Driving standards?

[nodigitsever]

who else thinks Driving standards are at an all time low and do you have an explanation?

[James]

Fair point. An interesting debate.

I know what I think. I tend to be shocked every day now, more so on the bike...

[vonhosen]

IMHO a lot of it stems from general intolerance & life pressures today.
We want everything now & with so many of us in close proximity to one another (perceived to be in one another's way) it leads to aggressive assertion over what we see as our piece of road.
I'm convinced far more of the poor driving we see on the roads is down to poor attitude rather than lack of physical skill.

[nodigitsever]

Fair point. An interesting debate.

I know what I think. I tend to be shocked every day now, more so on the bike...

TA!, I only posted it from my personal observations of late regarding a lot of Drivers total disregard of the rules of the Road, my own opinion is that the standards are so low because they can get away with it!, not many Trafpol around nowadays after all are there?

[vonhosen]

Fair point. An interesting debate.

I know what I think. I tend to be shocked every day now, more so on the bike...

TA!, I only posted it from my personal observations of late regarding a lot of Drivers total disregard of the rules of the Road, my own opinion is that the standards are so low because they can get away with it!, not many Trafpol around nowadays after all are there?

In truth your chances of getting caught by trafpol have never been very high, so whilst the perception may be that you're likely to get away with it now, the reality is that you were always likely to.

[nodigitsever]

I agree Vonhosen

[waremark]

I'm not sure that I agree. If anything, I think it is amazing how few collisions there are, and I feel that most people cope adequately with an activity - driving - which is in fact extraordinarily difficult.

Let's not kid ourselves that young hooligans, for example, are a new phenomenon: sadly, I was a young hooligan a long time ago!

Do you really think driving standards have changed for the worse, and if so what do you notice drivers doing now which you think they used not to do?

What bad practises do you think would be easiest to change through public education, given the will?

[Porker]

Do you really think driving standards have changed for the worse, and if so what do you notice drivers doing now which you think they used not to do?

I'm in two minds on this. On the one hand, I seem to see a lot more red-light jumping than I used to, often by more than one car in the same line and seemingly more blatantly than was formerly the case*.

Solid white line systems also seem to be routinely ignored, though I think on motorways at least this is through ignorance rather than anything else.

On the plus side, crashes don't seem to be on the increase, even if one is sceptical about the current KSI stats (when compared with hospital admissions following traffic collisions, for example).

regards
P.

[manilva15b]

Do you really think driving standards have changed for the worse, and if so what do you notice drivers doing now which you think they used not to do?

What bad practises do you think would be easiest to change through public education, given the will?

I also tend not to agree that the standard of driving has deteriorated.

Example: drink driving. The number of drink-related deaths and injuries has fallen over the years. Whether this was due to education, strong enforcement or simply changes in cultural attitude is a different debate.

Combine that with the HUGE increase in traffic density over that time and the inference must be that IN GENERAL the standard of driving has much improved.

There are piss-takers out there and they show up even more against a background of better driving.

[Big Err]

I also would think that we tend to focus our minds on examples of bad driving that we see, and forget about the majority who are driving ok/well.

[vonhosen]

Do you really think driving standards have changed for the worse, and if so what do you notice drivers doing now which you think they used not to do?

Far more aggressive tailgating ?

[TripleS]

who else thinks Driving standards are at an all time low and do you have an explanation?

I don't feel able to make a reliable judgement about how current driving standards compare with previous eras, but my general feeling is that drivers are doing pretty well on the whole and getting decent results with each other.

However, I do think that drivers' overall capability has diminished in terms of making safe and swift progress (I don't think there ever has been much attention devoted to smoothness in the way our sort of group seeks it) and I blame this on the dumbing down effect of the anti-speed environment.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[TripleS]

IMHO a lot of it stems from general intolerance & life pressures today.
We want everything now & with so many of us in close proximity to one another (perceived to be in one another's way) it leads to aggressive assertion over what we see as our piece of road.
I'm convinced far more of the poor driving we see on the roads is down to poor attitude rather than lack of physical skill.

I think you're absolutely right. Modern lifestyles are IMHO creating too much tension and stress - the pressure to succeed etc., or even survive at a comfortable level - and this inevitably increases feelings of impatience and frustration. It's a bad influence generally, and especially in a driving context.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[ScoobyChris]

I wonder if part of the problem is that modern cars in general are a lot safer with loads of electronic aids to try and keep you out of trouble and then if you do manage to defeat them, you have crumple zones, airbags, etc so the chances of walking away are much higher. Cars are also much more comfortable and more isolated from the outside world too with plenty more distractions to divert attention. I think all this adds up to mask the perceived danger of driving and risks involved.

All the indications I see from new drivers are that the DSA test is actually becoming much more comprehensive (including basic vehicle roadworthiness checks!) and harder to pass than ever it used to be, so I'm not sure competency is suffering.

Chris

[TripleS]

Do you really think driving standards have changed for the worse, and if so what do you notice drivers doing now which you think they used not to do?

I'm in two minds on this. On the one hand, I seem to see a lot more red-light jumping than I used to, often by more than one car in the same line and seemingly more blatantly than was formerly the case*.

regards
P.

I very much agree about the red light jumping. I don't condone it for a moment, but I think it's happening because of the generally heightened sense of urgency felt by most people, allied to what often looks like unnecessary delays to progress.

It appears to me (in my customary paranoid state) as if local authorities are either incompetent in their deployment of traffic light systems, or are deliberately enacting a policy designed to discourage drivers from taking cars into towns. We often see traffic held up in all directions seemingly for no reason, unless this arises from the combination of pedestrian crossing facilites with traffic lights. I'm all in favour of making provisions for aiding pedestrians in their safe crossing of roads, but I wonder if there are better ways of doing this.

However it happens it does appear to be causing more delay and congestion, especially in Scarborough, where they are embarking on schemes to install several more sets of traffic lights, as if the ones already in place haven't damaged the traffic flow sufficiently.

Best wishes all,
Dave.