Are terrible driving habits on the rise?

With regard to the OP, I've been driving 40 years and no terrible driving habits are not on the rise. They were just the same and worse when I started out. Read the newspapers of the 1950s/60s - full of stories of horror car crashes.

The main difference now is the amount of regulation surrounding driving. Maybe this just makes it seem worse as there's lots more rules and limits to break.

Whats your story? You need to let it go for the sale of your own quality of life

As I said I dont know how accurate the story is but seriously what's the point in engaging with someone in that manner? Life would be exhausting if you felt you had to react in that manner to every little indiscretion on the road. Flash your lights ot give a blast of the horn if it makes you feel better and move on

That's a very simplistic way of thinking about traffic management (and more broadly indeed human behaviour). People break red lights knowing that they will get away with it, but that's true of everyone - so actions and consequences are often a major factor, but not always. It is easy too, to blame the misbehaving driver but that doesn't solve the problem as it doesn't address the root cause, and that is frustration.

The frustration in Dublin at least has been caused by a relentless squeeze on the motorist by reducing their space and priority while at the same time maintaining or increasing the need to drive into the city. Cack handed approaches to traffic management (like the north quays bus crossover) in Dublin that are entirely ideology driven rather than being practical have gotten us in a situation where making steady progress through the city at almost any reasonable hour is impossible.

So like the pandemic, you could look and blame individual rule breakers but when a system requires broad compliance over an area that relies on cooperation rather than enforcement you really have to look at the system and environment that it is in. It needs to encourage compliance as a fundamental goal that ultimately also benefits you.

I was just in Airside retail park and I had 2 incidents of cars pulling out in front of me, it happens and should be expected in a busy car park. No harm done and the loon who followed someone home for such a minor indiscretion is obviously a lunatic who can't control his rage. I would regard someone following me home as a serious threat to my safety and I would react appropriately to the situation and I can guarantee the perpetrator would severely regret his actions

I pulled out, with ample space as the car park allows. In this particular car park, there is a certain amount of giving way to those who are already on the turn out of their car parking spaces, as based on the design of the car park, you will 100% be in one of the lanes lines of sight as you are pulling out. As I pointed out, there was lots of space for me to do safely.

Yeah, when someone is leaning on the horn and I have done, absolutely nothing wrong, I am within my right to ask what the issue is. There was no need for the drivers aggression, or yours imo.

Kudos to you though. Absolutely taking the post out of context and having a go.

By me? We were slowing anyway, to come to a junction, to join the actual road. Your absolute insistence that I was in the wrong is mind blowing.

Maybe I was piss poor in describing it but it was the first of its kind I have ever encountered and I and other road users, use this shopping centre and my driving norm in there is the same as everyone else. And by the way, he followed me for two miles. That justified enough for you??

The explanations only reinforce my original view. There was a clear line of sight, yet you pulled out of the parking spot in front of oncoming traffic impeding the progress of the other driver who had right of way. You claim you were nowhere near him, yet you deliberately slowed down in front of him. It doesn't add up.

The most reasonable explanation is that you either misjudged the distance / speed of the oncoming traffic or assumed you could edge out of the parking spot and cause oncoming traffic to have to give way to you, even though they have right of way. In either instance you would be in the wrong. You should wait until you can exit the parking spot without impeding the flow of other traffic.

When the other driver leant on the horn you aggravated the situation by deliberately slowing down in front of him. This was a totally unnecessary, aggressive and potentially dangerous move.

This is not having "done, absolutely nothing wrong"

Maybe acknowledging your original mistake would have been an appropriate response. If I pulled out in front of someone I'd consider a few seconds blast of their horn a wake up call to be a bit more observant and careful in future.

I think I have tried to look at it in a factual and logical way. If you view it as being aggressive, it does colour how I interpret your depiction of the other driver as being aggressive.

B. But neither is what happened in this instance.

Depending on how close someone pulled out in front of me / how near it was to causing a collision I might beep the horn to alert them to the issue. If they brake checked me as a result I'd do my best to have them prosecuted for dangerous driving.

It's clear that you are also unaware of the regulations, requiring the usage of the horn.

Anyway McBain. I've engaged with you for too long 😂

Have a lovely bank holiday.

Ah. The person used a horn, therefore they must be in the right. Got ya Sheldon. Totally get where you are coming from.

No inconsistency. It was obvious from the start that the other driver sped up. Lets remember he followed the OP to his home. So we know the kind of lunatic we're dealing with ... the one that goes more than half way to meet trouble and therefore meets it often