Age matters when it comes to irritating motorists
Britain's most irritating road users have been revealed in a new poll, and it's the older generation that wind us up the most.
Car insurance expert Admiral asked more than 3,000 people to tell them which road users they find most irritating as part of its annual Admiral Survey of Motorists with YouGov. It found that elderly motorists top the list, with four out of ten (41%) respondents saying they get them hot under the collar. Next was taxi drivers (37%), followed by cyclists (36%) and van drivers (34%).
The full list of most irritating road users is as follows:
Road user - Percentage who find them irritating
Elderly motorists 41%
Taxi drivers 37%
Cyclists 36%
Van drivers 34%
Male drivers aged 17 or 18 30%
Caravanners 29%
Tractor drivers 26%
4x4 drivers 26%
Lorry drivers 21%
Motorcyclists 19%
Bus drivers 19%
Female drivers aged 17 or 18 14%
Sales reps 9%
Elderly motorists top the list for respondents of all ages apart from those aged 60 and above, where cyclists (35%) top the list. In fact elderly motorists only feature at 8th on the 60 and over list, with only 22% saying they find elderly motorists the most irritating.
Sue Longthorn, Admiral managing director, said, "It's surprising to see that such a high number of people voted for elderly motorists which shows they've obviously hit a nerve with the driving public. However, as the statistics show, this irritation lessens as people get older and shifts onto cyclists and young male motorists.
"The reason so many people find elderly motorists irritating could be because they tend to drive more carefully and are not in such a rush compared to many other road users. So many motorists are in a rush these days they get impatient with anyone they think is slowing them down."
Regionally there was some variation between which road users the different parts of the UK find most irritating. So while elderly motorists top the list across the majority of the UK, in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, taxi drivers take the crown. In London it's van drivers who irritate motorists most.
Admiral also asked motorists what annoys them about other road users, and the highest number of votes, almost three quarters (74%), went to tailgating closely followed by using mobile phones (73%) and not indicating (71%).
Sue continued, "It's interesting to see it's dangerous actions which motorists find most annoying. Not only could these actions have a negative impact on the drivers doing them but also on other road users. Tailgating and using mobile phones while driving are not just dangerous, they are completely unacceptable."
More information on this, the rest of Admiral's Annual Survey of British Motorists and regional results can be found at admiral.com/surveyofmotorists.
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 3,164 adults with valid driving licences. Fieldwork was undertaken between 8th and 18th June 2012. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+). In some table percentages equal 99 or 101 due to rounding to the nearest whole percentage number.