South West has rudest drivers

Drivers here in the South West of England were found to be the rudest in the country with almost 60% admitting to swearing and making rude gestures behind the wheel. That’s according to the Impatient Nation report from insurer swiftcover.com.

Worryingly, nearly one in ten men questionned admitted that their impatience behind the wheel has resulted in them causing an accident.  The report found that 37% of people in Britain say they are now more impatient than they were three years ago, causing problems at home, at work and spilling on to the roads.

One of the biggest areas of frustration is on the highway where drivers who tailgate, cut-up others, talk on their phones or don’t let cars out at busy junctions, drive the rest of us crazy. Ironically this frustration not only makes us impatient, it can trigger anti-social behaviour.

The research found that:

  • 52% of all drivers get impatient because of rude and anti-social driving
  • 52% of people say their impatience behind the wheel has led to them swearing or making rude gestures at other drivers
  • 9% of men have caused an accident with their impatient driving

Despite many people taking steps to improve their levels of patience in other aspects of life - 11% have resolved to be nicer to others, whilst 5% of people have taken up yoga - It seems that on the road we are often our own worst enemies.

Tina Shortle from swiftcover.com said “It’s clear that the pressure of modern society is getting to many people and depleting their stores of patience - worryingly the soaring levels of impatience has hit critical levels on the road, with dangerous implications.”

She suggests that making smarter travel choices could help to reduce the pressure: “We need to look at ways to ease the driving burden, such as setting up lift clubs for the school run, car-sharing for the commute to work, or perhaps just setting out earlier in the morning. If we all take small steps to show other drivers some respect, we will find ourselves a lot less impatient and stressed-out on the roads.”

The research was carried out amongst more than 2,000 people in the UK.