Are you a bad driver? Just blame your parents!

If you are bad driver, chances are you probably learned it from your parents.

A study in the United Kingdom revealed bad driving is hereditary. This means your parents are likely to blame for your disregard of traffic laws.

The results of the recent study by Scrap Car Comparison found motorists who show bad driving behaviour such as speeding are merely repeating what they have been exposed to by their mothers and fathers.

Are you a bad driver?

As many as 66% of drivers who have broken traffic laws were raised by parents demonstrating bad driving behaviour.

In comparison, just 26% of drivers who did not oblige to the law were raised by law-abiding parents.

Almost half (45%) of the respondents raised by bad drivers have been pulled over by traffic cops. On the other hand, just 14% of drivers raised by law-abiding citizens have been ordered to pull over.

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It runs in the family

One in four motorists did admit they picked up bad habits from their parents.

These habits they unwittingly learned include speeding, poor spatial awareness, bad parking, road rage and dangerous driving.

The study also found that motorists brought up by lawbreakers generally tend to have at least one point on their licence.

The UK uses a demerit point system which bans a motorist from driving for earning 12 or more points in a period of three years.

Motorists raised by parents who stick to the rules tend to have clean licences without any demerit points.
Of drivers with four or more demerits points on their licences, 12% were raised by bad drivers.

This is four times more than the 3% raised by law-abiding parents.

Quite ironically, one in 10 motorists feel their parents’ cautious driving is the result of them being too cautious on the road.

One of the stipulations of driving too carefully was maintaining speeds significantly below the speed limit.

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No more bad driving

On the bright side, it seems newer generations are mindful of their parents’ bad driving behaviour; 55% of motorists feel that they are better drivers than their parents.

And they can back it up with data too. More than 36% of parents with demerit points have children maintaining a clean slate.

“When you think about it, it should come as no surprise that the driving habits of our parents play a part in our own driving skills as an adult,” said David Kottaun, Operations Manager at Scrap Car Comparison.

“Many of us spent our formative years in the passenger seat of a parental figure’s car, and so will have subconsciously picked up on both good and bad traits when it comes to driving a vehicle.

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Promising signs

“The most important thing, however, is safety. That’s why it’s promising to see that newer generations of drivers are realising the bad habits they’ve picked up from older generations and are hopefully making a change for the better”.

Results are based on feedback from a total of 1 002 drivers – half of which have never committed a driving offence and half of which have.

Each driver was asked a series of questions. These covered both their own driving behaviours, those of their parents and their thoughts around negative and positive driving habits.

Bad driving was defined by a number of things. Such as whether the motorist had been pulled over by the police, participated in a speed awareness course or received penalty points on their licence in the last ten years.

The study was conducted in March by Scrap Car Comparison in partnership with Censuswide.