Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for UK drivers

For many British drivers, they wanted other motorists to indicate more than they do. Photo: Laurenz Kleinheider

When it comes to making a New Year’s Resolution behind the wheel, it seems that Brits want to improve their parking skills tops the list by quite some way, according to a new study.

Independent research questioned 1000 UK motorists on behalf of the country’s largest pre-17 driving school, Young Driver. It revealed almost one in 10 British license-holders (9 per cent) believe they are a perfect driver with nothing to improve.

But for those who did think their skills could be worked on, parking took the two top spots for the most needed New Year’s Resolutions across all age groups. Parallel parking was the most common thing motorists admitted needed improvement (35 per cent), with a further one in three (31 per cent) saying their reverse parking skills could be better. Being more patient and overcoming a lack of confidence also featured in the top 10 – along with driving in a more environmentally friendly way (12 per cent).

Young Driver also asked the respondents what skills they thought other drivers could do with improving come January 1st – revealing Brits judge other people’s driving very differently from their own. One in two motorists (52 per cent) said other drivers need to indicate more – although, interestingly, only one in 10 (10 per cent) thought that was a skill they themselves needed to improve upon.

Parking barely registered on the list of top 10 New Year’s Resolutions we’d like other drivers to make, with the second most popular response being that people needed to stop tailgating (44 per cent) – a fault only eight per cent of drivers personally felt they needed to work on. Not using a mobile behind the wheel took the third spot – but didn’t even make the top 10 list of resolutions Brit drivers would make for themselves.

Most Brits want to improve their parallel parking skills, especially as many homes don’t have garages. Photo: Cali Riffee

The top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for drivers:

1. To improve my parallel parking (35%)

2. To improve my reverse parking (31%)

3. Being more patient behind the wheel (16%)

4. Being more confident behind the wheel (15%)

5. To overcome nervousness of driving on a motorway (15%)

6. Always remembering to check my blind spots (12%)

7. To drive in a more environmentally friendly way (12%)

8. To use my mirrors more (11%)

9. Always remembering to indicate (10%)

10. Reducing my speed (9%)

The top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for other motorists:

1. Always remembering to indicate (52%)

2. Not to get too close to the car in front (44%)

3. Never using a mobile phone behind the wheel (42%)

4. Reducing their speed (40%)

5. Being more patient behind the wheel (37%)

6. Using their mirrors more (25%)

7. Always checking their blind spots (23%)

8. To ensure cyclists and horse riders have plenty of space when passing (20%)

9. To improve their reverse parking skills (14%)

10. Increasing their speed (11%)

Sue Waterfield, head of marketing at Young Driver, said: “Twelve per cent of men and six per cent of women think they are a perfect driver – yet people were very clear about the deficiencies in other people’s driving skills! 

“It’s easy for bad habits to slip in once you’ve been driving for several years – so a New Year’s Resolution to drive with more consideration and care (and to perhaps brush up on those parking skills) definitely seems like a good idea!”