As a driver, it’s sometimes difficult not to be annoyed by the habits of other road users. Indeed, research reveals 80 percent of us admit to feeling road rage. So what winds us up the most?
Click4Reg conducted a survey to discover just that, and the results are interesting. Middle-lane hogging, sudden braking and a lack of courtesy rank towards the bottom of the top 10, with less than 20 percent of respondents finding these habits annoying.
From seventh to fifth on the list, things climb more steeply. Speeding (25 percent), bad parking (26 percent) and last-minute merging/lane switching (32 percent) annoy rather more respondents.
The top four sees a jump to 40 percent and above. Tailgating riles up 40 percent of us. Slow driving, at 10mph below the speed limit or more, is a trigger for 41 percent.
Leaving your full beam headlights on (52 percent) comes second. Taking the lead, however, is failing to indicate (55 percent).
| Top 10 annoying driving habits | Percent of people who find it annoying |
| Not indicating | 55% |
| Leaving full-beam headlights on | 52% |
| Driving 10mph below the speed limit | 41% |
| Tailgating | 40% |
| Last minute lane mergers and lane switchers | 32% |
| Bad parking | 26% |
| Speeding | 25% |
| Not being courteous to other drivers | 19% |
| Sudden braking | 18% |
| Middle-lane hogging | 14% |
Are UK drivers hypocrites?
Incredibly, in spite of drivers being vocal about what annoys us on the road, we are self-confessed hypocrites. In total, 87 percent of the 1,023 respondents to the survey admitted committing at least one of the most annoying offences.
Of the top 10, speeding, bad parking and not indicating were the most admitted-to. Splitting the genders, 39 percent of women said bad parking was their worst driving habit, while 43 percent of men said theirs was speeding.
The most annoying drivers on the road
So, which drivers do we find the most annoying? Taxis, motorcycles, young females, buses, vans, coaches and emergency vehicles all attract the ire of less than 20 percent. The top three, however – lorry drivers, young males and the elderly – are disdained by many drivers.
Women are the most annoyed by lorry drivers, with 34 percent having them on their list. Young males catch much more grief than young females, in spite of both posing a high risk.
Annoyance with older drivers is suspected to correlate with their tendency to drive more slowly.
| Types of drivers | Percent of people who find them annoying |
| Elderly | 41% |
| Males 17/18 | 38% |
| Lorries | 26% |
| Taxis | 16% |
| Motorbikes | 14% |
| Female 17/18 | 12% |
| Buses | 10% |
| Vans | 8% |
| Coaches | 5% |
| Emergency vehicles | 2% |
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