) side. so I give a bit of a hoot and the bugger turns round and starts chasing me, all the while gesticulating frantically at me and turning purple! Turns out he’s a member of my gym and a total cock in there too. Competitive spinning? yep, that’s him. Rush to get in front of you at the queue for the entrance turnstiles? yep, that too

I found Canadian drivers to be the nicest that I have ever encountered.

“just keep going through after it’s changed to red and just don’t seem to care that they’re endangering pedestrians / cyclists by speeding through red lights.”

totally agree

just about got rear ended by a mini last week when i drove in as i had the audacity to stop at a red light – they had been accelerating from a long way back hoping to nick through behind me – only i had stopped as it was red and he came screetching up behind me brakes locked and dived into the empty space next to me – didnt make eye contact at all despite me burning holes in the side of his head.

british drivings not so bad . try kuwait/azerbaijan/texas/ukraine/belgium at rush hour. makes the uk seem pleasant.

LA is interesting! Don’t think there’s enough time to get angry concentrating on what’s going on around you 100% of the time!

I think it is just a gradual degradation, rather than a recent thing.

I have thought about posting the same thing on here for quite a while, but it just sounds like too depressing a subject and horrible to bother with.

I hate my commute now (in the car).
You leave a gap for someone to pull into who is indicating and get no thanks.
People come up slip roads like they have a divine right to pull out exactly where you are, or try desparately to get a nose in front so they can force their way in (even if there’s no space on your outside for you to move over).
People deliberately getting in the wrong lane because the queue is shorter and then just barging their way across at the last minute.
People leaving it until the last minute to exit the main carriageway at the junction they require, causing everyone to brake as they swerve into a non-existent space.
People speeding up when you overtake them.

I have on numerous occasions thought about joining in and turning into an aggressive knob driver, but I am not sure that I want to lower myself to their level.
Not saying I am a driving angel, but I do try to be considerate and think about what others might be about to do or might want to do, my position on the road and how it affects others etc.
Many people’s attitude seems to be ‘must get there at all costs, regardless of everyone else’.

First, a jag revs like crazy

the woman in a Qashcow

in his fancy little Audi

Why do some of you feel the need to specify what type of car it was that pissed you off? It’s like reading a Daily Mail story.

moshimonster

in his fancy little Audi

Why do some of you feel the need to specify what type of car it was that pissed you off? It’s like reading a Daily Mail story.

Because more often than not an Audi is involved. And also, why not? “A car did this, then another car did this, and then a third car did something else” is silly. He’s just adding more detail to flesh out the story and to help you visualise it.

stumpy01 –
People deliberately getting in the wrong lane because the queue is shorter and then just barging their way across at the last minute.

What’s the correct name for this and is it illegal? It boils my piss. When I drove to work I had to go through a major junction where approximately 70% of drivers did this, the net effect was a half mile queue of traffic whilst they barged in forcing other drivers to stop. On principal I never jumped the queue no matter how late I was.

Its odd how the speed people drive and the performance of their car seems to be indicative of their human capability. Its just a machine FFS and nothing to do with you, it just happens to be the thing your driving. Challenge me to a physical / mental test and we’re talking something more meaningful about our existences.

The self-righteous ones who think they’re setting a good example or trying to force what they perceive as ‘Good practice’ are just as bad.

Yesterday for example I ended up in the wrong lane coming out of Preston only for it to disappear.. as I indicated and pulled back across the bloke behind went absolutely bananas.. seatbelt off, oot the car, ready for war..
Ah good old Preston. Last year I saw someone jump out of their car, stand on the bonnet of the car behind and try and punch there way through their windscreen before they managed to drive off. Unfortunately the guy jumped off the bonnet and tried to rip the car door off then.

i think half of the problem is the distinct lack of enforcement of anything other than speed limits. There’s one junction I know in Bradford that has traffic light cameras; the driving standards around that junction are soooo much better than, say the next junction along.

I think when the displays on the motorway say ‘Stay in lane’ when there’s heavy congestion there needs to be some sort of Tron style light wall that instantly destroys any vehicle that doesn’t.

I agree though, people are becoming almost detached as they spend so much time communicating electronically.

As balance I had some mum dropping her kids of massively cut me up and put me off the road. Once i had rejoined the road i was filtering past her and she had her window down immediately apologising for being a twunt. I let her off.

I recently drove on motorways in the SE of UK having not done so for about a year (living overseas). I was shocked at how I had become unnacustomed to the level of concentration required, mainly due to the volume of traffic, the contant overtaking / undertaking all around, the lack separation etc. And that was the same in the pouring rain, no-one seemed to drive to the conditions at all. I am so glad I don’t live in the SE of England anymore for this reason alone. And I don’t buy the whole “British drivers are so good compared to everyone else” crap, it seemed worse to me not better. But I also thought it had got a lot worse than I remember, I think mainly due to the sheer number of cars on the road all the time.