It seems my choice of word for "idiot" is censored, but I'm sure you get the drift!

I'll put up my hand to this. Passed my test in 1982, passed IAM less than a year later, spent a few years as an ADI, and always been pretty self critical and self aware of my own driving standards.

I am aware that now doing just a couple of short drives a week I'm having to think a little harder about driving and keeping up standards. Up until March 2020 I was doing 25-30,000 miles per year.

It'll come back again as, hopefully, work returns, but I'll admit to having to think more about driving.

I think this shows a downside to the gradual computerisation of cars (and other devices, come to that). They now have too many built-in features compared to 20th-century examples, and many now depend on touch-screens.

Having spent quite a number of years trying to devise database systems which their owners could manage, I know that they have to be used 'regularly' or habits get rusty. That means RTFM, which itself means having to write an intelligible manual. That, of course, is a PITA when the driver has to go somewhere at short notice.

This isn't your typical "all the drivers around me are m****s" thread. Or rather, I'm the m****.

After hardly driving for a year, I'm very aware that I need to concentrate more on my driving as I restart. As an example, I'd forgotten how to engage the cruise control. Fortunately, it only took a few seconds to remember - and it set me thinking - I hadn't used it for over a year.

This happened before - I had a similar issue after I changed from driving 30,000 miles a year to a job that meant I caught the train. I even missed a red light - which was a real wakeup call. I had to consciously focus for a week or two. Make sure I'm actively using the mirrors. Checking my speed. The traffic lights etc.

Anyone else having the same issues?

Not really. My annual mileage had dropped considerable after I jacked in my career a few years ago, so my normal usage hasn't dropped as much as most people's has during the pandemic.

I still use my car once every week or two for grocery shopping, plus the occasional trip to my parents as they are in my support bubble, plus a few others outside of lockdown periods. Just no 2020 holiday.

I have noticed a lot more people speeding/taking more risks on overtakes though, especially on local roads, presumably because they erroneously believe that less traffic must equal safer. I think it lulls people into a false sense of security.

Anyone else having the same issues?

Just back from an 80-mile trip into north Wales, which is no longer out of bounds to us English. Can't say I noticed anything unusual in the traffic or my ability to drive, but I had the (perhaps mistaken) impression that almost every driver was very conscientious about speed limits. With the exception of a couple of hi-vis plod cars and an (inevitable) Audi.