Whats your thinking

Kell

I had the delight of driving back from Kerry yesterday (bank holiday monday) and not only were there thousands of cars on the road, there were two prícks dricing artics in from Limerick to Portlaoise that never used the hard shoulder when accelerating or used the slow lane in the climbing lanes.

Now I would deem their behaviour as obstructing traffic. Just wanted to see what the rest of you thought before I report the two drivers.

K-

Fudger

where they D reg trucks ? I am a D man myself and travel alot around the country and it always seems to be D reg trucks that are absolute pricks when it comes to letting people pass (safely of course).

Seth Brundle

Why would they use the "hard shoulder when accelerating"?
What kind of speed were they doing?

mike65

If there is a climbing lane it really must be used by slow vehicles whatever they are. Not sure what you mean regarding the hard shoulder when accelerating - do you mean when they build speed from 30 mph v-e-r-y slowly and block the driving lane while doing so? Its should be a commen courtesy to let cars past if possible but hey, if they're Dubs...!

Mike.

Hagar

The regs are not issued by Ronseal, what its says on the outside is not always on the inside. I drive a LS reg but am a true blue Dub an not all D regs are driven by Dubs. Many Dublin companies employ country drivers.
Sure are not all Garda cars registered in Dublin and most of the Gardai driving them are not Dubs?
BTW while is is nice for drivers to pull onto the hard shoulder to allow others to pass, I do it myself, it is actually illegal to drive on the hard shoulder.

mike65

Hagar wrote:

BTW while is is nice for drivers to pull onto the hard shoulder to allow others to pass, I do it myself, it is actually illegal to drive on the hard shoulder.

A fuss was created for about 10 mins recently when it was stated that driving on the hard shoulder was illegal - its not. You are perfectly within the law to get out of the way to allow other traffic to pass.

Mike.

ps just found this while googling this subject...
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=242096&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

Hagar

Sorry Mike, you are quite correct. It is clearly stated on the bottom of page 18 of the Rules of the Road - "use can made temporarily of the hard shoulder in order to move out of the way".
I should have checked before I posted.

mike65

No worries (I'm glad I wuz right as I posted that without checking!)
A month or two back a senior Garda either stated that it was illegal recently or he corrected a Minister who said it was illegal. I can't remember which way round it was.

Mike.

Fudger

Hagar wrote:

The regs are not issued by Ronseal, what its says on the outside is not always on the inside. I drive a LS reg but am a true blue Dub an not all D regs are driven by Dubs. Many Dublin companies employ country drivers.
Sure are not all Garda cars registered in Dublin and most of the Gardai driving them are not Dubs?
BTW while is is nice for drivers to pull onto the hard shoulder to allow others to pass, I do it myself, it is actually illegal to drive on the hard shoulder.

Trucks LESS likely to let you past are D reg trucks. Its most likely a Dub driving it or else a bogger who wants to piss people of by putting out the impression that D reg truck drivers are w@nkers. It works both ways. When I am down the country I just park the car in the middle of town roads, on double yellow lines, footpaths and roundabouts and they just put it down to the Dublin Jackeen and don't both moaning to you. Its deadly,

Borzoi

Of course one way around this is to do what the continentals do, particularly France and Italy - ban trucks from the roads on long and holiday weekends. On some particularly big weekends, like the star of their summer holidays, trucks are banned on the Friday before too.

Kell

kbannon wrote:

Why would they use the "hard shoulder when accelerating"?

Courtesy. Plain and simple. Bad manners to obstruct people legally wishing to travel at the speed limit rather than 20-30 miles below the speed limit in order to quicken the journey time.

Mike65, AFAIK its ok to travel in the hard shoulder so long as your not doing more than 30mph. My advanced artic license holdiong brother informed me of this after some trucker had been done apparantly for travelling above the thirty in the hard shoulder.

The reg plates were Louth and Monaghan.

K-

Seth Brundle

Fair enough, they weren't courteous and I know it is headwrecking. However, they have a right to be there and have no obligation to move. You are wasting your time reporting them!
However, on a flip side, you are the one who seems to be still suffering from a form of road rage from this.

Farls

last saturday week i was behind two trucks carrying mobile homes, now these were wider than their side of the road, plus they were so high they were breaking brances and making the road dangerous, i was the first car behind them and there was i'm not joking a good half mile of traffic behind me if not more...

They were on the road from enniskillen to ballyshannon, these trucks had no body either in front or behind with flashing lights to warn anyone. Then they leaving so much debris behind that one of the holding straps on the mobile home came off!!! i waited for a long straight and sped by both of them flashing the lights and putting the hazards on what did i get in return???

Nearly run over they refused to stop so i said **** it give ur man the finger out the window and drove on...they were Offaly from offaly, 98 OY two red tractor units.

The way some ppl use the road is ridiculous.

Farlz

Wanton

Ok, I enjoy passing about, alot, only time get to build up any speed, but what on earth makes anyone think they can overtake 2 trucks on any lenght of straight and with a wide load at that!!!

traveling from carlow to tipp via kilkenny weekend before last and the amount of pple making STUPID overtaking risks like urs, i dont know how the hell some1 was killed.

Kell

kbannon wrote:

However, on a flip side, you are the one who seems to be still suffering from a form of road rage from this.

Judging by Farls' post perhaps not. Perhaps we just know how a road should be used where everyone winds up a happy camper.

Also, if I am wasting my time reporting it, then why can you fail your test for holding up the flow of traffic by travelling too slow?

K-

alias no.9

Kell wrote:

Also, if I am wasting my time reporting it, then why can you fail your test for holding up the flow of traffic by travelling too slow?

K-

You are required to travel at a speed appropriate for your vehicle and the driving conditions. If you hold up traffic in your driving test while travelling at an appropriate speed even if it is below the prescribed maximum speed limit for the road you will not fail. On the bigger question, there is no requirement for any vehicle to pull into the hard shoulder to let another pass and it is infact illegal. The only times you are allowed to pull into the hard shoulder are when coming to a stop on the hard shoulder, turning left or when 'undertaking' a vehicle that has signaled to turn right and has began to slow down to do so. Anybody remember a truckers protest a few years ago where they were refusing to move onto the hard shoulder to let people by? Anybody remember what it was about? That's right, they wanted the law changed so that it was not illegal to move over to let people by. Was the law changed? No.

BrianD3

alias no.9, did you not read Hagar's second post regarding the legal situation with the hard shoulder.

Also, Kell, I don't know where your brother is getting the idea that there's a "30 mph speed limit" in the hard shoulder. If you/he can point to where it says this in legislation or in the rules of the road, please do so. I don't believe there is any such limit.

BrianD3

PBC_1966

Guys,

Allow me to add also that visitors to Ireland would find this maneuver very odd. In most other countries everyone learns that the shoulder is for stopping only -- You drive on it to pull out of the traffic flow and make a stop, and to gain speed a little before pulling back into the flow. On some highways the shoulder may be designated for emergency stops only.

I could understand a tractor trundling along half across a shoulder, but it sure took me a while when I first drove in Ireland to figure out why cars kept ducking onto the shoulder and then back again.