I’m an FOC and in no particular hurry but having had 55 years safely behind the wheel I think the standard of driving since Covid specifically is appalling.
Tons of selfish ,aggressive drivers a danger to themselves and other road users.
Have to agree, I do a bit of driving for my job and there does seem to be much more of a sense of entitlement from more drivers that cross your path.
I think that non insured drivers will also be at an all time high, seems to be an acceptable ting to more and more people. I was reading yesterday that round near my parents and uninsured woman with kids in the back hits a bike, and sped off because she didn't have insurance despite the bike and cyclist being under her car still. Although she was stopped by other road users, the poor cyclist didn't survive.
I truly used to love driving. But now I can't help but see it as needing risk evaluation every time. Is it worth it? Do I really need to drive there? I can guarantee that on any journey, a few hundred miles or just six to lidl and back, I will see numerous dangerous and selfish actions by all road users.
No longer do pedestrians wait until there are no cars, indicating is a rarity, most cars seem to think they qualify as a cycle and can stop on that box too, and cyclists keeping a meter from the pavement is wishful thinking but probably because the state of the he roads is so poor that they have to do the hokey cokey to keep balance, causing all kinds of shenanigans for the traffic behind.
There are bits of road I actively avoid now because they are just too dangerous for all, including pedestrians and cyclists, and yep you guessed it's mostly those ones with a shared system where nobody is quite clear who has right of way and it's more than likely a pedestrian or cyclist will shoot out across the road, or a driver won't recognize the new layout and plough straight through or get impatient when somebody does stop.
Seems to also be acceptable once again to drive with a phone on your hand too, and I was astounded to hear that driving with headphones or earphones on, even the noise cancelling ones, is legal. I'm sure some drivers are watching the latest love Island or something on their commute, one has on the wheel. Pedestrians too... I am guilty of listening to podcasts on the dog walks with earbuds in, but Christ it's still at least an act of self preservation to stop, look and listen before every road.
Can't recommend a dash cam highly enough. If we all had them by law then it could actually discourage bad driving.
On a slightly related topic, does anyone know why when they build these new shared pathways, they always put he cycle lane furthest away from the road and the pedestrian but next to the road? Seems really weird to me that we want our prams and kids sandwiches between the fast moving bikes and cars.
