Standard of driving in the UK going downhill.

Caporegime
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I'm not bothered by learner drivers. After all, everyone has to learn at some stage and most of the ones I see are capable of doing the speed limit. I find it's only really noticeable when they attempt slow speed moves (pulling away etc) and I can wait an extra 2 mins.

Sadly, I've got no time for HGVs playing "who can complete the world's longest overtake?" because they pull out at 0.00001mph quicker than the guy they've been following for 14 miles. On a 3 lane motorway it's mildly annoying but on a 2 lane stretch where you get stuck behind them for 20 mins whilst they jostle for position... die.

Even worse than that is to see them ever so slowly creep past the truck they are overtaking until they get to a hill and the overtaking truck cant keep up his speed and you seem him slowly drifting backwards to once again start pulling forwards again when they get to the flat/downhill again.

Grinds my gears!

Especially on the A66 when the overtaking truck will take the entire section dual carriageway to complete this maneuver (or fail and drop back behind the truck again) and then everybody is stuck again for another 5 miles on the single carriageway until we get to another dual carriageway bit and the truck driver attempts the overtake again!
 
Caporegime
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We have these threads all the time, what I don't get is people were already saying the standard of driving was terrible 15 years ago, so is it really going downhill, or has it actually just remained terrible rather than progressing to really-super-dooper-terrible?
I don't think I've ever visited a country where the standard of driving is as high as it is the UK.

I lived in Holland for 8 years, got my drivers' licence there and worked as an apprentice HVAC installer travelling all over the country (and occasionally Germany & Belgium) in a van. I've also driven to pretty much every country in Europe in all manner of vehicles from a Citroen C3 to a 7.5 tonne truck, and it still staggers me to this day how crap the standard of driving in the UK is. I really struggle to wrap my head around middle-lane-syndrome, in most of Europe everyone's in lane 1, moving in the lane 2 for the odd lorry / truck, and the german get-outta-my-way-peasant cars are always zooming past in lane 3. Most of the time it's perfect harmony, yet here in the UK you can't go a mile without watching a car join a near empty motorway, join the middle lane, and stay there for the next 300 miles regardless of what happens around them. Tunnel vision on, mirrors disengaged, cruise on, and off we go.

Then we also have our lovely cab drivers here who did their drivers' licence in some ass-backwards third world country on a dirt track whilst riding a donkey, who come to the UK and get handed a UK licence with zero training, which is why most of them can't drive for toffee.

I'm not bothered by learner drivers. After all, everyone has to learn at some stage and most of the ones I see are capable of doing the speed limit. I find it's only really noticeable when they attempt slow speed moves (pulling away etc) and I can wait an extra 2 mins.

Sadly, I've got no time for HGVs playing "who can complete the world's longest overtake?" because they pull out at 0.00001mph quicker than the guy they've been following for 14 miles. On a 3 lane motorway it's mildly annoying but on a 2 lane stretch where you get stuck behind them for 20 mins whilst they jostle for position... die.

Same. I used to get irritated by learner drivers a decade ago but eventually realised that that was me at one point and I probably irritated loads of people too.

As for elephant racing, no time for it either. Is that 30 second advantage really that important?
 
Transmission breaker
Don
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In a house
As you get older, and have been driving longer, you get better at it (in most cases) you have made mistakes, learned from them along the way. Now you see the errors you were making unknowingly before in other newer/poorer drivers who are perhaps less experienced, and this gives you a false perception.
The reality of it is, that you becoming a better driver means you spot/call out/understand and experience more poor driving from others than you ever did before.
 
Man of Honour
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21 Feb 2006
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29,300
With the advent of cameras in cars there is a significant uplift in people who believe they are now road traffic officers. Speed is their demon in the main and they can drive in any lane they wish as they are ‘doing closer to the limit than you’. There feels to be an association with camera carrying motorists and indecisive manoeuvres, not least in sunny Devon where I was last weekend.

Nowt as strange as folk.
 
Man of Honour
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Stoke on Trent
I've given up caring anymore, my stress levels thank me for it.

I'm the same but I've also transposed this to my cycling.
At one time I got car road rage and I was even worse on a cycle because I'm so vulnerable to idiots.
For the last few years if I've not been hurt I just give a roll eyes if I can even be bothered to do that.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2006
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23,304
After lockdown when everyone else got back on the road I noticed it. Just the basics like bad car control, drifitng out of lane and cutting corners etc.
 
Soldato
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Birmingham
As you get older, and have been driving longer, you get better at it (in most cases) you have made mistakes, learned from them along the way. Now you see the errors you were making unknowingly before in other newer/poorer drivers who are perhaps less experienced, and this gives you a false perception.
The reality of it is, that you becoming a better driver means you spot/call out/understand and experience more poor driving from others than you ever did before.

I disagree. Sure everyone makes mistakes, but I've always* indicated when turning/changing lanes/etc. made a conscious effort to stay in my lane, e.g. when going around roundabouts, and never felt the need to drive 3 inches off someone's bumper to try and bully them out of the way. Those aren't mistakes, they are either laziness or aggression.


* of course I've forgotten to do so at times, but always feel like a right **** afterwards! I'm not claiming to be the perfect driver, far from it, but there's a difference between making genuine mistakes because you screwed up, and deliberately doing things wrong because you can't be bothered or you're an arrogant **** who thinks you own the road!
 

Deleted member 651465

D

Deleted member 651465

After lockdown when everyone else got back on the road I noticed it. Just the basics like bad car control, drifitng out of lane and cutting corners etc.

I remember driving around in the height of the 1st lockdown (as a key worker) and the only other drivers on the road seemed quite considerate and careful. Maybe it was people trying to avoid going in to work as much as possible mind :p

It is also very noticeable when the school holidays have started. The minute they go back, the idiots seem to emerge from the woodwork!
 
Soldato
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UK
Generally I find driving around in the middle of the day, or during school holidays, is basically fine.
But the school run + commuting traffic is an absolute nightmare. It's like all the trash drivers have kids.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Jan 2009
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6,358
I've noticed people have got very lazy when it comes to indicating, also regardless of the laws people still continue to use their phones without a care in the world chatting away, 9/10 they have a modern car that will most likely have build in Bluetooth,there is no excuse really.
I think more needs to be done.
  • Heavier fines on those caught on phone's
  • Heavier fines for those not wearing seat belts
  • Mandatory Driving RE-TEST every 10 years.
  • Mandatory eyesight checks every 5 years.

Might seem ott but I feel more should be done.
 
Soldato
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UK
Agree the eyesight requirement should be stricter.
My eyesight is shocking, I wouldn't drive without glasses, but the law thinks I'm fine.
IMO you need to be able to see basically everything or you shouldn't be driving.
 
Soldato
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East Midlands
As a driver and cyclist, the most noticeable thing to me over the past few years is drivers failing to make adequate progress together with undue hesitation at any form of junction. I would say it's mostly older drivers. Some are nothing other than terrifying to watch as motorists feel baited into overtaking. My current favourite is when they stop to give way to another passing vehicle when you could safely drive on in a small tank the gap is so large.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jun 2007
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9,273
Haha
If you really want to get wound up by our bad driving. Do some mileage on the continent, Then come back..... 4000 miles in Europe this month and not one lane hogger, Until back in blightly and then those straight off the tunnel lane hogging on the m20.....
 
Man of Honour
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29,300
Standards of lane control have always been better in mainland Europe. As you say it becomes blatantly apparent the moment you come off the Chunnel/ferry and hit a UK motorway.
 

Sho

Sho

Soldato
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Oldham
HGV Drivers when they try overtaking (M60). The other day one lorry driver attempted to overtake the one in front and failed as the one in front put his foot down :cry::cry:
 
Man of Honour
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If you really want to get wound up by our bad driving. Do some mileage on the continent,

I love how you can be anywhere in mainland Europe plus Egypt, Morocco etc and nobody seems to give a stuff.
Here in Britain you hear the driver going crazy but anywhere else they don't even bother because they're going to do the same thing to somebody else in a minute.
 
Caporegime
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On the road....
Sadly, I've got no time for HGVs playing "who can complete the world's longest overtake?" because they pull out at 0.00001mph quicker than the guy they've been following for 14 miles. On a 3 lane motorway it's mildly annoying but on a 2 lane stretch where you get stuck behind them for 20 mins whilst they jostle for position... die.

@EVH whilst I am quoting you, I’m not directing this at you as such. :)


As an HGV driver it’s annoying to me too believe it or not, if you can’t judge when to pull out and get past without causing a huge holdup you simply don’t do it, of course there’s many a moron who can’t appreciate this or simply does not care, just as there’s plenty of morons in cars also….

What really gets me is drivers will try to overtake when pulling a lot of weight and therefore once they reach an incline they’ll lose momentum and the cycle repeats itself which annoys everyone.

What I do is if I’m loaded I use my weight to build speed on downhill sections and get past another truck quickly rather than trying to edge past on the flat where my speed limiter may only give me .5 mph over the guy holding me up.

Why do we try to get ahead? Many reasons, we are limited in our driving hours and you are frequently run right to your driving hours limit, over a 9 or 10 hour accumulated drive (as in time spent moving rather than a working day as such) those few minutes you gain can be the difference between getting to a delivery on time or not (having a whole load rejected for being 5 minutes late is not unheard of) or equally it can be the difference between a night at home in your own bed or a lay-by with zero facilities and zero security for both the load and driver..

On a 3 lane motorway it’s a non issue as far as I’m concerned, HGV’s can’t legally use lane 3 (although a few muppets do!) so you have a free lane to get past the commercials, on roads like the A14 which is predominantly dual carriageway they have weight limits for lane 2 on some sections and this should be implemented more IMO and I say that as a commercial driver.

Ultimately though, we’re simply carrying the crap us all as consumers need, be it your bog roll or GPU or house bricks, you name it, and unfortunately as much as many car drivers may not like it, we’ve got just as much right to be on the road as they have.

I’d love to see logistics shut down completely for 7 days, once people realised that they all of a sudden have nothing (predominantly through our just in time supply chain which is already teetering on collapse) I suspect they’d rather quickly change their perception of trucks and why they are holding them up or not.
 
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Soldato
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17 Jun 2007
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9,273
@Scania Would it need 7 days. I have a business in Pathology transportation. If we stopped for 1 day lives would be lost and suffering would ensue.
Remember how good the roads were during the first lockdown. Its not the professional drivers that are the issue.
 
Caporegime
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On the road....
@Scania Would it need 7 days. I have a business in Pathology transportation. If we stopped for 1 day lives would be lost and suffering would ensue.
Remember how good the roads were during the first lockdown. Its not the professional drivers that are the issue.
Tbh 7 days would be bring many countries to collapse, from hospital supplies to the food chain, your right, one day would inflict huge damage.

I agree (I would! :D) Professional drivers are not the problem, although holding a license does not make anybody a professional alas...
 
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