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Revealed: The Commuting Habits Brits Hate The Most

24th July 2017

According to vehicle supply specialists OSV, if you don’t want to be hated by your fellow commuters, stop doing the following things…

Recent research has found that 3.7 million Brits commute for two hours or longer each weekday and spend an average of £48,000 in their lifetime on commuting.

Most of the time, jumping in the car or taking public transport is pretty painless. But every once in awhile, your experience makes you question why you do this each day.

With this in mind, OSV asked over 600 commuters what frustrates them most on their journey and created an infographic (shown) to highlight their findings.

The research found that public transport commuters are most annoyed by habits of their fellow commuters – and car commuters are most annoyed with people’s driving skills, or lack of.

Public Transport Pet Peeves

Those passengers who push on without letting people off first are the most hated, with 30% of public transport commuters putting them top of the pet peeve list. Leaving rubbish on public transport is another commuter no-no, with 18% citing it as their biggest bugbear.

17% of public transport commuters despise passengers who play loud music and 15% are angered by those passengers who cough and sneeze without covering their mouth.

Other irritable habits include those commuters who strike up conversations or small talk with strangers, people who eat, smelly or abusive passengers, crowds and loud children.

Car Commuter Pet Peeves

27.8% of drivers admit that those people who use their phone whilst behind the wheel are the most annoying. This is closely followed by being stuck in traffic, with 27.2% explaining that this was the most frustrating element of their commute.

14.7% of people detest other drivers who forget (?!) to indicate and 13% of car commuters dislike fellow drivers who drive below the speed limit.

Other annoying habits include those drivers who hog the middle lane, harsh brakers, tailgaters and sharing the roads with tractors and buses.

“After spending so much time and money on commuting, it’s not a surprise that certain habits and behaviours can test people’s patience”, said Debbie Kirkley, OSV’s Co-Founder. “But, next time you feel frustrated with your fellow commuters, just remember that it’s likely that every other commuter feels the same way as you do.”

To see the full the list of commuter pet peeves, check out the infographic from OSV above.

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