The Brits - Definately some of the worst drivers in Europe

[DaveZT260]

isee said:

Had a marked police car change from left lane to a middle lane without indicating (and no obstruction in front) as I was overtaking him on a motorway...

What's sad is that I wasn't even surprised, just accepted it.

Your point being?

[Mr2Mike]

Diamond blue said:

Its very easy to maintain lane discipline on a near empty French autoroute and I would say that British drivers are perfectly good at this, at least as good as other europeans.

They aren't though, the British are terrible at maintaining lane control compared to drivers on the Continent. Obviously there are countries with utterly appalling driving, but this thread was comparing UK to the Continent, and even on busy autoroutes/bahns they do lane control far better in general.

[Diamond blue]

Mr2Mike said:

Diamond blue said:

Its very easy to maintain lane discipline on a near empty French autoroute and I would say that British drivers are perfectly good at this, at least as good as other europeans.

They aren't though, the British are terrible at maintaining lane control compared to drivers on the Continent. Obviously there are countries with utterly appalling driving, but this thread was comparing UK to the Continent, and even on busy autoroutes/bahns they do lane control far better in general.

That is really not true at all in my experience. the only time you can make the comparison is where there are substantial numbers of UK drivers on the road and that is confined to northern France where lane discipline is easy because there is little density of traffic. The overwhelming majority of UK drivers keep right, dont get in the way and use the roads perfectly well.
In Germany the discipline on autobahns is better because the speed differentials are very high and its essential but again I've never seen any UK drivers being particularly bad when I have encountered them.
Fact is that Brits are more patient, more law abiding and more courteous than most. Certainly not amongst the worst in Europe.
Why are we so down on ourselves as a nation.

[George7]

I agree with Diamond Blue. We're always putting ourselves down, yet the facts are that we have one of the best road safety records in europe (as one of the earlier links shows). I drive a 2/3 lane carriageway every single day, and I've noticed that most people have decent lane discipline. The ones who don't stick out like a sore thumb. As mentioned before, the reason why it seems worse on UK roads is because of the volume of traffic.

[anonymous-user]

The Swiss are the worst drivers I have ever seen.

The can't do any of the following - From exterior observation:
Park
Change lanes
Indicate properly
Look in their blind spot
Use motorways properly
Maintain the correct speed
Do three point turns quickly

From interior observation:
All of the above
Smooth gears
Smooth acceleration
Smooth braking
Steer round a corner in an analogue way. The swiss seem to see corners as hexagons.

The irony of all this is that the Swiss people that I have driven with are all from the Geneva region, with "GE" at the start of their number plate. The next county/canton is called "Vaud" so their number plates begin in "VD" which the Genevans (worst drivers ever in history) laugh about and call them "Voiture Dangerous". If they think that people from Vaud drive like st, I hate to think what it's like.

[isee]

DaveZT260 said:

Your point being?

My point being that the driving standards are so poor here that even the plod doesn't bother indicating or checking their mirrors before executing a maneuvre.

[Yachtworker]

bulldong said:

The Swiss are the worst drivers I have ever seen.

The can't do any of the following - From exterior observation:
Park
Change lanes
Indicate properly
Look in their blind spot
Use motorways properly
Maintain the correct speed
Do three point turns quickly

From interior observation:
All of the above
Smooth gears
Smooth acceleration
Smooth braking
Steer round a corner in an analogue way. The swiss seem to see corners as hexagons.

The irony of all this is that the Swiss people that I have driven with are all from the Geneva region, with "GE" at the start of their number plate. The next county/canton is called "Vaud" so their number plates begin in "VD" which the Genevans (worst drivers ever in history) laugh about and call them "Voiture Dangerous". If they think that people from Vaud drive like st, I hate to think what it's like.

Bingo bingo bingo, The Swiss on their holidays in the S of France and Italy are a huge menace, they are like fish out of water on the Autoroute.

[Mr2Mike]

Diamond blue said:

The overwhelming majority of UK drivers keep right, dont get in the way and use the roads perfectly well.

Which is certainly not my experience. Every single day, without failure, I will be waiting for numerous people in the outside lane of a DCW to pull over on my commute. And 90% of these people aren't being deliberately annoying, they simply don't bother changing back to the correct lane after overtaking, and hardly ever check their mirrors.

[dcb]

Mr2Mike said:

They aren't though, the British are terrible at maintaining lane control compared to drivers on the Continent. Obviously there are countries with utterly appalling driving, but this thread was comparing UK to the Continent, and even on busy autoroutes/bahns they do lane control far better in general.

+1

Comparisons of the UK with other parts of the world outside Europe
are largely pointless. You may as well compare chalk and WD40.

The Brits are spectacularly inattentive drivers, compared to our
close neighbours in Europe, so I am with the original poster on this.

For example, anywhere within about 50 miles of Calais, if
there's some bad driving going on, there's a 90+% chance the
vehicle has Brit plates.

Maybe it has to do with no mway training in the UK test, maybe
the UK having one of the easier tests in Europe, maybe some
of the lowest speed limits don't help and possibly some of the
strictest controls, via speed cameras, can't help either.

Whatever the reason, driving in the UK is mostly a chore
and driving in Europe is almost always a pleasure.

[davemac250]

Having just moved back to the uk from living in central Europe, I'd suggest this is utter tosh!

True, lane discipline can be lacking so
sometimes, but do far I have not had a suicidal pissed up post lunch frenchie try and run me off the road.

Nor, encountered that most dangerous of driving species. A Belgian. In a hurry.

Roundabout here don't come with a maniac negotiating them around the outside, no matter what exit they intend.

The uk isn't that bad at all.

[anonymous-user]

I drive a lot in the UK, and have noticed a few things regarding driving standards.

I think a lot of 'bad' motorway/DC driving comes down to lazyness.

Over the last two days I drove to Newcastle and back from London. I also regularly drive from London to Cornwall and back. I find that the moment you get away from London and onto more rural DCs, the level of traffic drops off a huge amount. Once the traffic is quieter, people do tend to keep left and traffic flows well. You obviously still get the odd numptie, but that is always going to happen.

Once the traffic levels increase (around big cities) it is harder to keep left as you tend to get blocked into lane one by numpties in lane two. So it is easier to sit in lane two! Most people just do this, an you end up with the MLM. Some of these people get so used to doing it, they do it all the time, even when the traffic is quiet. I obviously try and keep left unless overtaking, but it does get tricky on very crouded roads.

I have been driven around in Lebenon and Thailand and the standard of driving is TERRIBLE. The UK isn't bad, mainly it is lazyness and silly people with blinkers on.