In Edinburgh drivers are showing little respect, ranked almost at the bottom of the table with only Swansea drivers being less respectful, according to a report from AXA Insurance. A high 47% did not allow pedestrians to cross safely at a zebra crossing (better in the morning with 19%) and over eight in 10 (84%) refused to allow buses to carry on their way. An alarming 70% of drivers refused to indicate at all on roundabouts in the morning, which increased to 78% in the afternoon and almost one in 10 ran a red light in the rush to get to and from work.
A quarter (25%) of drivers in Edinburgh parked in a disabled person’s space without holding a valid badge while three in 10 (30%) drivers parked in a parent and child bay without children.
To find out who are the best – and worst – in Britain, a series of observational tests were carried out around traditional driving bugbears to judge people’s respect for other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. A team of researchers in each of the 30 cities observed whether motorists let people pass at zebra crossings, let buses pull out, blocked cycle space, or sat in a box junction for more than ten seconds. Also tested were whether people indicated fully on roundabouts, and used disabled and mother and child parking bays when they had neither a child nor a disability.
Research data was converted into percentages and for each observational test the cities were ranked from one to 30. For each city the ranking for each test was added up and divided by the number of observational tests carried out to achieve the average score. These were then ranked to provide the most and least respectful drivers in the UK.
Amen to this: the lazy, selfish and downright dangerous driving came completely out of the blue to me when I moved up here. Tailgating and speeding are half of it. But what really flabbergasted me was the attitude towards using indicators – it’s treated as optional, or, if the indicators are used, they’re used at the very last moment.
I always wondered why this problem – and it’s a killer problem – didn’t come up in national conversation more often. It’s like some kind of dirty family secret.
James, if it’s such a problem for you then please feel free to return to down there, where-ever it is you’re from. Return to your perfect world where there are no killer problems or dirty secrets. Go back to where your national conversations are only about perfect things.
Comments are closed.