L Plate Hate: A Third Of Learners Suffer Abuse From Other Motorists

Dangerous Driving, Learner Driver, Road Rage

Remember learning to drive? As if getting to grips with mirror, signal and manoeuvre, hill starts and clutch control wasn’t stressful enough, chances are you experienced some form of abuse on the road or were treated like a second-class road user simply because of a couple of L plates. Don’t worry, you weren’t alone!

Verbal abuse, rude hand gestures and intimidating driving (overtaking aggressively and beeping horns) is causing drivers to abandon their quest to turn their green licence pink.

Insurer Marmalade recently surveyed 600 driving instructors and findings revealed that one in ten learner drivers have quit driving due to abuse they’ve received from other motorists.

One third of driving instructors witnessed road rage aimed at learners on a daily basis, with a quarter seeing their students left in tears due to threatening behaviour of fellow motorists.

A little under 70% of learners surveyed have received rude hand gestures behind the wheel and over half have experienced verbal abuse while driving. Male drivers aged between 25 and 40 are the most likely to abuse learners, according to the survey.

One in nine learners have been the victim of overtaking or tailgating whilst on a lesson.

The stigma of learner plates is evident with 93% of instructors surveyed having admitted being treated differently on the road, in-spite of no change to their driving style. This clear change in behaviour has had a knock-on effect all but banishing the use of P plates to highlight new drivers.

Punishing those making rude hand gestures behind the wheel isn’t enough according to driving instructors, who are calling for tougher penalties to deter abuse of young drivers.

Marmalade has filed a Parliament petition to increase fines for those driving in a dangerous manner around learners. So far, the petition has just over 5,900 signatures.

Crispin Moger, CEO of Marmalade said “We need people to treat young drivers with the same respect as other road users. After all, we were all learners once.”

Have you been the victim of abuse whilst learning to drive? Perhaps you’ve been the one guilty of a hand gesture (or two) aimed at a learner. Let us know on our Facebook Page.

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