Roads getting safer or more dangerous ?

[Biggilus]

I've been drivign for fifteen years or so and started cycling in London when I moved here this year. Got to say I'm glad I have all that driving excperience under my belt, allowing me to know when some dick is doing to do something retarded. Been in two situations only - one when someoen opened his car door into me (shame his car door didn't come flying off with 100kg of me plus my bike going into it) and another when somen rather intelligent and observant parent pushed their pram into the bike lane a few feet infront of me.
My mates have a really dangerous attitude of "I'm in the right, if that car does X Y or Z he's in the wrong". He may be in the wrong but they may end up six feet under due to stubborness.

And then I witness the real reason why cycling in London is considered dangerous - the amount of ***** jumping red lights, weaving in and out of buses and lorries, just doing as they please - it's astonishing. Surprised I've not witnessed something horrific to these *****s. And it's not just the Boris bike suit wearing freaks, Deliveroo cyclists with no helmets, stupid topknots and braided beards alike can be just as mental.

After reading a few comments, the first thing I'm going to do is tilt down my front light (but at £35 a pair I doubt it's super bright).

 

[Orionaut]

Exactly. Which is why people should be concentrating on the bigger risk. Cars.

The "Rate" at which cyclists kill/injure pedestrians is comparable to the "Rate" at which the safest motorised vehicles do so (Light goods vehicle drivers AKA "White Van Man" surprisingly.)

(By "Rate" I mean "Casualties per "X" collective Vehicle miles")

The really dangerous vehicles, by a country mile, are Busses! They should be absolutely banned!

Spoiler

This is admittedly, very old data, but I do not expect things have changed that much http://www.safespeed.org.uk/pedrisk.html

 

[div0]

Worth a watch.

Great in theory and completely obvious to the majority who have any clue about driving, but actually most of what that shows is that when the roads are busy, it only takes one or two 'bad' drivers to start screwing everything up.

 

[Sixense]

Been cycling for a while now, have some driving experience from back home, not bought a car here yet (can get everywhere on my pushbike). In my experience, if everyone paid a bit more attention to other parties on the road rather than 'MOVE MORONS, I'M MUY IMPORTANTE!!!!!' it would be a pleasure to be on the road, sadly this is not the case.

Just today some chick in a Qashqai was driving backwards out of an alley just wide enough for her to pass through, didn't even check her mirrors or looked through the back window, full throttle backwards at 8:50 am next to a school. Nearly hit 2 cars and was a proper scare for both of us as we were 2 feet from Qashqai's rear bumper when it drove out. When she got shouted at by just about everyone she didn't even get what she'd done.

 

[englishpremier]

UK roads aren't fit for purpose.

Even in light traffic, where I live it can take 45 minutes for a simple 14 miles commute. In towns the 20mph limits don't help as it encourages pedestrians to walk in front of cars, and encourages drivers to not pay attention.

Public transport is a joke too, so that encourages more traffic which further streatches the road network to breaking point. I recently looked up an advance train ticket from Norwich to Luton Airport. The price was over £60. I can make a round trip including parking for £30 if I travel with my own vehicle.

 

[Amp34]

There is way more aggression on the roads, even here in semi rural Devon... tailgating and general unpleasantness... Better cars have made for less deaths, but driving seems to get worse [and there have been loads of accidents recently, esp. over the school hols]... Courtesy is worse, fewer people thank you, or just carry on regardless of obstructions on there side of the road... and as for indicating? nah, that would would mean putting the mobile down

I don't drive far on a daily basis... school run, and taking my wife to work, which is around fifteen miles a day, but almost every day there is something that makes my feeling for humanity sink a little lower.

Having driven reasonably extensively throughout the western world (Europe, North America and Australia), and been driven round in many developing countries I'd argue that British drivers are amongst the most aggressive in the world. It really is a horrible place to drive, even driving in Eastern Europe is more relaxing, to the point I tried to drive as little as possible in the UK, but would be happy to drive around Europe. I've found Canada and the US, as well as Australia to be far more relaxing as well.

Part of it is almost ertaily number of cars on the road, but that doesn't count for all of it as driving in cities in is far worse in the UK. Car craft, lane control and manners just seem to be lacking in the UK compared to most other places.

 

[Finglonga]

More dangerous without a doubt especially after the last few days of fog. Saw a so many with no lights on and on the phone. Funny how most were on the school run with their kids in the back as well!

Even in low light at dawn and dusk people are just driving around with DRL's not realising the rear lights are not on.

 

[Tefal]

I agree Adolf. I'm the same as you too, I don't throw a tantrum, what's the point. What I usually end up with in the situation when I'm behind a cyclist in my car is the car behind me blasting their horn as I'm not willing to make a dangerous passing maneuver.

I also think we tend to pick out and remember the bad examples of driving / cycling standards on the roads and do not register the other percentage that are all moving along on their merry way without causing any mayhem.

Drop back from the cycalist instead of aitting on his rear wheel then.


That way the car can over take you when safe then a seperate over take fkr the cycalist.


Thats my main bug bear anything going slow and one unconfident driver = a trail of 5 plus cars all sat on each others bumper.

Thus makibg it impossible to saflety over take any of them.

If all the car idiots kept a sensible gap i coupd bunny hop down the line and past, instead it becomes a far too risky multi car over take

 

[HangTime]

So has there been a gradual increase in fatalities and accidents since then or have the numbers stayed on par ?

Just curious

I looked into this a year ago or so (for other reasons, mainly to highlight how blase people are about a 'technology' [automobiles] involved in the deaths of so many people, over a MILLION a year worldwide) and it was the opposite in the UK, fatalities are on a downward trend. Road accidents are 'only' killing about 150 people a month on average nowadays, it used to be more than double that.

edit: to address the original question, my opinion is that the roads themselves aren't getting much safer, but vehicles are.

 

[snowdog]

standard of driving is atrocious, people right up my back not leaving a safe distance, cutting up on roundabouts, switching lanes all the time just to get maybe one or 2 cars ahead, using phones/sat nav while driving, speeding or driving 10mph+ under the speed limit, very bright headlights dazzling everyone coming towards it and nobody knows how to use their handbrake so just rock backwards and forwards at red lights...

lazy pedestrians walking out into the road all over the place instead of using the islands or traffic lights that are less than 100ft away...

cyclists not signalling, not wearing a helmet, cycling at night with no lights, cycling with a front flashing light towards oncoming traffic... i'm sure front white flashy ones are illegal, cycling side by side with another cyclist...

no police presence anywhere, i can't remember the last time i saw police that wasn't in a helicopter.


add all that together and roads should be illegal.

How old are you? Most accidents are caused by not respecting/mistakes with the right of way.

Cycling with helmets, lol, sure, discourage cycling even more. Nobody but mountain bikers or racing cyclists wear helmets.

Keeping more than 1 second distance is impossible in rush hour traffic, you will get people in gaps over and over again, I've driven a car with adaptive cruise control in the past, and the minimum distance I could set was 1 sec, car went on the brakes every few seconds because someone merged in front, in rush hour it's impossible to keep more distance, either keep to little distance, or you have a traffic jam (or you need a lot more lanes for the traffic). It is exactly the reason why some roads have have a higher daily traffic than theoretically possible at 2 sec distance, simply because in rush hour people drive bumper on bumper, even at 50-60mph.

Police are way to much on the roads, let them do more important stuff than getting extra tax income on the motorways. At least if they need to be in traffic, post then in residential areas, cities, schools, not the bloody motorway.

Speed limits are stupidly low, to a point where driving is so boring, you start doing other stuff while driving to keep you amused.

Traffic lights are for idiots anyhow who have no idea how to find a gap/have no spatial awareness, on my moped I always avoid traffic lights if I can drive around em 30 yards further down the road like here: https://goo.gl/maps/z57LqTS7R7C2 , waiting on the green on the cycle path is guaranteed to take longer than quickly going around them.

Same as pedestrian, to hell with traffic lights, if traffic allows it I will cross the road quickly without hindering anyone.

In the middle of the night with nobody around if some idiot civil servant decides to leave the traffic lights on instead of flashing amber, I will take a good look around, good look behind me and if there's no one around I'll ignore unnecessary traffic lights.

If people would actually mind the road&traffic instead of sleeping at the wheel, playing with their mobiles, and being paranoid with their speedometer, it'd be much safer. Less dumbing down of traffic with lights or speed awareness rubbish, more awareness on everyone around you and the actual road.

 

[Orionaut]

More dangerous without a doubt especially after the last few days of fog. Saw a so many with no lights on
Even in low light at dawn and dusk people are just driving around with DRL's not realising the rear lights are not on.

I blame the "Auto Light" technology.

People set the lights to "Auto" and then think no more of it.

The Auto sensors do not respond well to crepuscular and daytime fog situations.

Technology "To make life easier" is all well and good, but unfortunately it frequently does seem to have the side effect of destroying most peoples ability to think for themselves.

Perhaps there are some technologies that we really would be better off without!

 

[Gixer]

Drop back from the cycalist instead of aitting on his rear wheel then.


That way the car can over take you when safe then a seperate over take fkr the cycalist.


Thats my main bug bear anything going slow and one unconfident driver = a trail of 5 plus cars all sat on each others bumper.

Thus makibg it impossible to saflety over take any of them.

If all the car idiots kept a sensible gap i coupd bunny hop down the line and past, instead it becomes a far too risky multi car over take

You think I'm an unconfident driver?! oh my.... if you say so. I'm also not sat on the cyclists read wheel, what if he brakes suddenly?

Why you post such tosh referring to me as unconfident when you do not even know me or how I drive or whether I may have even completed any advanced riding / driving courses etc I do not know. Must have been a bad day in the office for you today?

 

[Tefal]

You think I'm an unconfident driver?! oh my.... if you say so. I'm also not sat on the cyclists read wheel, what if he brakes suddenly?

Why you post such tosh referring to me as unconfident when you do not even know me or how I drive or whether I may have even completed any advanced riding / driving courses etc I do not know. Must have been a bad day in the office for you today?

if you had a sufficient gap between you and the cyclist why did the car have to "blast its horn" at you when it could have just over taken you into the gap?

 

[fez]

Most people are just self obsessed ***** is the biggest issue. I'm quite amazed at how many people will block off a side road with someone waiting to pull out when they are going to queue at traffic lights.
The road we come out of to join the main road has traffic lights about 20 metres down the road and about 50% of the time people will crawl up and queue without letting you out so that they are 3 metres further in the queue.

 

[platypus]

if you had a sufficient gap between you and the cyclist why did the car have to "blast its horn" at you when it could have just over taken you into the gap?

I rather think that was his point, wasn't it? The car didn't have to blast his horn, but did so because road users are impatient, rude, and only care about themselves getting from a to be in the fastest time possible, and damn any one else who dare hold them up.

 

[Orionaut]

Most people are just self obsessed ***** is the biggest issue. I'm quite amazed at how many people will block off a side road with someone waiting to pull out when they are going to queue at traffic lights.

The road we come out of to join the main road has traffic lights about 20 metres down the road and about 50% of the time people will crawl up and queue without letting you out so that they are 3 metres further in the queue.

That one gets my goat too.

My access is about six car lengths up stream of a mini roundabout, at busy times people will queue across the driveway to prevent egress even when it is clear I am waiting, Why, just why.

Actually, it gets worse.

If I am coming home (From the direction of the mini roundabout) and wish to turn right into my driveway, queuing traffic will typically actively move forward to prevent me from entering my drive despite the fact that I am signalling and my intentions are perfectly clear.

I absolutely cannot comprehend what is going through peoples minds at this point, I really cannot!

At this point traffic will begin to build up behind me while I wait for the other traffic lane to move.

At this point it is not uncommon for people further back to enter the roundabout when the exits are no longer clear. (Which is also first magnitude ****tardary!)

By now, The whole system is gridlocked by the tool who has deliberately prevented me from entering my drive.

I confess I can be a stubborn sod at times and should this situation arise, I am perfectly happy to sit there listening to music until the ****tards realise that they are going to have to shuffle forward/back to make enough room for me to get through otherwise nobody is going to go anywhere anytime soon!

I only hope that they learn something constructive from the experience about not blocking off side accesses while queuing. But they probably won't!

 

[h4rm0ny]

Three most annoying things when I'm driving:
1. People stopping on the yellow hatched area of a junction. It's there for a good reason.
2. Speed limited lorries trying to overtake each other on the motorway blocking off two lanes as one crawls past the other over the course of ten minutes.
3. Cyclists with strobing lights.

Honourable mention: The fact that motorways are still legally set at 70mph upper limit. I would think it should be time to take it higher, though I'll change that view if stats showed otherwise.

 

[Nevakonaza]

I dont drive myself,But when im a passenger and just observing,The amount of people that are just not paying attention to whats going on around them is unbelievable.

Usually they're distracted by chatting,Or on their phone..or plain Simpy in a world of their own.

 

[kinetic747]

The number of people on mobiles whilst driving is staggering and for the life of me I can't understand why this isn't taken seriously. They should introduce bans for anyone caught, traffic would reduce by10% pretty quickly and I would get less stressed on my commute.

 

[itchy]

The number of people on mobiles whilst driving is staggering and for the life of me I can't understand why this isn't taken seriously. They should introduce bans for anyone caught, traffic would reduce by10% pretty quickly and I would get less stressed on my commute.

Am on the crotch lookers and am on it like a rash.

They on there mobile phones, its in there lap and continue to do what ever, you can see them looking down at it in traffic lights.

Another retard in a Bentley I might add the other day, was trying to open a sandwich while driving, they where all over the road.
I didn't move as my car is worth about 3k and hers was worth at least 50K, smash into me tuff I don't care old car.

I absolutely hate phone zombies, no matter what you doing, driving, walking, taking a dump. (Yes my missus does this). They really do my head in big time.