Revealed: The Top 10 Most Annoying Driving Habits

With Easter bank holiday weekend ahead, it’s likely that many of us will be taking a trip, whether that be to a holiday destination or back to our home towns. But we all know that busy motorways can bring frustrations.  My personal faves include Subaru Imprezas with tinted windows blasting out hardcore Rap at 2am, bearded men called Toby vaping some kind of raspberry flavoured WW1 gas cloud at traffic lights, or watching a busy mum spoon-feeding a toddler in the rear baby seat as she trundled along the M62.  Yes, that actually happened.

Here’s the survey results for you, go steady out there people.

Every day motorists find themselves being wound up by the annoying habits of other drivers, whether it be merging into a lane at the last second, or slowing down to look at an accident, the road is full of potential situations that can cause irritation and angst.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that a recent study found that in 2017, 80% of British drivers suffered from road rage.

Select Car Leasing conducted an independent national survey of 1,200 UK motorists, to find the most frustrating and annoying driving habits on the road, and here’s what they said.

The top 3 out of the top 10 most annoying driving habits are:

1. Parking over two spaces – Coming in at the top of our survey on annoying driving habits, is parking over two spaces. Known to many as ‘Clarkson Parking’ after former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson’s infamous parking techniques, it has become a trend in recent times with car enthusiasts taking to social media to show off atrocious parking efforts. For regular motorists, the feeling of driving around in circles in a busy car park to find a space, only to come across a car parked across two bays, is an all too common frustration.
2. Driving 10mph below the speed limit – We’ve all been there. It’s a busy Monday morning on the road, you’re desperately trying to get to work on time and you get stuck behind a driver driving 20mph in a 30 zone. As fate would have it, the car in front is going to exactly the same place as you, which means you’re stuck behind them for your entire journey. In certain instances, driving too slowly can be dangerous and can result in anything from a verbal warning to a £5,000 fine, depending on the circumstances.
3. Slowing down to look at an accident – The phenomenon, known as rubbernecking, is the act of slowing down to get a better view of a car accident. This causes several problems, one of which is that  the ‘rubbernecker’ holds up everyone who is trying to get on with their day and creates traffic jams that need not exist. In fact, more accidents can be caused as motorists have to deal with unexpected braking and accelerating when passing the accident. As frustration builds while waiting for the accident to pass, everyone then accelerates at light speed to get back on the open road. Not the safest driving environment.

The remaining include sudden and dangerous braking, last minute lane mergers and lane switchers trying to get ahead. Do any of these get on your nerves? Or are you guilty of any of these annoying habits?

See all 10 of the most annoying habits as rated by the British public here: https://www.selectcarleasing.co.uk/news/top-10-most-annoying-drivers.html