Admiral Launches New Poll of Britain’s Most Irritating Road Users [Travel & Leisure Close – Up]

Admiral has revealed Britain's most irritating road users in a new poll, and it's the older generation that winds up British motorists the most.

According to a release, car insurance professionals 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 percent) respondents saying they get them hot under the collar. Next was taxi drivers (37 percent), followed by cyclists (36 percent) and van drivers (34 percent).

Elderly motorists top the list for respondents of all ages apart from those aged 60 and above, where cyclists (35 percent) top the list. In fact elderly motorists only feature at 8th on the 60 and over list, with only 22 percent 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, Admiral said 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 percent), went to tailgating closely followed by using mobile phones (73 percent) and not indicating (71 percent).

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."

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plcbetween June 8 and 18, 2012. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+). In some tables, percentages equal 99 or 101 due to rounding to the nearest whole percentage number.

Admiral writes its motor insurance business to a consortium of insurers, these being Admiral Insurance Company, Admiral Insurance Limited and Great Lakes Reinsurance (UK) plc.

More information:

www.admiral.com

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