The summer holiday season has produced a number of damaging surveys for UK motorists.

While some reports tell of the high rate of family arguments pre-journey, and others of the ongoing battle of the sexes behind the wheel, none have so far identified the passenger as a source of frustration.

However, a new poll from Continental Tyres has revealed that as many as four million British drivers would prefer to travel on their own rather than deal with the annoyances brought into their vehicle by those in the passenger seats.

The survey canvassed 4,000 UK motorists, and found that people who were aged in their fifties were 30 per cent more likely to choose to be behind the wheel without in-car companionship than those in their twenties, suggesting people become grumpier and less tolerant with age. The survey saw UK motorists claim that the average passenger normally irritated the car-owner or driver at least three times over the course of a typical journey. So on-edge are Britons when on the road, that it takes just six minutes for the average driver to lose their temper, while 20 per cent of respondents admitted that they had become so angered with their passengers that they had even ordered them out of the vehicle.

The single most irritating passenger was the notorious ‘backseat driver’, whose nasty habits included the inability to keep their thoughts, hands and feet to themselves. They also depressed phantom brake pedals, braced themselves in panic at intersections and felt it necessary to provide a running commentary on the driving conditions. The next biggest offender was ‘the fiddler’, who habitually adjusted air conditioning, radio stations and anything with a button.