Are drivers standards changing?

Are drivers standards changing?

That's the question that pops up every now and again.

Everyone's got an opinion ranging from:

• It's the fault of the driving instructor for not teaching the pupil to high standards.
• More pupils are being shown how to drive from their parents.
• Drivers are rushing round more these days.
• More drivers on the road means more accident's.
• Etc, etc...

The Driving Instructor
First thing is the driving instructor is teaching/coaching pupils now to a higher standard than compared to 30 years ago.   They are regually checked to maintain a high standard of teaching.  They also have voluntary continuous professional development courses.  The ones that I attend are always full.  With any professional they take a pride in training a person to drive safely.  So it is easy for some drivers to point the finger at the driving instructor.

The Parents
Yes it is a fact that at this moment more pupils are being taught to drive from mum or dad to try and save money.  But that has always happened, so an increase will not make a massive difference.  A lot of these pupils will also combine lessons with mum and dad and professional lessons with a driving instructor.  So the standard of driving on our roads cannot be put onto the parents.

No time to drive
In this modern day of driving, there is still plenty of room for the good safe driver who drives within the rules of the road, I see them everyday, and point out the good examples of good driving to my learner pupils.
But I am not blind and can see other drivers that are rushing round  for whatever reason.  The reasons could be late for work, need to deliver a parcel on time, the reasons can be endless.  They take risks, thats their choice.  I think they consider themselves good drivers.  You may say, "they are bad drivers, not good."
How do they measure what a good driver is?
How do you measure what a good driver is?

If you ask them the answer would be." I have been driving for 20 years and have never had an accident so I must be a good driver."  Thats how most drivers think.  In reality the driver over time thinks they are good based off not having an accident.  They could be breaking the speed limit when they think they can, straight lining on roundabouts and generally not signalling, but they will consider themselves a good driver.

More drivers on the roads
Yes that is true there are more drivers on the roads.  So the risk of a driving accident increases with the volume of increased traffic.  

Consider this
If you cast your mind back to 1980.  There were some fast cars, Capri to name one, which started the injection revolution.  But there were a lot of cars that pulled off like you were towing a caravan.  So does that mean less drivers took risks for they knew they could not pull out fast at roundabouts or junctions.
Leap forward to today and every car has some sort of injection system aimed at pulling off fast. Are drivers brainwashed with the safety features of the modern cars to the extent that I am sure the driver thinks they can walk way from a road accident.
So does it mean that a combination of faster cars and brainwashing of safety features  results in more risks and the risks are resulting in more accidents because of the volume of traffic.
You could bring into the fold the mobile phone.  In the 1980's it was the big  red box on a corner with a queue of people waiting.  Today everyone has a mobile and I bet if you drove to work tomorrow you will see at least one driver using one whilst driving.  Which we all know is a distraction and illegal and contributes to accidents.

Change the future
So the question at the start was are drivers standards changing?  What do you think?

If you could change the standard of driving and the attitudes of drivers what would it be?