Winter Driving Anxiety
Driving in winter can be a huge source of anxiety for many drivers. With darker evenings and icy roads, driving can feel and be more dangerous throughout the colder season.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the reasons for motoring anxiety and tips on how to make driving feel less intimidating.
A new study for 2025 has shown that:
- Nearly a third of drivers admit to feeling some level of anxiety in winter when it comes to driving.
- 26% of drivers describe winter driving anxiety as moderate and 6% said it made them feel very anxious.
- 93% of anxious drivers said that they would cancel social plans to avoid driving in challenging conditions.
- 38% of drivers say they have refused to go out in their vehicle when the conditions have been poor.
- 42% say that ice and snow cause them anxiety, whilst 35% blame the fog and darker days, which decrease visibility.
- 36% of people worry about other drivers, heavy congestion, or unfamiliar routes as a source of anxiety.
- 8% of drivers have booked their car/s in for a winter service.
- 11% of drivers say they’ve replaced their tyres with winter tyres.
- 50% of drivers admitted to driving whilst their windows were steamed up.
This data shows that if you experience anxiety when driving, you aren’t alone and it’s much more common than you might expect. In fact, there’s a name for it – amaxophobia. The fear of being in a vehicle, whether as a driver or passenger, is often attributed to the thought of being involved in a car accident. However, as surveys show, there are many reasons for driving anxiety.
How many people experience driving anxiety in winter?
With much longer nights and colder temperatures, we’re in the peak of British winter, which unfortunately means wet, foggy, icy and overall unpredictable road conditions are much more common. For many drivers, this isn’t too much of an issue, but for some, the upcoming months can be a very stressful period.
Here at National Tyres and Autocare, we’ve asked customers to take part in a survey all about winter driving anxiety, and the results were eye-opening.
46% of drivers admit to feeling some level of anxiety when it comes to driving in poor weather conditions.
Just under half of the 800+ respondents in our survey reported feeling anxious whenever weather conditions deteriorated. But there are steps that you can take, and that we can support you with, to ease your driving anxiety.
What’s more surprising are the specifics our customers unveiled about their anxieties. For example, 38% of drivers said they have refused to go out in their vehicle when the conditions have been poor. Some drivers’ anxiety gets so overwhelming that they’re unwilling to even pull off their drive. This fear of driving in poor weather can be for many reasons…
What is it in particular that causes winter driving anxieties?
According to our survey results, many found the typical winter conditions to be the most daunting:
- 42% of drivers said that ice and snow caused them anxiety.
- 35% blamed the fog and darker days, which decrease visibility.
One particularly interesting stat found that 47% of people found other drivers to cause them the most anxiety.
Do drivers sufficiently prepare for winter driving?
With so many people feeling anxious about driving in poor weather conditions, we were interested to find out what precautions people take when going out.
When asking drivers what specifically they did to adapt to the wintery conditions, the most popular answers were topping up windscreen washer fluid, storing de-icer in the car and checking their tyre tread levels, which made us particularly pleased to see!
However, there were a few stats that we were shocked by. Only 8% of drivers had booked their car/s in for a winter service.
The importance of a winter car service
A winter service is an incredibly beneficial action to take before the winter months roll around. A qualified professional will access your car and ensure it's performing at its optimal level and capable of keeping you safe, even during harsh road conditions.
Book a winter prep service
Aside from the lack of winter services, another poor stat was that only 11% of drivers said they replaced their tyres with winter tyres.
Winter tyres or All-Season tyres can greatly help with decreasing your stopping distance if there comes a time when you need to brake heavily. They’re also great at preventing skidding and sliding when things get really cold, which brings us onto our next set of stats.
Common problems faced by drivers in winter
The last question we asked drivers was whether they’d experienced any problems with their cars due to winter conditions in the past.
- Frozen wiper blades was near the top with 48% of drivers experiencing this issue.
- Skidding and sliding came second at 46%.
- Closely followed by frozen car screenwash at 33%.
- Shockingly, 50% of drivers admitted to driving whilst their windows were steamed up.
Driving with a steamed up or frozen windscreen can be incredibly dangerous as it obscures the driver's vision of the road and hazards. It's also illegal and could also result in a £100 fine and three penalty points on your licence.
As you can see, anxiety whilst driving is common in today’s society, especially when the winter months roll around. The best way to combat these conditions is to take all the necessary precautions and most importantly, book your car in for a winter service!
Alternatively, we also offer a FREE Safety Check that can be booked at your local National Branch. A Safety Check consists of a visual safety inspection of the tyres, battery, engine oil, wiper blades, brakes and a number of other areas to give you that extra peace of mind when driving this winter.
If you’d like a service you can book your car in with us and we’ll get your car in tip-top condition to tackle whatever comes our way this winter.
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