‘Dangerous’ tailgaters voted UK’s most hated drivers as traffic cop dearth slammed

Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - 14:30
Comments off
TrafficJam

HATED: Do you despise tailgating?

Tailgating and failing to indicate are the most despised driving habits among UK road users, a study by GEM Motoring Assist has revealed.

In a survey to find out what irritates motorists, a massive two-thirds of drivers hate being tailgated most.

Drivers listed not indicating before turning as the second-worst driving practice, while a lack of proper motorway lane use was voted third worst.

GEM claim the absence of punishment for such misdemeanours is just as frustrating as the habits themselves, blaming a lack of traffic police presence.

David Williams MBE, CEO of GEM, said: “Without enough traffic police officers addressing habits such as tailgating and not indicating, bad driving practice is seemingly starting to become more common.

“Even though minor motoring misbehaviour seems less serious than certain other driving offences, it can be as equally dangerous.

“Although it is the role of the traffic police to enforce punishments, it is up to us all as road users to ensure that we ourselves avoid poor driving practice.”

The top ten motoring misbehaviours are:

  1. Vehicles driving too close behind your car
  2. Drivers not indicating before making a turn
  3. Drivers not practicing proper motorway lane use
  4. Other road users cutting in and reducing the gap between you and the vehicle in front
  5. Motorists driving well-below the applicable speed limit
  6. Lorries slowly overtaking other vehicles on motorways/ dual carriageways
  7. Drivers not thanking you for letting them through/ letting them pass
  8. Motorists not letting you in and preventing you from moving/ joining lanes
  9. Road users honking their horn at you if you change your mind about lane position, or make a minor error
  10. Drivers taking the parking space that you had indicated towards

Image courtesy of Documentally, with thanks.

4 Comments

  1. When I am on the motorway and in the correct lane doing 70mph and come across a slower vehicle in the lane in which I am travelling and I want to pull out to overtake, I hate the speeding vehicles who cannot read traffic ahead to anticipate that I might want to overtake and make me brake although I really should not need to. These are bad mannered road hogs who only think of themselves.

  2. I agree with all those ten faults but one of the worst offences to me is ignorant drivers who park outside shops etc at night, facing the wrong way with headlights on dazzling oncoming traffic.

    Peter Posh is wrong to suggest the police are wasting our money. If MP’s and the judiciary stood up to the thieves and cheats in our society and imposed bigger penalties, (to include paying for all the police mobilisation) we’d all feel a lot happier.

  3. Then you’d see them doing 140 mph on blues down the motorway for 30 miles and mobilising the helicopter to catch someone who’d scarpered with £20 worth of petrol

  4. after watching those camera action programs, we realised the traffic police were costing the taxpayer a fortune to catch people having an ounce of dope