A recent survey has revealed that Britain’s drivers are growing increasingly impatient. A whopping 37% of British drivers are enraged with tailgating by other road users while a further 31% cited other motorists driving slowly and not moving back over to the left lane after overtaking as chief frustrations.

Reassuringly cyclists and pedestrians on the road are the least annoying for UK drivers with only 5% of drivers citing cyclists as their main frustration and 2% pedestrians crossing the road.

But this frustration with other drivers sets a worrying trend for Dominic Cohen, who commented, “speed is one of the main contributing factors to accidents on our UK roads so in addition to teaching basic driving skills, we are committed to teaching road safety education to all of our pupils enabling them to understand the road and its potential dangers.”

Cohen continues, “The results of this survey underline just how important greater awareness of road safety is. Our Road Safety Team is currently out and about throughout the UK to help those currently undertaking driving lessons and those who’ve already past their test, with a reminder of road safety and awareness skills.”

The survey asked a mixed group of male and females aged 18 upwards across the country. The spread of drivers enraged most by tailgating was fairly even throughout the regions across the UK with 52% of North East residents stating their annoyance of tailgating compared to a similar 51% in East Anglia then closely followed by the East Midlands at 43%. It appears both men and women share the gripe with an equal divide between genders.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that improving the skills of young motorists is among a package of measures proposed by the Transport Select Committee.

According to the committee road congestion will cost the British economy an extra £22 billion by 2025 if the problem is not tackled. MP’s believe that changing motorists’ behaviour could play a significant part in easing the problem.

“It’s about having more responsible driving and not getting involved in bad behaviour and road rage,” said Louise Ellman, the committee chairman. She went on to say that the committee believed young drivers should be expected to have a far wider experience of all road conditions before they presented themselves for a driving test.

“This report contains some good suggestions to reduce road congestion,” said Edmund King, the AA’s president.

“We do question why the first recommendation in the Committee’s press release for reducing congestion is a tougher driving test. Whilst a tougher test might be needed on road safety grounds it would do little to reduce congestion. In terms of getting out of the jam a tougher test is a red herring. Drivers tend to hog the middle lane because they are inconsiderate rather than because they don’t know the rules of the road.”

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, added: “Most of us who are guilty of inconsiderate driving at some stage, yet changing the driving test will only address the symptom of bad behaviour, not the cause.

“Ministers can tell us all to drive better until they are blue in the face, yet with the population set to grow by ten million in twenty years congestion will go through the roof no matter how much we tinker at the edges.”

However, Mike Penning, the roads minister, defended the Government’s record.

“We know how important it is that the driving test properly prepares people for life on the roads. That is why we have already added a new independent driving element to the test, allowing candidates to demonstrate their ability to drive safely in more realistic situations, and have stopped publishing driving test routes.”

My own opinion is that no matter how hard the driving test becomes it is those already on the roads that need educating in modern driving technique and quite possibly, be re-tested every 10 years.

A pensioner whose wife was killed by a young driver reading a text is suing her for more than £300,000. John Lyon, 71, is seeking damages from 20-year-old student Keisha Wall for the death of his wife Christine.

The 63-year-old grandmother was crushed against a wall when the driver lost control of her Suzuki Jimny jeep last year.
Wall, who was sentenced in April to 30 months at a young offenders’ institute, had her driving instructor mum in the car at the time.

Disabled Mr Lyon is seeking damages to cover funeral costs and to ­compensate for his bereavement and the loss of his main carer.The widower from Maidenhead, Berks, says he relied on his wife of 43 years to look after him, as did the grandchildren she childminded.

At the sentence hearing, judge Stephen John said Wall had caused a “wholly avoidable death that day”.

A survey carried out by Continental Tyres asked 1,000 kids in the UK and Ireland to report what they witnessed and to say what they felt about their parents driving.
63% of parents were regarded as aggressive drivers by their kids and Dad was more likely to speed than Mum.
Three quarters of children between 4 and 16 years said their parents shouted at other road users.
20% said that their “responsible adult” used a hand-held telephone while driving.
The poor driving skills prompted 22% of children to slump in their seat to try to hide and one in five asked their elders to improve their driving.