Stupid drivers

BlueDrax

Where you driving a red Honda HRV "Joy Machine" on the Limerick to Shannon dual carriageway this morning around 10am?

Here's a few notes for you:
1: The fast lane is for overtaking.
2: If your in the fast lane and there's nobody in the slow lane, pull over. ( see 1 )
3: If your in the fast lane, nobody's in the slow lane and there's a car behind you, pull over.
4: If your in the fast lane, nobody's in the slow lane and the car behind you flashes it lights at you, pull over.
5: Same as 4 but a third car uses the slow lane to undertake you and the car behind you, pull over.
6: "Brake testing" the car that's been behind you since Shannon Bridge will result in various hand signals been directed at you.

And if your excuse is "I was doing the speed limit", then why didn't you slow down for the 50mph zone at Setrights pub?

:mad:

padraigmyers

Why didn't you just overtake him on the inside lane too? I reguarly encounter these
muppets, not worth the hassle of trying to show them the right thing to do, just fly
past on the inside, and maybe flash the hazzard lights once you are past them. The
law states that you can overtake on the inside if that lane is moving faster, so you
are perfectly within your rights to do it.

Although, I do remember getting very pissed off with a guy one day; was behind him,
flashed the lights etc. still no response, so I went past him on the inside, and then
pulled out in front of him in the outside lane and gradually slowed down to about
35mph. It was petty, but it made me feel better!!

Dr. Dre

OOOOOOOOOOOOH *holds up handbag *

Someone has had a bad start to the day !:D

NeRb666

Yeah that was me. I did it to piss you off. Looks like it worked.

j/k you really need to relax though

ToxicPaddy

I witnessed something like this on the new M1 motorway to Dundalk a few weeks ago..

There was this woman driving her car at about 50mph (70mph speed limit) in the fast lane, on her mobile and seemed to be having a conversation with her friend in the passenger seat beside her aswell..

She was totally oblivious to the 30 or so cars behind her, one of which was flashing his lights, sounding his horn and basically doing everything bar getting out and thumping the ****e outta her... which she deserved btw..

I over took her on the inside within about 30 seconds of coming up behind her as it was obvious she didnt have a clue how to drive, wasnt paying the slightest bit of attention to her surroundings and was a complete idiot..

But when I passed her, I slowed to about 60mph to see what was gonna happen and after about 10 miles then I took the off ramp and she was still doing the same but totally obvious to it all...

And ya wonder why there is road rage!!!! :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Kell

Originally posted by padraigmyers
The law states that you can overtake on the inside if that lane is moving faster, so you
are perfectly within your rights to do it.

Are you sure about that? I thought it was a case that the law says you can only undertake if traffic in the right lane is turning right.

Undertaking is regarded as dangerous and I know people who have been done for it on a dual carriageway.

K-

ToxicPaddy

I know in the UK you're not allowed to overtake on the inside on a dual carriage way or on a motor way, but I dont think that rule is in place in Ireland yet, but dont quote me on it..

I dont think its enforced too strictly anyway as Ive seen many a person do it and chances are if someone was holding up traffic like that they gardai would be having a chat with them and not the people over taking them on the inside..

BlueDrax

I thought undertaking on a dual carriage was illegal, that's why I didn't do it until he brake tested me.
If undertaking was legal, it's still no excuse for not pulling over is it?

Imposter

I know here in Austria you're supposed to drive in the rightmost lane possible. (That would make it left in Ireland). But then you do always get idiots on 3 lane motorways who drive solidly in the middle lane (trucks only allowed in first 2, and are usually only in first lane unless they're overtaking) or Michael Schumachers who only drive in the leftmost lane. And i'd be pretty sure that in Ireland you must drive in the leftmost lane on a motorway and only overtake on the right (city motorways (M50) might be different)

pclancy

This is the problem with Ireland and Irish drivers. We've only had motorways (they're not even motorways-two lanes!) for a few years whereas theyve been in the uk for donkeys years. People just dont understand how they work. I do the same thing with a slow driver in the fast lane. Give them 20-30 seconds and then stick the boot down and fly past them on the left. You are always supposed to use the leftmost lane whatever speed you are doing unless there is slower traffic infront.

Doesnt the rules of the road say there are three times you can undertake on the left:

1. When the traffic in front of you is turning right.
2. When you are turning left.
3. When the traffic in your lane is moving faster.

Therefore are you not okay to undertake cos the speedlimit is 70 regardless of which lane you are in?

It doesnt really matter anyway, we're just not ready for those kind of roads. God help us all when they finally get round to adding a third lane to the M50 or other dualcarriagways. I think its crazy that people dont get any motorway experiance when practising for their tests and I think people should be tested on their motorway skills before they get unleashed onto it.

The tourists must be in the pisses laughing at us.

Imposter

Originally posted by pclancy
...and I think people should be tested on their motorway skills before they get unleashed onto it.

I'd hate to be doing a test in the west of ireland if this were the case! Could take days.

padraigmyers

That was the info I was basing my assumption on as well, maybe there are a different
set of rules for mororway driving though.

Victor

Originally posted by pclancy
1. When the traffic in front of you is turning right.
2. When you are turning left.
3. When the traffic in your lane is moving faster.

Therefore are you not okay to undertake cos the speedlimit is 70 regardless of which lane you are in?

If the right hand lane is congested you can overtake on the left, but not break the speed limit in doing so.

Someone got a senior cop prosecuted for slow driving in the right hand lane earlier in the year.

pclancy

Originally posted by Imposter
I'd hate to be doing a test in the west of ireland if this were the case! Could take days.

But this is the problem, there are only a few motorways in the country and people who arent familiar with them should at least get some kind of training or instruction on how to use them properly. I know loads of people from down here who's only experiance of a motorway is the streach between kildare and dublin and they would have a notion of how to drive properly.

Sleipnir

Seeing as so many people here appear to be confused as to whether or not they can 'untertake' in the left hand lane
e.g.

1.) "The law states that you can overtake on the inside if that lane is moving faster, so you are perfectly within your rights to do it."

2.) "Are you sure about that? I thought it was a case that the law says you can only undertake if traffic in the right lane is turning right."

3.) "Doesnt the rules of the road say there are three times you can undertake on the left:

1. When the traffic in front of you is turning right.
2. When you are turning left.
3. When the traffic in your lane is moving faster.

Therefore are you not okay to undertake cos the speedlimit is 70 regardless of which lane you are in?
Undertaking is regarded as dangerous and I know people who have been done for it on a dual carriageway."


Maybe HRV woman thought
"Well they can legally overtake me in the left-hand lane. Or can they...?"
If so she was no less incorrect than yourselves.
Perhaps we should all revise the rules of the road before slating others and to be sure we're 'in the right'

And I believe tailgating is FAR more dangerous then not getting out of the way of the car behind.

* Some 24pc of men and just 16pc of women drivers admitted involvement in a crash or near miss from driving too close to the vehicle in front.

* A total of 17pc of 17-24 year olds were involved in a tailgating incident compared to 21pc of 25-34 year olds, 23pc of 35-49 year olds, and 22pc of those aged 50 and over.

* 22pc of Dubliners revealed they were involved in a tailgating crash or near miss compared to 21pc in the rest of Leinster, 21pc in Munster and 18pc in Connacht.

Some 22pc of full licence-holders and 13pc of those on provisional licences had crashes and near misses due to tailgating.

BlueDrax

Walked to the local shop for my lunch and guess what was parked in the carpark when I came out?

Drove off before I could throw anything at it ( insults, sandwiches, bricks, etc. ) but I did get the licence number.

BrianD3

AFAIK you can pass on the left:
1) if the car in front is turning right
2) if you're turning left/in a filter lane
3) in slow moving traffic where the righthand lane is moving slower than the left hand lane

60 mph on a motorway is not "slow moving traffic" So I reckon you're in the wrong if you pass on the left on a motorway or dual carriageway, unless points 1) or 2) are valid.

BrianD3

Imposter

Originally posted by BrianD3
AFAIK you can pass on the left:
1) if the car in front is turning right
2) if you're turning left/in a filter lane
3) in slow moving traffic where the righthand lane is moving slower than the left hand lane

60 mph on a motorway is not "slow moving traffic" So I reckon you're in the wrong if you pass on the left on a motorway or dual carriageway, unless points 1) or 2) are valid.

BrianD3

I'd be pretty sure there'd be noone turning right off an irish motorway! Dual carraigeway is a possibility but a motorway definitely not.

DaithiSurfer

I think people know how to drive on the motorways but are just ignorant.

Spunog UIE

this is all bull****.

What happens if your in the left hand lane to begin with steadily moving along and you come across someone on the right hand lane that your gaining on, do you slow down, NO. Such muppetry. If your on the right hand lane and some gob****e is doing 40 50 or 60 and generally going slower than you and the left lane is clear move into it and move on. Don't debate it, ya just piss yourself off and piss off the asshole driver who might, i dunno, break test you, where you'll probally ACTUALLY get your self into trouble, and 'they' will generally side with the person who was rear-ended.

On a side note if they break tested you, i get the feeling you were up their arse, and they thought not lettin this cheeky bastard by, and you were thinking, that cheeky bastard won't let me by yada yada yada.

Get over it.

BrianD3

I'd be pretty sure there'd be noone turning right off an irish motorway!

Actually no, I've seen a few Irish drivers turning right on motorways i.e. doing U-turns across the central reservation....

BrianD3

flyz

as far as I know the 'undertaking' is only legal in lower speed limit areas e.g. Commons Road in Cork.


What I did notice one day while travelling between Fermoy and Mitchelstown was a Garda on a motorbike coming up beind a squatter on the overtaking lane and telling them to pull into the inside lane

jd

Originally posted by padraigmyers
Why didn't you just overtake him on the inside lane too? I

did that on the bray bypass a few weeks ago-some woman doing about 50 in the fast lane.
She nearly veered back into me when I was coming along side her ie her back wheel level with my front wheel

sceptre

Originally posted by padraigmyers
The law states that you can overtake on the inside if that lane is moving faster, so you are perfectly within your rights to do it.

The hell it does.

The law states that you may overtake on the inside if traffic is moving slowly and in a column (ie really slowly). The key word is "slow". Not slow as in "slower than you because you want to do 60" but "slower than you because they're driving at 5 miles an hour and have cars in front and behind them"

BrianD3's post got it to a t. I've left out the other two points he mentioned. Go back and read them. They're more obvious so I didn't mention them.

sceptre

Originally posted by Gideon
the asshole driver who might, i dunno, break test you, where you'll probally ACTUALLY get your self into trouble, and 'they' will generally side with the person who was rear-ended.

More an idiot than an asshole if he's in the right-hand lane but anyhoo...

If you get close enough to be "break(brake?)-tested" and you hit the guy, youare in the wrong. "They" will side with the guy because you shouldn't have been tailgating in the first place. He's annoying you by driving in the right lane, sure. If you're tailgating him, you're more wrong than he is.

Kell

Checked this last night with my pesonal motoring Guru (bruvver). Yes its ok to undertake so long as you do not exceed the speed limit in either lane ie-

Someone doing 60 in the overtaking lane on a motorway, you can undertake so long as you dont exceed 70.

Glad thats cleared up.

K

Note: Bruvver has advanced artic driving training as well as defensive driving skills, and is generally the Oracle when it comes to driving matters. Sickening to think that it is cheaper for him to insure the wife as the main driver and him as named driver on the car. He's nearly forty as well. Pfft

shabbyroad

and for what it's worth Kell and oracle bruvver are correct - I know this because I was actually **gasp** asked this in my driving test and it stuck with me because it threw me a little......I'd have been rightly pissedoff if I hadn't 'cos I got my license in the US and did a defensive-driving-course in New York [ defensive driving in NY means learning how to drive from Queens into the Lower East Side of Manhattan without getting shot at ;-) ]

today I was driving home via Goatstown toward Clonskeagh (on my way into the city) and from the Goat Grill onward were temporary signs saying "New Speed Limit 30" every few yards.
Being the suspicious conspiracy theory type I stuck on the cruise control to 30 and wouldn't budge above it.
Gob****e behind me flashed and honked and overtook at 40+...... lo and behold maybe 100 yards later as we came into Clonskeagh there was ye olde green van with speed camera in the back of it.
Justice ? Yes :-)
(unless of course their camera or my car aren't calibrated then I'm phucked but that's gonna be an argument I hope I won't have to make)

BrianD3

and for what it's worth Kell and oracle bruvver are correct - I know this because I was actually **gasp** asked this in my driving test and it stuck with me because it threw me a little......I'd have been rightly pissedoff if I hadn't 'cos I got my license in the US and did a defensive-driving-course in New York [ defensive driving in NY means learning how to drive from Queens into the Lower East Side of Manhattan without getting shot at ;-) ]

WTF are you talking about? Did you do your test in the US or in Ireland? The law concerning undertaking is different in the states than it is here.

It's years since I did my test or looked at the Rules of the Road - however what sticks in my mind is the phrase "slow moving traffic" in relation to undertaking. Unless the rules have changed in the past few years, (which I doubt) I reckon Kell's know-all brother is wrong. Saying that you can undertake as long as you don't break the speed limit sounds like BS to me. I think sceptre's post earlier in this thread is spot-on.

BrianD3

shabbyroad

Did tests in both countries passed first time both times and in Ireland I was asked specifically about the situation where you've got two lanes of traffic and was it ok to move into the left lane and over/undertake. My answer was yes if the traffic in the right hand lane is not moving.... and the examiner waited and suggested I finish the sentence.....if the traffic in the right hand lane is moving slowly or not moving at all. Correct.

Can't claim to be any sort of expert on this but it's pretty clear to me that if you're in a RH Lane and the traffic can travel up to xx mph and someone is driving much slower than that then you can move into the LH lane. If you happen to move further down the road than the person in the RH lane because you're travelling faster than them but keeping within the speed limit I can see nothing in the Rules of the Road (got the booklet in front of me here) that prohibits that.

What this is really about is idiotic driving.... if there's a lane for overtaking and you're not overtaking and the lane on the LH is clear then get into the fvcking thing.

In either case my policy is to get as far away from those idiots as possible because you can be certain that they will cause an accident and I don't want to be around when they do.

Silent Bob

From The Rules of The Road p25:
Normally you must overtake on the right but overtaking on the left is permitted -

• When the driver ahead has moved out and given a right turn signal and you intend to go straight ahead or turn left
• When you intend to turn left and have signalled this intention
• Where traffic is moving slowly and the vehicles in the lane on your right are moving more slowly than the traffic in your lane

shabbyroad, you are 100% wrong. There is no way you could call motorway speeds (even 40/50mph) slow.

Capt'n Midnight

in the US they have freeways - ie free to do any speed in any lane.

In the civilised world we drive on the left and use the right most lane to overtake. We yield to traffic already in a lane we are trying to enter and also yield to traffic coming from the right.

So the way it is supposed to work is keep left, and when you reach the car in front indicate, pull out, overtake and then pull in again. - you should not have to weave in and out.

Makes it safer for all including the muppets.


People driving slowly in the outside lane should be reported....
In the UK they get done for obstruction.

The whole point of the rules of the road is fairness to all road users - in general if you're not allowed to slow down other road users if it can be avoided.
An example of this is when you are in a lane with a right turn arrow - YOU MUST TURN RIGHT .....


PS. Even though I am the main driver my Insurance would be €250 more if I removed a younger named driver who has not passed her test....

therecklessone

I don't consider motorway speeds, or anything near them, to be slow moving, but with the wording in the Rules Of The Road handbook, and a good solicitor, I imagine you could argue your way out of court.

Spunog UIE

lads i was wondering why some of you are getting so stuck up about this and not thinking logically, I'm begining to think some of you are refering to regular roads as opposed to two lane systems going in the one direction.

You choose the lane, prefereably the inside or left lane if your not over taking. If you come upbehind someone and their driving slower than you AND the speed limit in the right lane , move into the left and proceed obeying the speed limit.

Don't get in a hissy fit and quote the rule book, use your heads.

I think the only way that you would get 'done' for undertaking as you call it, would be if you do break the speed limit, and you'll get caught for that but probally after that they would also say that you were not only speeding but 'undertaking' you bold bold boy!

Silent Bob

Originally posted by therecklessone
I don't consider motorway speeds, or anything near them, to be slow moving, but with the wording in the Rules Of The Road handbook, and a good solicitor, I imagine you could argue your way out of court.

You would be hard pressed to find a judge who would consider anything over 20mph "slow moving".

If anything trying to take that line in a court would probably irritate the judge and have him increase the penalties as a result of wasting the courts time.

Another thing is it would be hard to interpret "vehicles" as a single car. Use of the plural indicates that there are many travelling at that speed, i.e. queued traffic.

therecklessone

Depends on how good your solicitor is, eh?;)

sceptre

Originally posted by shabbyroad
Did tests in both countries passed first time both times and in Ireland I was asked specifically about the situation where you've got two lanes of traffic and was it ok to move into the left lane and over/undertake. My answer was yes if the traffic in the right hand lane is not moving.... and the examiner waited and suggested I finish the sentence.....if the traffic in the right hand lane is moving slowly or not moving at all. Correct.

Correct indeed.

The extension you added below is incorrect though. You weren't asked about that in your driving test, were you?

Obviously the guy in the right hand lane would be wrong for being here but he's not putting anyone's life in danger by being there - it's the guy overtaking on the left that has done that.

BrianD3

Thanks Silent Bob for clearing that up.

A lot of people in this thread seem to have gotten the idea that it's OK to undertake as long as you don't break the speed limit. Where did ye get this notion from? The problem in this country is that there's so much misinformation and urban legends doing the rounds. This misinformation comes from various sources, mainly crap driving instructors, know-alls such as Kell's brother, people like Gideon who have no respect for the rules etc.

It's similar to people who fail their driving test due to crap driving and tell all their friends that they failed cause the "examiner was a b*llox" or some other lame excuse. The result is a lot of misinformation and stupid myths regarding the driving test.

BrianD3

ando

my understanding of it is that you can undertake but you must remain under the speed limit

Silent Bob

Originally posted by ando
my understanding of it is that you can undertake but you must remain under the speed limit

Did you read the rest of the thread

Your understanding is wrong

Spunog UIE

if there is such a rule for going past someone on the inside lane after being in the right hand lane, your damn right i'd have no respect for it, cos its complete bull****. And there is no question of safety here its the very same as moving to the right, my god you'll have to move back sometime to the left lane, can't be hogging that lane intented for passing out now can you.

So its okay to go past someone in the left hand lane as long as you haven't moved there from the right? Honestly is that what your trying to say????

Spunog UIE

as for the keeping with in the speed limit, all your doing is progressing, shouldn't matter if that happens to be in the left lane and the person in the right is doing 55.

On one hand your saying people should move back into the left hand lane after passing out to let people travel on which is all well and good, you don't have to be making a left hand turn or turning off or anything you are moving between the lanes as you should. So say you pass out a car in the right hand lane, move on and move back into the left so anyone else travelling faster than you can go past using the "correct" lane. Then as you travel along you find that another car in the right hand lane is travelling slower than you, obivously you shouldn't slow down for that, that your not passing them out, as you were already in the lane for X amount of time.

So is it a question of timing, if you progress back into the left lane with in set distance from the car infront or set time. Are you refering to people who ride up someones ass then swing left then right then left and so on.

If you gain on someone thats driving slower than you while you were using the right lane to pass out someone, would you not be just returning to lane from which you came and allowing other possible people to go past you. And if the left lane happens to move faster or has a clear line ahead, didn't that just happen to be.

I honestly don't see any sense in NOT using the left lane if you move into it in good time with good awareness, and progression that your not cutting infront of any on coming traffic that would have to slow as a result of you. Like I said already this will have to be done at some stage anyway, your just picking a lane that suits you. Staying in the right lane while you travel past traffic thats slower than you is fine too, moving over for any traffic coming from behind you.

So why am I wrong? and NOT RESPECTING THE RULES. Do you not question anything or think for yourself?

Besides all that I don't think there is such a rule that describes what your saying. Think the one that was posted is taken out of context, and in the unlikey event of it being 100% I am stating that I THINK its bull****, and that using the now legendary left lane when needed or available is perfectly safe.

Spunog UIE

*GASP & SIGH* convince me otherwise.

BrianD3

I know what you're saying, however rules are rules and are there to protect the idiots. Let's say you're driving along in the left lane at 70 mph in a 70. And you come across some muppet cruising in the right hand lane doing 55 mph. By maintaining your speed and sticking to your lane, you'll be undertaking him. Doesn't matter how long you were in the left hand lane for. So what you must do is either slow down and match his speed, or else move into his lane and hope he gets the message that you want to get by and moves over for you.

If you try to undertake, he could swerve in front of you at at any time without warning. The same thing could happen if he were in the left lane and you were legally overtaking him on the right, however people just don't expect to be passed on the left and rarely/never use their passenger side mirror. And if he swerves in front of you and there's a collision you'll be at least partly to blame. Not to mention the fact that a collision at motorway speeds could send you spinning across the central reservation and into oncoming traffic.


And all this "I'm OK cause I'm not breaking the speed limit" attitude is BS. You don't have a God given right to drive at the speed limit, you must alter your driving to account for the presence of other road users (even if they're driving like muppets) Two wrongs don't make a right. For example, as someone already mentioned, if you tailgate someone who's hogging the right hand lane and they brake and you hit them you are 101% in the wrong.

BrianD3

Victor

Time for a camera on every overbridge.

Spunog UIE

right said my bit, going on about speed was just an example of the legal bit, and a bit of logic, they were merely examples of speeds, and again not to be taken as commandments.

To be a good and safe driver, you need three things, good car control and awareness and a bit of ****ing common sense imo.

I maintain its bull**** rule and probally aimed at 'Stupid drivers' who lack the above. It will not change my method or attiude to driving in the manner I do. I hope to god that its not enforced except in cases of extream muppetry, even at that I think the person should be done for dangerous driving and not undertaking.

I mentioned the tailgating as example of being preoccupied and hung up with the holy law and not realising the logic and awareness. sceptre elabourated.

You acknowlege its the same thing moving from each lane maybe a slightly worse blind spot. So any 'offences should come down to the dangerous driving'. Then again aswell as stupid drivers we have the same amount of stupid enforcers. Theres no winning this.

When I do undertake I don't fly by but steadily and safely, and always watching that potential lethal driver, there so many bad ones its scary, meeting one a day is not uncommon. I do not concider myself one nor has anyone thats been with me or following me.

And as for your comment refering to me earlier, I respect things if they warrant it, not just because I'm told. I don't appreciate you making judgements about me or what I do, especially such generalisied (rules), unfounded ones.

Ultimately I think it all comes down to the fact that we need better systems in place, to make people aware and have them aware of the etiquette of moving over to the left side after overtaking to avoid all this crap.

Seth Brundle

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned about those driving slower than traffic in the overtaking lane (besides their lack of knowledge (& ettiquette) of driving) is the fact that many of them are oblivious to the fact that there is someone behind them.
This is one reason why I tend to drive with my dipped headlamps on all the time.

sceptre

Originally posted by Gideon
So its okay to go past someone in the left hand lane as long as you haven't moved there from the right? Honestly is that what your trying to say????

Don't think anyone said that.


Incidentally, I can see where you're coming from. You don't see the point of sitting behind an idiot who's going 30 on the motorway in the right hand lane.

skipn_easy

If you are driving along in the left hand lane doing 60 mph and theres some idiot out in the right hand lane doing 35mph than I would think you're allowed to just stick to your lane and continue as is, being aware that that driver could change lane at any point. Theres no reason why you should slow down to 35mph just because the other car is doing that.

Rules are rules, but when it comes to driving safely you need to use common sense and it may not always be the safest thing to do to follow a rule strictly to the letter.

How many of you would cross a solid white line when overtaking a bicycle? I think its a lot safer than slowing down to the speed of the bike, slowing everyone behind you down and putting pressure on the cyclist while you wait until a broken white line. That is strictly illegal (you may never overtake on a solid white line) but imo that is an ok exception.

mike65

Originally posted by Wyvern
How many of you would cross a solid white line when overtaking a bicycle? I think its a lot safer than slowing down to the speed of the bike, slowing everyone behind you down and putting pressure on the cyclist while you wait until a broken white line. That is strictly illegal (you may never overtake on a solid white line) but imo that is an ok exception.

Y' know I've got this idea in my head that if the vehicle
is doing less than 20 mph overtaking is fine regardless of white lines if it can be shown that due care and attention was taken when overtaking...

Mike.

sceptre

Originally posted by mike65
Y' know I've got this idea in my head

Oh I do so hope you're right. Because if you're wrong or if there's a chance you're wrong, this whole thing will start all over again:D

BrianD3

I admit that I regularly cross continuous white lines to pass cyclists, tractors etc. But I always make damn sure that it's safe to do so. Because I know that if I do have an accident while crossing a white line, I'll be totally to blame and probably be prosecuted for driving without due care.

There are other occasions when crossing a solid white line is safe eg overtaking as you exit a bend onto a long straight with no side roads. There'll be a solid white line for quite a distance after the bend, to deter traffic coming the opposite direction i.e. approaching the bend, from overtaking (which makes sense, you don't want to be overtaking when coming up to a bend) Having a double line solves this probelm, but most irish roads have just the single line.

Actually, one thing I've noticed is that there are far fewer solid white lines in the UK than here. Wonder why this is. Most bends over there have broken white lines running all the way around them. Perhaps it's something to do with the standard of driving - UK drivers are trusted to use their judgement and not overtake when they can't see. Whereas Irish drivers can't be trusted to use good judgement so the authorities plonk solid white lines everywhere and (try to) force them to behave through rules and regulations.

BrianD3