[Jon TDI]

Is it just me or is the standard of driving drastically reduced?

I have a 17 mile commute and it’s recently become more like wacky races.
Tailgating, lane hogging, undertakes and a lot of aggressive manoeuvres.

I just let people get on with it but tonight was exceptionally bad.

[MY340i]

couldn't agree more

[Pentland]

It’s part of the entitled persona that seems to be the norm these days.

[Leeg1633]

Totally agree. I work nights so most of my driving is done during quiet times. Whenever I do drive in day / rush hour times I always hold back and let 'them' get on with it.

[bishbosh]

In the last two days I've seen 3 cars without their lights on in the dead of night. I don't mean sidelights but no dipped beam, just no lights at all.

[SkyJawa]

Yep, it’s shit, everyone has a total lack of patience to wait a second or 2 for the right moment and would rather risk an accident/their life than getting to where they are going 5 seconds later.

[erickonphoenix]

Can report that the US is the same way. It's an absolute shit show during rush hour even on the reverse commute.

[Pond]

I thought it was just me being old and cranky, and the fact that most of my 'neighbours' never took a driving test in the UK (if at all TBH).

Could be an upshot of the 'I just don't care about anything or anybody except myself' mentality which seems to have gripped this Country in the last decade or so.

[Armaan]

I wouldn’t even consider it recent to be honest, it’s been pretty bad post-Covid lockdown. It’s a combination of impatience, entitlement and poor judgement in my view.

Most recently I’ve seen people blindly pulling out of junctions and blatant misuse to traffic light lanes to name a few - Mrs saw a pretty bad accident of the latter a few days ago, where neither yielded and they just went into each other.

It takes two poor drivers to have an accident, so best leave them to it.

Armaan

[TurboWeasel]

What I find particularly amusing are the people who think indicating = right of way when changing lanes. I've lost count of the amount of people who get butt hurt and chase after me aggressively because I didn't yield when they flicked their indicator on, just as I was alongside their rear quarter about to overtake them.

They can do one as I'm not slamming my brakes on in the outside lane. These people should read the fricking highway code and understand what broken white lines mean. GIVE WAY. Dumb arse.

As well as entitlement and impatience, I blame poor tuition.

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by Armaan

It takes two poor drivers to have an accident, so best leave them to it.

Armaan

Originally Posted by TurboWeasel

What I find particularly amusing are the people who think indicating = right of way when changing lanes. I've lost count of the amount of people who get butt hurt and chase after me aggressively because I didn't yield when they flicked their indicator on, just as I was alongside their rear quarter about to overtake them.

They can do one as I'm not slamming my brakes on in the outside lane. These people should read the fricking highway code and understand what broken white lines mean. GIVE WAY. Dumb arse.

As well as entitlement and impatience, I blame poor tuition.

Errr, broken white lines don’t mean give way

So in that situation you’d prefer to crash than to potentially avoid a crash? Seems legit.

[AlwynMike]

If you've done a Speed Awareness course (recently?) you would be amazed and shocked at the sort of people we share the roads with.

[Jon TDI]

Originally Posted by bishbosh

In the last two days I've seen 3 cars without their lights on in the dead of night. I don't mean sidelights but no dipped beam, just no lights at all.

Yep, seen 2 cars driving in dark with no lights in the past week.

I assume the DRLs were bright enough for them to see the road

[Jon TDI]

Originally Posted by TurboWeasel

What I find particularly amusing are the people who think indicating = right of way when changing lanes. I've lost count of the amount of people who get butt hurt and chase after me aggressively because I didn't yield when they flicked their indicator on, just as I was alongside their rear quarter about to overtake them.

They can do one as I'm not slamming my brakes on in the outside lane. These people should read the fricking highway code and understand what broken white lines mean. GIVE WAY. Dumb arse.

As well as entitlement and impatience, I blame poor tuition.

Whatever happened to Mirror Signal Manoeuvre?

[TurboWeasel]

Originally Posted by Pentland

Errr, broken white lines don’t mean give way

So in that situation you’d prefer to crash than to potentially avoid a crash? Seems legit.

Broken white lines = change lanes with caution but give way to faster moving traffic. i.e. the outside lane. MSM as Jon said. Don't just barge in.

Solid white lines = no overtaking.

Broken white lines at junctions = give way to priority traffic.

So if someone tries to force their way into my lane when I'm alongside them, I should just slam my brakes on to let them out, and to hell with the person behind me? If that is your attitude, you are part of the problem then.

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by TurboWeasel

Broken white lines = change lanes with caution but give way to faster moving traffic. i.e. the outside lane. MSM as Jon said. Don't just barge in.

Solid white lines = no overtaking.

Broken white lines at junctions = give way to priority traffic.

So if someone tries to force their way into my lane when I'm alongside them, I should just slam my brakes on to let them out, and to hell with the person behind me? If that is your attitude, you are part of the problem then.

Still not quite right.

Broken white lines are lane dividers, you should keep between them. No requirement to give way. However, rule 133 comes into play (MSM).

You don’t get a single solid white line on the off side except as a bus lane / segregated lane marking. I think you are thinking about double solid white lines or solid white line with a parallel dashed line.

Solid white lines on the near side are road edge markings. Feel free to cross those

Give way markings at a junction are broken double white lines preceded with a white inverted triangle.

Someone forcing into a lane is different to someone who hasn’t seen you, or simply ignoring you when merging in. Forcing in suggests that you can both see each other and there is confrontation in which case you are equally to blame and you can easily solve the conflict by yeilding. For the 2nd situation, usually a sound of the horn to indicate your presence is enough to alert the other driver. Excessive braking in any case is clearly an emergency last resort.

[chrismuk]

Yep its shocking. Even in my small ish town its bad enough. But when i go to cities like Manchester and especially Birmingham I jjust let them get on with it as the standard of driving in Birmingham is horrendous!!

[Alscoob]

Not many people read the road and traffic situation IMO or practice defensive driving (don't put yourself in a position you can't get out of). They tailgate the car in front of them and I doubt if they have a clue what is happening 100m further up the road, seem to be on & off the brakes all the time. I generally stay well clear.

You can spot them quite easily, just glance to your left and look at the driver you are overtaking on the motorway, most don't even know you are there. The same folk are the ones that don't see the blue light coming and when they do just hit the brakes, which is the last thing the rossas (or others) want when in hot pursuit!

I've always said that every car driver should take a proper motorcycle test first and ride one for a while which will really help their spacial awareness, but recently I have seen some right nobs on bikes, so I guess the standard is slipping in all avenues of transport, but the proportion is somewhat less.

I would rather be 10 minutes late in this world, than X years early in the next!!

.....but, as we drive BMW's we do have the advantage of a dedicated lane to drive in and no indicators to worry about to make life easier when on the phone ....

[Pond]

My 17 year old daughter passed her test just before xmas. It frightens me to death every time she goes out in her car TBH. I have tried educating her to presume EVERY other vehicle on the road will probably do something stupid at some point, but you really have to get real world experience to learn properly. That's the bit that bothers me.

When she was learning I lost count of the amount of vehicles that pulled out straight in front of her, or across her path. The car had fucking great big red "L" plates all over it!
And the amount of impatient, selfish winkers who blew their horn if she stalled at a junction in front of them. That one really pissed me off and made her anxious and nervous.

One positive thing, though. All her peers who have recently passed seem to drive incredibly carefully and sensibly, especially the boys. Maybe the black boxes do help!

[C320]

Originally Posted by Pond

My 17 year old daughter passed her test just before xmas. It frightens me to death every time she goes out in her car TBH. I have tried educating her to presume EVERY other vehicle on the road will probably do something stupid at some point, but you really have to get real world experience to learn properly. That's the bit that bothers me.

When she was learning I lost count of the amount of vehicles that pulled out straight in front of her, or across her path. The car had fucking great big red "L" plates all over it!
And the amount of impatient, selfish winkers who blew their horn if she stalled at a junction in front of them. That one really pissed me off and made her anxious and nervous.

One positive thing, though. All her peers who have recently passed seem to drive incredibly carefully and sensibly, especially the boys. Maybe the black boxes do help!

I'm not far behind you, my eldest daughter will be learning from July and it scares me too.

She's super keen on being able to drive and is car obsessed (my wife tells me it's all my fault!). Fortunately she's diligent and has been studying the highway code, doing practice theory & hazard perception videos. She's also had quite a few hours on a private road layout designed for learners.

All we can do is teach them is to always expect the unexpected! You raise a great point though, I genuinely believe that the black boxes do help (although I'm glad I never had to have them when I was younger ).

[bishbosh]

My daughter has her driving test booked for the end of March, she did a mock test with her instructor today who said she'd have passed if it was the proper test.

I've also been taking her out for practice sessions between her proper lessons and have been drilling into her to assume that every other road user is an idiot. Prime example being don't assume someone indicating left on a roundabout is going to take the next exit, pulling out and having the other driver running into you.

The number of people I see who indicate way too early is shocking.

[Watsey]

Originally Posted by bishbosh

In the last two days I've seen 3 cars without their lights on in the dead of night. I don't mean sidelights but no dipped beam, just no lights at all.

I'm seeing this more frequently. Two recent examples :

Dark, badly lit dual carriageway, dark car with 4 young occupants, driving in the right hand lane but not overtaking, no lights at all. I was behind it, repeatedly/rapidly flashing my main beams. No response. I turned my dipped headlight off/on several times. No response. The driver of a Range Rover undertook the car to pull slightly ahead of the car, and was repeatedly pointing through his open window at its headlights. No response. Eventually the driver understood what the problem was, and of course weaved across the lane while he was looking for the lights switch.

Fiat 500 driving along a 30mph road, pitch black night, zero rear lights, activating main beam and then switching it off when a car was approaching from the opposite direction. This happened multiple times while I was following. I flashed my main beam several times. No response. The car pulled into my road (then I realised that I recognised it) so I followed it until it parked. I stopped adjacent and did the 'wind your window down' signal, and then asked her if she knew she'd been driving with no rear lights and that when she turns off the main beam her car has no lights at all. "I use my main beam but turn it off when a car comes towards me" was the reply. When I asked her whether she actually knew how to turn the running lights on, she just looked at me with a blank expression until I drove off.

They are all around us. Keep your eyes open.