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No we're bleeedin not, damn cheek, i'll get em, just you see ...............
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from the "83% of statistics are made up on the spot" school I'd say.......
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I remember reading a similar survey to this about a year ago - can't remember who had done it, but it came up with similar results.
I must say that I tend to believe. There's a lot of agression in British people, lots of people under a lot of pressure these days and lots of folk seem to be on a 'hair trigger'. I work abroad a lot (mainly Germany) and I find the general environment a lot less stressful and people are a lot more civil to each other (and I don't mean the 'have a nice day' nonsense in shops, but general civility and small acts of kindness that no longer happen in England). In Germany I can go out into a bar in an evening and relax. In UK if you catch the wrong persons eye or look at someone in what they feel is the 'wrong way' you can end up getting your face smashed in, and its the same sort of thing on the roads.
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>>In Germany I can go out into a bar in an evening and relax. In UK if you catch the wrong persons eye or look at someone in what they feel is the 'wrong way' you can end up getting your face smashed in, and its the same sort of thing on the roads.>>
I must say I have been very disapointed with my stay in Britain. I was born here, left at the tender age of 2 with mum and dad to live in France. Dad is French, Mum is English. I came back to England in 2000 at the age of 16. I used to come to see nan and grandad every year and always swore I'd come and live here. There was always that something I just can't explain about Britain, the britishness I guess, it was comforting. Watching Fawlty towers and Only fools and horses I rather naively thought this was what the english people were about, funny, friendly, polite..
Well 7 years down the line and yes, I still believe the British have got the best sense of humour. On DVD maybe..!
The country is, in my opinion a mess. It's overcrowded, crime is a real problem, the NHS is a real mess, there is this dreadfulbinge drinking culture and the list goes on and on. At the ripe old age of 24(...), I am really fed up and would love to go back to France. Sadly my girlfriend wants to stay here and it has complicated matters... It is a shame, The Britain of the 1970's that my dad keep going on about is probably the britain I'd have been happier living in.
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from the "83% of statistics are made up on the spot" school I'd say.......
It is actually 79.47% I believe!
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Although known to be hot-headed, our European neighbours on the whole lead more relaxed, laid back lives, which means they are less stressed and less likely to be provoked by fellow road users behaviours and actions."
maybe that is because
1. the most agressive, ambitious, keen, youth, etc. etc. of their lot have decamped from there and set up homes in the uk.
2. and we have to deal with their lhd truckers who seem to have taken over uk's roads and motorways.
3. our staid old pensioners have gone the other way and helped calm down the traffic in europe.
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How many Germans/French/Italians in percentage terms do you think live and work over here?! It's a tiny percentage and would make NO discernible difference to driving styles and standards!!
There are far more Eastern Europeans coming across, although not in the waves that the Daily Mail et al would have you believe..... and unless I misread they weren't mentioned in the post.
And logically if: "the most agressive, ambitious, keen, youth, etc. etc. of their lot have decamped from there and set up homes in the uk" then the attraction would be that they felt more at home here, an affinity with agressive ambitious keen types? Surely that would make it a British characteristic, and so the results of the study would be borne out? QED!
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"Another press release to talk about"
What's to talk about? The fact that Snooper is trying to get free advertising by commissioning a poll which doesn't disclose its method of research?
My contribution to the conversation is thus: Am I the only one who has never heard of this 'leading satellite navigation brand'?
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Their device came top of the pile (streets ahead of the rest:o) in a recent well known consumer magazine report...I may not be allowed to say Which one.
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Sure, the Spanish, the Portuguese and the French are aggressive drivers - a lot of them anyway.
And this certainly seems to come from the made-up statistics brigade, promoting a little-known brand.
But the only time I've actively had someone try to run me off the road for no apparent reason - and it was very frightening - was last time I was in the UK.
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I don't think I've ever noticed any difference between nations on this. Most people seem OK, occasionally you come across a mad twerp or dangerous psychopath.
I must say I am surprised at Aprilia's apparent liking for the lower sort of ale-house though... Don't they have a saloon bar for the gently raised and those with a vague, bloodshot, wandering gaze up there Aprilia?
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easiest way to not be road raged is drive something big.............BIG GETS RESPECT
Lud i love tap oils real people i always find ;-)
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>>Lud i love tap oils real people i always find ;-)
I can't remember the last time I was in a pub with a tap room. Perhaps it's because I'm away from civilisation - or perhaps, I'm becoming a virtual person!
Number_Cruncher
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Makes sense to me, more aggression here than anywhere else I've driven and I believe it's getting worse.
There should be some heavily armed state sanctioned murderers driving around. Train them to very high standards of driving and let them spend all day driving about within the law, curteously and minding their own business. If some nutter decides to lose it with them, flashing lights, screaming at the windscreen, nescafe shaker motions, they should be allowed to stop their car and that of the idiot and murder them, bloodily on the spot.
There wouldn't need to be many of them and they wouldn't have to do it too often, but I think we'd see an instant improvement in driving behavior.
I'm joking of course, but I think you can see my point.
-- Biggedy biggedy bong
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What they mean is that they asked the opinion of the entire staff of their company, all four of them. Their office is in London and they think driving is very aggressive there, as it is in all big cities. One of them has a flat in the Algarve and finds driving more relaxed there.
Had their office been in Salcombe and the flat in Madrid their "study" would have found the opposite.
Still, something for the hacks to put in their papers.
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Come 'ere and say that! :-)
JH
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when i were a lad a hack was a sore throat remedy
cherry flavour was horrible
lemon was nice
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I'm not surprised. We have the largest population per road miles, I would guess.
Rats, confined space, etc.
Me included.
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Another press release to talk about: "The UK has been identified as having the most aggressive drivers in Europe according to a recent study by leading satellite navigation brand Snooper.
A study of people who never been on a road in Rome...
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I reckon that if you stick Aprilia's and Groovy Mucker's posts together you have the answer. Lack of general civility and overcrowded roads. I drive pretty frequently from Midlands to N Yorks, Merseyside, London and Dover. One never knows whether to allow say 2 hours to N Yorks or 4 hours, 4 hours to Dover or 6 hours, 90 mins to N London or 3 hours. In most parts of Europe (Ok not Rome or Paris) one can work out how far, how fast, you will be driving and set a time you will arrive and you can do it. Eg, In NE France, ill and aged father on board 400 miles to go to 9 pm ferry, said if I drove at 80 mph we could do it in 5 hours driving time plus a coffee stop or 2. We did - to the minute - and had the coffees (in relaxed and pleasant autoroute services - that helps). Try doing that in UK (except in early hours). Here there are so many hold ups that there must, at any time, be thousands of frustrated, angry drivers, who are late for meetings, ferrys, work, getting home etc and therefore become aggressive, take risks that otherwise they wouldn't. Yep, there are plenty of aggressive (maybe a better word would be "positive") drivers in France, Germany, Italy, plenty of incompetent ones in (the old) Yugoslavia and Greece - but they don't seem to have the same anger with which many British drive.
--
Phil
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I agree with the survey........ motoring in this country is fast getting to the point it's unpleasant...
If you overtake anyone on an A road........you're just as likely to get a load of main beam and fist shaking.......why?
If you want to turn right across a busy traffic flow.........you can wait for 20+ cars.....why can't someone 'throttle off' and let you cross, they could catch up to where they were?
how many people now do their 'u' turns in the middle of traffic, instead of turning off somewhere to turn around...(and then look directly at you as if waiting for you to make the reaction that they know they surely deserve)
how many people sit for ever in an outside lane on a motorway/dual carriageway without the slightest thought for anyone else?
how many people nowadays seemingly don't know where the indicator stalk is?
unnecessary use of fog lights, tail gating, rubbish thrown out of windows, extremely loud music, deliberately driving in wrong lane and cutting into the correct one at the last minute, parking dangerously/inconsiderately, blocking box junctions... etc,etc,etc
don't know whether it's just a city that causes it.........but it's definitley getting worse...only place that doesn't seem like it is Scotland.......maybe Wales is the same
2 weeks in USA recently and they are all most polite generally
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Look chaps (and NW, hi there), even Westpig, let's not exaggerate. It's certainly true people are less civil than they were when I was young, but they probably are elsewhere too. Yes the roads are crowded. Yes people have been taught to drive by numbers and are a pain in the fundament about it. Yes it's annoying. Of course we aren't helped here by masochistic or openly anti-private-car policies and practices, whaich in some cases are national as well as local.
Some of these of course are curable or reversible.
But in any case and in the meantime, dire though things may be, is any purpose served by rational elements like us getting our underwear knotted? Surely not.
Just keep your foot down, watch out and if necessary, talk your way out of it. You'll be happier that way.
I live in the thick of it and know what I'm talking about.
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Lud,
Have you been on the port?
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What if I have? Hic.
Just off for a drive! Nyaaah! Catch me if you can!
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The UK was named as having the worst drivers followed by those in Spain Germany Portugal France Sweden Greece and Italy.
This surely can't be the order, can it?
Italy, the least aggressive drivers out of that lot?
Very interesting if true. How on earth do they work that one out?
In any case the UK is far to big a place to make a generalisation like that. I've found that drivers in the North East of England are substantially less aggressive than those in some parts of the South. I put it down to the greater population density, and therefore tailbacks, rather than any national or regional trait.
If the survey has looked at drivers in limited areas, that could explain the result.
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Try this simple test: If you are in a queue at a pinch point where two lanes funnel into one how do you react? Do you >>
Depends, however what we should do is use both lanes up to the pinch point and merge in turn, the ensures that the road capacity is utilised and the jam does not impact unduly further back up the road.
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