Sunday 13th March 2016

Are Brits the worst drivers in Europe? PH Blog

Dan's driven across Europe and isn't happy to be back on British roads

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There's probably a witty, topical point to be made about those clamouring to leave Europe and the driving standards of the country that, to many, represents the heart of the problem. I'll work on that. And return to Belgian road manners in a bit.

How would an Autobahn work in the UK?

Anyway, over coming months there will, no doubt, be a great deal of tub-thumping about why it's great to be British and reasons to be proud of our little island. There are. But driving standards ain't one of them.

Accepting most of my international driving is in countries with reasonable common sense my heart always sinks a little upon returning home. We're a deservedly proud nation but I don't think there's anywhere you'll encounter such a concentration of short-fused, self-righteous road hogs. Everyone will have a story but just yesterday a colleague witnessed a man get out of his car and attempt to pull a woman from hers for driving too close to him. From the evidence presented neither party came across particularly well. But how on earth is that acceptable behaviour?

I hate it in myself too. The battle between self-righteous cyclists and short-fused motorists is one guaranteed to ignite the forums. I'm ashamed to say I've found myself playing both roles on occasion and hate myself for it. But it's never less than shocking when you're the passive observer to one of these encounters and witness the sheer violence - usually 'just' verbal - otherwise reasonable people seem happy to unleash on a whim.

Awaiting the carnage...

On my dash back from Geneva last week, I enjoyed driving across France, the stress of battling for every last inch of road significantly reduced by folk able to grasp the concept of lane discipline. The Germans can get a little bolshy about sticking rigidly to the rules but there is an inherent respect for those seeking to press on and a base level of politeness. Belgium is another matter but, generally speaking, you get the impression they're just a bit inept and cursed with some awful road design rather than inherently psychotic. Even the Americans are less territorial than Brits, those out in the sticks often content to pull over if you're making progress while in New York gridlock a toot of the horn at the lights is simply accepted as an expression of general exasperation. Rather than a specific rebuke or provocation to get out and square up.

Back home I'm just continually staggered at the sheer belligerence, selfishness and naked aggression you see day in, day out. It's deeply depressing and displayed in many and varied forms across all types of drivers. Lazy stereotypes include the sanctimonious lane hoggers, the hyper aggressive tail gaters or those who consider straddling dividing lines on parking bays entirely acceptable behaviour.

Maybe all this looming Big Brother control of 'smart' motorways and CCTV-driven enforcement is as much as we deserve.

Leave Europe? I can't wait to get back!

[Highways England, via Flickr]

[PTF]

I drove through france when i was younger and was impressed by the lane discipline, and how renault clio diesels (which everyone seemed to be driving) were happy sitting at 90+ all day long.

In my experience the title should be "Are Brits that live further south than the midlands the worst drivers in Europe".

I hate driving south. The aggression and competitiveness of drivers is appalling. Not just men too. Women also drive with their eyes on stalks.

My biggest issue living round here (lincolnshire) is people sticking at 40 behind a lorry and not overtaking when there is a clear opportunity.

[STiG911]

Spot on! I've been to a lot of places in the World where the rules of the road seem to barely apply, but that doesn't stop people making progress or apparently being quite happy while doing so, even if the traffic looks like a car crash moments away from occuring.
The amount of UK road users who are primed to kick off over the most mundane aspects of driving makes you despair for Mankind in general. The simple act of patience alone where road position is concerned would solve most agro in one swoop, not to mention the levels of gridlock caused by idiots blocking junctions and roundabouts. Don't get me started on the apparent loss of indicators on a majority of UK cars, either.
I've no idea whats creating this attitude either - maybe we should call Mulder and Scully to investigate the water or something, I hear they're back.

[anonymous-user]

Article said:

Anyway, over coming months there will, no doubt, be a great deal of tub-thumping about why it's great to be British and reasons to be proud of our little island. There are. But driving standards ain't one of them.

But deaths on our roads are something to be proud of. Fewer people die on our roads than in nearly every other country in the world.

That applies whether you're looking at per 100k of the population, per 100k cars or per 1 billion KM travelled.

[kambites]

Driving back from Geneva is hardly "driving across Europe". Venture a bit further east or south and you'll wish you were back in the UK.

Edited by kambites on Friday 11th March 15:49

[GetCarter]

We have a poll here every year in the NW Highlands of Scotland as to who are the worst drivers. (Lots of single track roads - lots of tourists with country insignia on their cars). Germans, Scandinavians and Dutch tend to be the best. English, French and Italians the worst. By a long way. English are the ones that refuse to move over and use passing places. They (sometimes) feel we should drive at their speed.

Strange bunch the English.

I'm English by the way, so have no axe to grind.

Edited by GetCarter on Friday 11th March 15:52

[derin100]

STiG911 said:

Spot on! I've been to a lot of places in the World where the rules of the road seem to barely apply, but that doesn't stop people making progress or apparently being quite happy while doing so, even if the traffic looks like a car crash moments away from occuring.
The amount of UK road users who are primed to kick off over the most mundane aspects of driving makes you despair for Mankind in general. The simple act of patience alone where road position is concerned would solve most agro in one swoop, not to mention the levels of gridlock caused by idiots blocking junctions and roundabouts. Don't get me started on the apparent loss of indicators on a majority of UK cars, either.
I've no idea whats creating this attitude either - maybe we should call Mulder and Scully to investigate the water or something, I hear they're back.

Probably just a symptom of the nightmare having to live in the South East of the England generally?
I'm a Londoner born and bred but haven't lived in the S.E for nearly 20 years. I went back for a few days last summer and very quickly I found myself beginning to revert to type. It's just awful down there now.

[trunks82]

You'll see no such behavior from me.Im the worlds best driver

[Porsche911R]

we have been letting in millions of people into the UK year on year for 10 years, none have passed a UK driving test.

I find the hoggers NON British people , it's just harder to tell now they have been here so long they are now on UK plates.

new inflows to the UK in 2014 was 641,000 people all with non UK driving tests !


what do you think will happen ?

remember to VOTE out of Europe in June ;-)

[QuattroDave]

PTF said:

I drove through france when i was younger and was impressed by the lane discipline, and how renault clio diesels (which everyone seemed to be driving) were happy sitting at 90+ all day long.

In my experience the title should be "Are Brits that live further south than the midlands the worst drivers in Europe".

I hate driving south. The aggression and competitiveness of drivers is appalling. Not just men too. Women also drive with their eyes on stalks.

My biggest issue living round here (lincolnshire) is people sticking at 40 behind a lorry and not overtaking when there is a clear opportunity.

Gotta say your geography is spot on. When I lived in Aberdeen, Weymouth & Plymouth I rarely got agitated & was almost always courteous and road manners & driving of people around me seemed equally at ease. Then I spent a year living just the wrong side of the M25 and I saw it in myself getting much more aggressive as others were around me. I moved out and back to Plymouth and again was a calm driver.

Now though I live in Southampton and I can honestly say it's worse than London. Everyone is on edge, so many people do stupid maneuvers that enrage others and I've noticed more accidents around the M27 / M3 area than anywhere else I've lived or driven around.

I absolutely wouldn't say one gender is worse than the other overall. If anything men tend to be more aggressive but to counter women tend to be less observant & courteous (i.e. not pulling to the middle lane when you can see a huge line of traffic entering the motorway, not saying thanks for giving way, driving in the middle lane as it's "safer") but both are potentially as dangerous as each other.

I've been a commuting cyclist too in Southampton and some cyclists attitudes beggar belief. I'll freely admit that on rare occasions I have gone through red lights, but only ever pedestrian crossings where I can see the people have long since crossed. It wound me up no end when I'd be at a set of red lights and a half dozen other cyclists pootle past. So bad are cyclists in general now that I've twice had someone wind down their window just to tell me how "refreshing" it is to see a cyclist stopped at a red light!

I can only imagine overcrowding on the roads in this area and a much higher proportion of people driving on non uk licences is making driving as miserable as it is over this way. It can often take 1hr to travel the 8 miles (5 of which on motorway) to my old work and often takes 30 mins to do 3.5 miles to where I work now, hence getting back on my bike!

[Leins]

I firmly believe it's worse here in Ireland than it is in Britain. But strangely the average driving speeds are also lower here I think, as that's very much been the only focus of "policing" over recent years, with the roll-out of moveable speed cameras

[GetCarter]

Porsche911R said:

we have been letting in millions of people into the UK year on year for 10 years, none have passed a UK driving test.

I find the hoggers NON British people , it's just harder to tell now they have been here so long they are now on UK plates.

new inflows to the UK in 2014 was 641,000 people all with non UK driving tests !


what do you think will happen ?

remember to VOTE out of Europe in June ;-)

I think you just convinced me to vote to stay in. Thanks.

[DMN]

Belgium and Holland are much, much worse.

[Riley Blue]

Anyone who thinks the British are the worst drivers in Europe either isn't very observant or needs to cross the Channel more often, or both.

[breezer42]

I would argue that the causes are the same as for many of our social problems - overcrowding. A motorway with a clear outside lane is much less stressful than one that's full. And conversely it's much easier to pull over into the inside lane and leave the outside lane clear if the inside lane isn't rammed full of people and trucks. And stress is likely the cause of most of these 'angry' incidents.

We have too many people, too many cars, and too little space. That would also help explain the North-South divide in terms of driving quality...

[CABC]

There are distinguishable traits of nations, both good and bad. Belgium's are the worst!!
Sure, the English have no lane manners, and (south-east anyway) are aggressive and defensive of space.

But Dan, next time you're driving a McLaren around Portimao, head out to the local roads for a truly scary ride.
Across the continent, motorway discipline is very good. Off the major routes and i would suggest it's comparable or a little worse than the UK.
I've been resident on the continent for 9 yrs now.

[trunks82]

Porsche911R said:

we have been letting in millions of people into the UK year on year for 10 years, none have passed a UK driving test.

I find the hoggers NON British people , it's just harder to tell now they have been here so long they are now on UK plates.

new inflows to the UK in 2014 was 641,000 people all with non UK driving tests !


what do you think will happen ?

remember to VOTE out of Europe in June ;-)

How can you tell if a driver is non english? Do you stop and ask them all?

[Sillyhatday]

I'd been saying in the 7 years of driving I've done the roads have got much worse.

I was actually happy to see speeds cameras appear on a short stretch of M1. I could actually merge into traffic safely and people mostly stopped pushing into the fast lane and used the correct lane. NEVER have I ever thought I'd say a road was made better through speed cameras!

[donkmeister]

My experiences of France:
1) 2 second rule? What's that?
2) aha, lets drive at an indicated 10kph below the limit, hog the outside lane and only pull over when on the approach to a hidden speed camera.
3) honking and getting ragey when you dare slow down for a speed bump (which is more speed mountain than speed bump)
4) driving ridiculously slowly, then when you overtake safely and considerately on a big open road chasing you waving their arms about until you pull in and let them pass you at well over the speed limit.
5) similar to 4, but swerving in front of you as you attempt an overtake.
1 applies everywhere in France, 2-5 were all south of the Loire if that makes any difference. I suspect a uk registered car was their problem. And what sort of a third world country puts speed bumps ON A MOTORWAY!?!? I hit one, unmarked and unsigned, on the approach to a toll plaza at 60mph.

[vipulsingh]

Is that such a big surprise given Britain's seemingly limitless desire to import migrants from 'Human Resource Rich Countries' (as Sir Humphrey put it) in the name of economic growth.

You just need to visit the sub-continent to see where the influence is coming from.

[patmahe]

Leins said:

I firmly believe it's worse here in Ireland than it is in Britain. But strangely the average driving speeds are also lower here I think, as that's very much been the only focus of "policing" over recent years, with the roll-out of moveable speed cameras

Not judging by the last time I was in Britain (Birmingham) the competitiveness of drivers on congested motorways is at times quite scary. Very few people seem to leave a margin for error and most seem to have a 'me first' mentality. It could just be a result of more traffic on the roads due to greater population density though.