Car driving standards

So bad these days. Had some taxi driver doing 40mph on the M60 whilst on the phone. Decided to slam on for no reason as well which was dangerous. I always find bad drivers are in really shit cars with no disregard for people's lives around them.
I mainly find bad drivers are in taxis with "City of Wolverhampton Council" plates, and I rarely drive near Wolverhampton.
 
My awareness and eyesight definitely isn't a good as it used to be... but I have to say.... since roads went crazy with cameras and there being potential catastrophic consequences for even fairly conservative drivers doing 34 in a 30.... my driving has got worse, looking for cameras, trying to work out the speed limit (not as easy as it used to be, some traditional 40 style roads are now 30 or 20!!) looking for bus lane cameras, looking for speed traps, and that's before watching out for morons, bikes, twats on phones, cabbies, white van assassin's,. Just seems the system is out there to get the big money from the easy market... not the psycos doing 80 camera to camera, but average Joe's, trying to make a living nudging over the limit occasionally and unintentionally. I have to say, I HATE driving now and would give up tomorrow if we had realistic public transport.
Late to this thread but you’ve just read my mind word for word, I’d add the pothole problem to this aswell.
I ride motorcycles as well as cars and A roads are a big no no these days I spend more time crawling along wondering where the next camera is. If I hit a deep pothole I’d be off, I was only talking to the wife about this last night about how the government want more people to use public transport or pushbikes but I see more cars on the road now than ever before.
And yes the standard of driving now has definitely got worse and I hate to say it but it’s more women than men. I hate driving now unless it’s very late at night or on a deserted motorway but if I’m anywhere unfamiliar I’m obsessed missing some camera I don’t know about.
 
There's a roundabout near me to access J17 on the M60. Approaching from the north there are 3 lanes:
  • The left lane is for access to the eastbound M60/M62 only
  • The middle lane takes you straight on to the southbound A56 through Prestwich
  • The right lane can be used to go straight on or to access the anti-clockwise M60
  • Once you're on the roundabout it's just two lanes, so the middle lane on the approach becomes the left lane.
If you go straight on there's a right turn for a Tesco store, Prestwich Hospital and other places. If you're going there you need to be in the right lane approaching the roundabout. There used to be a lot of confusion with traffic in the left lane on the approach wanted to go straight on, and cutting in when they realised, and I hated using that roundabout for that reason.

Bury Council helpfully put up signage making it clear which lane you needed to be in and also changed the road surface of that middle approach lane to a different colour, so all you had to do was follow that colour and you'd be safely in the left lane on the roundabout itself.

You'd have to be a complete moron to get it wrong but it's amazing how many still take that middle lane on the approach, ignore the clear road surface colour that takes them into the left lane and pull across into the right lane completely oblivious to all the signs.
The most aggravating is those who sit in the yellow box instead of waiting for the next green light which creates a backlog for those who are coming off the M60 as they can’t exit to go north as their path is blocked. These people are the true morons of this world.
 
If you want to see bad driving, come over here. Double parking on the street in small country towns ("what, I'm only going to be a couple of minutes"), not using indicators (they're not fitted as an optional extra, you know?), not knowing the etiquette re right of way at roundabouts etc etc. I swear to God, a lot of these gobshites got their licence thanks to brown envelopes winging their way to the examiner.
 
If you want to see bad driving, come over here. Double parking on the street in small country towns ("what, I'm only going to be a couple of minutes"), not using indicators (they're not fitted as an optional extra, you know?), not knowing the etiquette re right of way at roundabouts etc etc. I swear to God, a lot of these gobshites got their licence thanks to brown envelopes winging their way to the examiner.
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Let's face it, if everyone drove to the published standards, the number injuries and road deaths due to collisions involving motor vehicles would be absolutely minimal compared to what they are now, and that would save the UK taxpayers £Billions.
Honestly, I agree to a point. Standards on paper are one thing, but what people actually do on the road is a different story. You only have to drive for 10 minutes to see how many basic rules get ignored.

I also think the backlog and constant driving test cancellations aren’t helping. However, there are helpful services like this one that make the process easier. If they are not used, people wait months and months, then rush to pass as soon as they get a slot, which probably doesn’t help confidence or proper skill-building. Feels like the system itself is part of the problem, not just individual drivers.
 
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Honestly, I agree to a point. Standards on paper are one thing, but what people actually do on the road is a different story. You only have to drive for 10 minutes to see how many basic rules get ignored.
That's the point; people either forget, or ignore the standards. If everyone stuck to them, the roads would be a safer place.
 
Let's face it, if everyone drove to the published standards, the number injuries and road deaths due to collisions involving motor vehicles would be absolutely minimal compared to what they are now, and that would save the UK taxpayers £Billions.
It's not even a case of driving to published standards. Injuries, deaths and severe disruption would be reduced significantly if people stopped driving like dickheads.
 
Peoole driving in the middle lane with nothing ahead of them doing 60 mph. Turns their car into a dangerous rolling road block that you have to get round.

Why don’t people understand to drive to the left if your car breaks down or the tire blows you are closer to the hard shoulder to come to a stop?
 
Drivers who get too close behind to a car turning left because they don't understand the simple concept of braking before turning, rather than braking while turning.
 
On the subject of braking, my new car has one pedal drive / regenerative braking, meaning it slows as soon as you take your foot off the accelerator. But it doesn't actually apply the brakes lights unless a certain level do braking force is met, ie no brake lights if you slow gradually and smoothly, and the amount of drivers who seem to be unable to understand what their eyes presumably see, that the car in front of them is slowing down, because there is no brake light, makes me worry that I'll be rear ended sooner rather than later, so it may be getting turned off in the settings.

Seems to be a common trend now to drive on most roads with at least a tyre over the white line. I'd say it's the increasing width of vehicles, but as soon as they meet a vehicle coming the other way they scuttle back to their own side, so I think it's a power play or lack of awareness of where their vehicle actually sits on the road.

Swinging out when turning, despite cars having power assisted steering as standard for decades. Also speeding up when turning seems to be a thing, followed by heavy braking as they turn, no idea why. Must be because petrol is so cheap nowadays.

Driving off and doing your seatbelt after you've set off. Usually can tell this lot as they're driving for the first 50 metres one handed with the car wobbling like a drunk staggering back from the pub. What have you actually saved there?

Looking left when turning left out of a junction, and pretty much only left. Because that's the way they want to go, and which way does danger usually come from on UK roads again?

Being tailgated by the car that wants to do 10mph more than the line of traffic on front of them, and they move slightly to the right to make their point that they want to overtake and play leapfrog one car at a time. On advanced driver courses they actually teach to slow down on such situations, because apparently it's a proven concept that once a registration number becomes clear to you, you think it's going too slow and has to be overtaken. Slowing down that you can't quite make it out reduces that feeling, and you can actually influence the behaviour of the driver behind you by allowing the gap in front of you to grow, and they'll subconsciously then do the same to you. Only works for drivers who aren't consciously driving aggressively, those who are intent on driving like F1 will see the gap as an opportunity unfortunately.

Most of all, pavement parking. I get it's a necessity on some roads, but blocking a pavement so pedestrians can't get past at all, parking on a blind corner, or driving up onto the pavement at speed when there are kids walking towards them, not a single thought for how they'd feel if they actually did hit someone. I mean, What's the thinking there? "Oh, I might inconvenience other cars if I park here, so I'll park half up on the pavement to make sure I inconvenience both cars and pedestrians too"? This one is especially common around schools, with parents of small children seemingly being the most unaware of, and unconcerned with, the safety of small children.
 
Sunday was a cracker. Missus is picking me up at the Asda delivery entrance. I arrived just as she was turning in. As she manoeuvred into position to exit, some crackpot then cuts across her to pick his arriving passenger up, he then sits on the tram tracks behind a women at the lights. After the traffic lights went through two sequences she was indicating left and never moved, why? Because her passenger had not arrived !! Next thing a tram comes 'steaming' down the tracks driven by a man possessed, he wasn't stopping. We frantically blasted on the horn to a dozy, totally oblivious driver. Luckily, we managed to get a passing fans attention who thankfully alerted the driver by banging on his window, he then took evasive action.
The idiot women still didn't want to move at the next green light, that was until she got a 20 second blast of our horn. So yes, we have our fair share of idiots on the road.
 
Rarely take the bus these days but took one the other day and sat at the front upstairs. You get an absolutely cracking view from there of the appalling standards of car driving now. Cars not edging out if junctions but speeding out of them without consideration for others. Numerous cars in yellow box junctions when they gave no right to be there. Taxis and Ubers just slamming their brakes on and stopping in the middle of the road and doing a U turn. I'm surprised there aren't more accidents.
 

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