Where is the worst driving area in the UK?
I nominate Luton.
I moved here from Slough, and the Thames Valley seems very good in comparison. Even South Devon with dopey grockles (trippers) seems good. But Luton!
I have several near misses each week. On one 7 mile jouney I had 3 near misses. Yesterday I had to brake suddenly to avoid an impact with a car pulling out of a side road. This is not unusual. I've had numerous cars use the left hand lane of 3 to turn right at a roundabout while I use lane 2 to go straight across. I've seen this happen to many other people too.
And at roundabouts it is common for a car on a side road to stop with 1 metre of more of its bonnet sticking out into the roundabout forcing me to stop, or swerve to avoid an impact.
And they ignore traffic lights. They might have turned red, but they'll stream across and then stop in the junction, preventing traffic from side roads from moving.
What is it with these people? They have a complete and total disregard for the Highway Code. Oh, and don't get me going on about parking!
Fortunately the place is jam packed with safety cameras. So we can all sleep soundly then. Phew. And there was me beginning to worry.
Leif
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I nominate London. All of it, but especially the "posh" bits list Chelsea. The drivers there are just ruthless: cut in if you can, run you down if you can, take your place if you can, never goive way. It's dog-eat-dog.
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I nominate London. All of it, but especially the "posh" bits list Chelsea. The drivers there are just ruthless: cut in if you can, run you down if you can, take your place if you can, never goive way. It's dog-eat-dog.
We manage. Just because you cant cope..........
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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You need a 4x4 NW. That'll get you noticed.
I know you like Nissans and Toyotas so I recommend either an X-Trail/Pathfinder or maybe a nice Landcruiser?
London would be your oyster then.
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We manage. Just because you cant cope..........
I can cope with it when I have to. Doesn't mean I like it, though.
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I nominate London the UK best driving area for all the reasons you name NoWheels. Especially in Rush hour when everyone knows exactly what lane to be in, exactly what speeds to zip filter, exactly where they?re going. After 15 years of it, I found the rest of the UK dithery and doddery.
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I nominate London the UK best driving area for all the reasons you name NoWheels>>
To be honest I have to agree with you.
I've always been impressed by the very decisive (if somewhat bullish) attitude of the capital's drivers, many of whom also appear to be able to drive around considerable areas inside the M25 without recourse to maps, asking the way etc.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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never goive way. It's dog-eat-dog.
Hate to point out the obvious - but you yourself in another thread (lorries overtaking) have said that there is no need to give way to other vehicles, a bit hypocritical don't you think!!!
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>>Fortunately the place is jam packed with safety cameras.<<
What are they then?
Around here isn't too bad. Good enough for you to look on in disbelief with a shake of the head when you witness something bad.
Worst really is people jumping the lights at a certain intersection. The junction has trigger happy cameras on too but people still do it.
People not indicating at mini roundabouts really annoys me and people pulling out - especially on NSL roads. Not really dangerous given the gaps involved but enough to force you to reassess your speed/direction!
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lots of near misses in leeds but of the accidents my family have had in the area and had to be reported to the police as they didnt stop both occasions came back no such registration,i always therefore drive even more defensively than normal as my insurance says i bend it i mend it
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\"a little man in a big world/\"
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as my insurance says i bend it i mend it
Which given your profession, could be a worse thing!
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Don't know about the UK, but in England my money is on Cumbria.
Oh, and I think you'll find the accidents statistics bear this one out.
Les
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I find London drivers are quite good. It's me what's bad in London. I get confused by all the signs, lane changes, road markings ...
I guess I'm just a simple bumpkin.
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In Ireland, they have signs beside the N-roads (equivalent of A-roads) recording how many people hae been killed on the roads in that country in the last three years.
When I drive up from Dublin to the North-West, I see signs in Kildare, Longford, Roscommon, Slgo etc saying (usually) about 30 ppl killed in that county.
Sobering stuff ... until you head a few miles on to Donegal, and see the number in the hundreds. I tesae the folksin the other coun ties that they are being well-and-truly trounced.
Maybe we could do with a similar set of scorecards in Engalnd?
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Sobering stuff ... until you head a few miles on to Donegal, and see the number in the hundreds. I tesae the folksin the other coun ties that they are being well-and-truly trounced.
That could well have something to do with the fact of my friend Seamus and his mates practice for the IOM TT on their bikes round the country roads of Donegal. Also there is still a wide spread practice of driving to the local pub and having a skinful then driving back home.
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I've never noticed that the driving is that bad in Cumbria but then I'd not noticed it was any good either. Mind, I'm there a lot, so perhaps you've just been watching me.
Bradford is my least favourite place to drive - full of people who don't appear to have seen a test centre or who think they're Gilles Villeneuve reincarnated (with the gap theory, but without any of the driving ability) and the misconception that they're on a race track. In a shabbered nissan micra that hasn't seen an MOT centre for a while.
Turned on its head though : My favourite place to drive is Northumberland. Not much traffic but that that you find is curteous and friendly.
Lee -- Do you have any conceivable reason for even getting up in the morning?
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There's nothing quite like Guildford.
Much of it is built on steep hills, and a sizeable proportion of the driving population are 80-in-the-shade. In the old days they drove Morris Minors - then (in some cases still) Metros, now Corsas and Micras.
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Leeds, where taxi drivers are exempt from stopping at red lights, indicating, using the correct lane, not parking in cycle lanes, not using the horn at 3am in the morning, and the mobile phone law.
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Actually they're carp everywhere but the percentage trying to get on with it in an efficient way is highest here thank goodness in the smoke. I always thought Bristol, where I have some roots, mimsersville. Used to tease my dad about it.
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Leeds, where taxi drivers are exempt from stopping at red lights, indicating, using the correct lane, not parking in cycle lanes, not using the horn at 3am in the morning, and the mobile phone law.
Hey, Bradford does all those things more thoroughly, and also has more manically-speeding taxis than Leeds. The maniac who took me home t'other night from the city centre never left 30mph zones, but rarely slowed below 60.
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What a pity we didn't get you as a passenger in Clapham in the 70s, NW. You'd have loved that I'm sure, or anyway been able to dine out on it when you recovered.
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'Leeds, where taxi drivers are exempt from stopping at red lights, indicating, using the correct lane, not parking in cycle lanes, not using the horn at 3am in the morning, and the mobile phone law.'
You beat me to it,as soon as I started reading this I thought'Leeds taxi drivers'.I'll swear they have special training in bad driving techniques,something like'Want to make a u-turn?No traffic about?Wait at the side of the road until a lone car comes along then pullout in front of it,must be timed to force oncoming vehicle to perform emergency stop.And I have not made that up.Some of the bus drivers arn't too clever either,a typical technique being to pull into the stop at an angle with a car parked opposite,thus blocking the road.
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Depends what you mean by bad driving,if you mean aggressive and inconsiderate driving I nominate the Thames Valley. If you mean just plain old 'poor quality' driving, ie failure to indicate, unpredictable or erratci manoevres and pulling out in front of people, I nominate SW Wales in the nicest possible way !
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I enjoy driving in Luton, its a bit like taking part in a real life video game.
London is predictable and once you know the rules then its fine, especially if you know where you're going.
But out in the sticks, anywhere out in the sticks, t'is very peculiar there.
--
I read often, only post occasionally
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Moved out of Luton 15+ years ago, but only by the same number of miles, so still have the experience, of local motorists.
Certainly the road planning has encouraged the eratic driving stle, of many people.
I do try to avoid the Sunday race, around the town, though!!
Must be THE worst day to choose to attempt to travel, there!!
VB
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Southern Ireland - Wacky Races in real life, although I did
learn to love it especially when they
finally brought in some kind of MOT system
which meant you knew the ten year old Toyota
tailgaiting you at 80 mph had a vague chance
of stopping if required
Northern Ireland - Mad before you started to get points for
speeding and even more interesting in an
Irish republic plated hire car
But in my opinion the worst driving exists in places like Peterborough where there are large amounts of dual carriage way that the locals tear up and down and can't seem to understand that someone may not know where they are going.
I used to think the aggression shown in these towns were just the pent up frustration of living in such dull featureless satellite towns, but that can't just be it, can it ?
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Luton & Leighton Buzzard & Aylesbury
Indicators...what are they ?
Stop signs..what are they?
Roundabouts?...Some thing you drive straight over...
And once get out of Tesco car park it's even worse !
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Leeds. "Only posh southern folk stop at traffic lights, I'm reet important me". Never been in a place where people are so aggressive, and I lived in London for 5 years.
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