Safe Speed Forums

The comments in several threads made me wonder just how many sub-standard drivers there are on the roads. You may call them dangerous, numpties or whatever - the point being that the standard of their driving falls below acceptable levels.
I believe that most drivers are around average standard - bearing in mind that, by definition, 50% of drivers are above average - with few exceptional drivers and few bad drivers, and that most drivers are well above the minimum acceptable standard.
I'm interested in finding out how many bad drivers others see on the roads. If, for example, one percent of drivers are bad, then one will encounter several of them in an average day, because most of us encounter several hundred cars per day.

I would say 1 to 2% are sub-standard.

Unfortunately a large percentage are just not interested, they are not "bad" as such but see driving as a chore and have no interest in making any effort to improve once they pass the basic test.

Yes, I agree with this pov, and it is not necessarily the bad drivers that are getting caught by camera’s either, I think it is largely the disinterested, they do not think of driving as anything other than a means from a to b so that’s what they do in the best way they can, and as such are easy prey.

The big problem with this poll question is the definition of 'substandard'.

I expect 99% of us are responsible for some significantly substandard driving at least once a year.

They say around 5% of drivers are uninsured. The attitude required to neglect insurance must be 'substandard'.

If asked to guess, I'd say 90% of drivers are adequate, 5% 'need attention' and 5% are good or expert. There's some risky driving at the bottom of the adequate range too.

I believe that around 20% of drivers are responsible for 80% of crashes and around 10% of drivers are responsible for 60% of crashes.

We really need to target the bad guys in order to improve things.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I would say something like "sufficiently deficient in skill and/or attitude that they pose a greatly increased risk on the roads".


I voted for 5-10%, which is broadly in agreement with the statement above.

I was a bit surprised to see the poll capped at 10%, as I'm sure some people would have voted much higher. One prominent "cycling advocate" sees it as a serious road safety issue that the "average" driver assesses his/her skill as "above average". (I don't - the same would undoubtedly be true of airline pilots)

Also bear in mind that many of the lowest skilled drivers will tend to do relatively few miles, thereby reducing their risk profile.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Then I would have to say less than 1%

You can't go on impressions. I've been making a concious effort to not just notice the bad drivers but to then make a rough count the number of cars I see on the same journey/day. Do that and you will find that for every dangerous driver there are hundreds of acceptable ones.

Take one incident. 3 lane motorway, moving at <30mph. I can see a good mile ahead due to the lay of the land. One idiot is driving up the hard shoulder. How many cars can I see? Even on a completely flat motorway I must have a view of a hundred other vehicles.

By bad, or substandard drivers, I really meant the ones who should arguably not be on the roads - at least until they've taken steps to improve their driving.
I capped it at 10% because I don't believe these number more than that. If they did number as much as that then that would be one in every ten drivers (on average) which you encounter. I encounter several hundred other drivers every single day, and I only see a handful of dodgy ones. But then again, I do much of my driving on the motorway - perhaps the real numpties steer clear of motorways.
But I also believe that the vast majority of drivers - including the 'disinterested' ones, are of a perfectly adequate standard. Perhaps that's partly why we have relatively safe roads - the modal standard is well above the minimum acceptable standard.

Cheers
Peter

Perhaps a better question would be:

"What percentage of drivers are so bad that they should be immediately banned in the public interest?" (It's a head count, not a traffic count)

If we can agree a really meaningful question, I'd like to set up another poll. I think the idea, the data and the opinions are important, but I fear the answers to this poll are simply too 'definition dependent'

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

That fact that people aren't behaving in an unsafe manner at a particular point in time doesn't mean that they won't do ever.

Don't forget that many of the licensed drivers whose problem is very low skill levels and confidence tend to limit their own driving anyway.

As Paul said, it's a head count, not a traffic count.

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

What I would have liked to do is gauge: 1) how many drivers are genuinely rotten, 2) what percentage of drivers are adequate and 3) how 'adequate' that adequate is.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any way of doing that with a single poll.

Your question would probably be better than the one I asked, but it still doesn't convey the whole picture.
Perhaps that one plus one or two others?

This was really prompted by statements such as, "every driver thinks that they're better than average" - with the implication that most drivers think that they're good, whilst really being below adequate (and therefore cannot be trusted to think for themselves).

Cheers
Peter