Ireland's drivers: their worst habit

cujimmy

jetsonx wrote:

The "take off stage" from red lights in Ireland is painfully slow.

Takes the average driver about 15 seconds to realize light has gone green
Another 20 seconds before hand brake is released by the time they fecking leave the traffic lights only 3 or 4 cars have passed the lights.

On the continent esp. in France and Spain...it is refreshing to see that drivers
are alert when it comes to moving off from a set of traffic lights they are quite swift. Not Paddy Unfortunately.

Over here in Scotland the lights go from red to amber to green so there no delays

Alun

The "take off stage" from red lights in Ireland is painfully slow.

Takes the average driver about 15 seconds

I notice that too. I'm no boy racer, but I like to keep an eye on the other traffic lights and pedestrian signals so that I'm ready for the off when they eventually change to green. Quite often when I'm a few hundred metres down the road I'll look in my mirror and see that they still haven't moved!

In fact any kind of acceleration at all seems totally foreign to some drivers here. Take coming off the Loughlinstown roundabout heading south onto the M11 for example. OK, I know there are speed limits due to roadworks at the moment, but under normal circumstances it's quite common to get stuck behind people who take an incredible amount of time to get up to anything like a reasonable speed. It's as if they go round the roundabout in 5th gear or something and then just try and get back up to speed without dropping a cog or two.

And don't get me started on those who don't accelerate on the on-ramps of motorways and dual carriageways and try and merge with 60mph traffic at 20mph ...

dahamsta

cujimmy wrote:

Over here in Scotland the lights go from red to amber to green so there no delays

I go to London about once a year and I always come back wondering why we don't have that here.

adam

Jefferson Darcy

Interesting thread.

I'm pretty shocked at the fact that people continue to slaughter themselves on Irish roads at an alarming rate and yet the government continues to target speed as the main cause of accidents. I suppose it certainly brings in more revenue...

The foglight thing is hilarious, there's definitely a 'look-at-me' factor involved here whether its the scrote in his 50cc Nissan Moicra with 500 kilograms of tupperware bodykit or the twit who spent a small fortune on a puny, four cylinder, bottom of the range 'executive car'. Fogs are highly desirable on the options list whenever I chat to someone about the new car they're buying. But to me anyone car running fogs with the parklights = instant idiot.

Then there are those who are completely clueless about operating a car and will simply flip on any switch that looks like it has anything to do with headlights. Hence the prevalence of switched on rear fogs in clear weather. Or those driving around in a daze with their brights on.

On the upside, loads of people seem to use their headlights in poor weather these days. This hasn't always been the case.

Incorrect use of roundabouts has been mentioned, its seems most who do use their indicators use them incorrectly - for instance just flicking them to the right and not bothering to indicate left prior to taking their exit.

Even worse though, and this especially common on large, double-lane roundabouts like the M50 onramp at Balinteer, is people taking the 'racing' line. Just because there are two lanes doesn't mean you can take big sweeping turns without bothering to check your mirrors.

Its not surprising that so many accidents happen - learner drivers, people who don't have a clue about the controls, people overtaking on blind corners, people who don't realise the need for decent following distance, aquaplaning on poorly drained roads, people writing SMS on cellphones while driving (!)...

Driver training and better policing is the answer - not handing out points in 'fish in a barrel' locations.

sceptre

cujimmy wrote:

Over here in Scotland the lights go from red to amber to green so there no delays

Same up in nornie oirland. Good system. Part of me reckons there are plenty of idiots on our roads who would see any flash of amber as a big green though. Still, if they take 15 seconds to shoot off who cares.

mike65

AFAIK the reason we dont use amber before green is due to the Amber Gambler syndrome. I thinks its proberly safer as things are, all thats needed from dopey drivers is for them to pay attention to the sequence.

I know, I'm asking alot!

Mike.

Shilo

dahamsta wrote:

Still don't understand the (front) foglight thing. The more I see people getting annoyed about it the more fun it is to leave 'em on

Please allow me to explain then. I was driving the old man to work last night in a mild kind of drizzle at about 10pm. Some f*ckwit decides he's going to drive behind me with full beams and I can't see a damn thing because I'm being dazzled. Of course, that might just be because I'm daft enough to use my rear and side view mirrors so I can see what's behind me.... I forget they're really just for decoration and/or checking one's makeup.

And I think at this stage there should be a whole section of the driving test teaching people to indicate... It's not that hard surely??

BrianD

Is there an all of the above category?

dahamsta

Shilo wrote:

Please allow me to explain then. I was driving the old man to work last night in a mild kind of drizzle at about 10pm. Some f*ckwit decides he's going to drive behind me with full beams...

Full beams == foglights?

Shilo

Sorry Dahamsta - I was being inaccurate, he actually had both on. Full beam healights (bad enough) and then foglights on top (or rather underneath) just in case he wasn't blinding me enough!! Sorry, I know I've been told I have a tendency to overreact to full beams but that's because they're so rarely necessary and so many people use them ALL the time...

dahamsta

I don't know why you were quoting me then, I was talking specifically about foglights. Foglights that dazzle you from behind are incorrectly configured - extremely so in fact - which is a completely different issue.

adam

mike65

I'm playing my



card before someone throws thier toys out of the pram!

Proper front fogs will cast thier beam no more than about 10 metres ahead, they won't cause dazzle unless they are pointing at the tree tops which being Ireland is entirely possible!

Mike.

Sha

BrianD3 wrote:

I voted for the endemic ignorance option. Sums up Irish drivers quite nicely.

One annoyance that hasn't been mentioned is farmers in tractors plodding along country road at night with no rear lights on their tractor/trailer. Then you have others who turn on blinding *white* spotlights on the rear of their tractor while driving along. I came across one of these last night and from a distance I couldn't work out what the hell it was - a car parked with lights on, a car coming towards me, light coming from someone's house etc.

Another pet hate of mine that I've mentioned before on this board: trailer stupidity. Every feckin day of the week I see muppets towing trailers that are stupidly overloaded or too heavy for the towing vehicle. Eg last week I saw a Ford Fiesta van towing a double horsebox and a Pajero jeep towing a triple axle trailer with a biggish (~3 tonnes) tractor aboard. I'd say a lot of these drivers don't even have the correct licence for these trailers and are therefore driving unlicenced and uninsured.

Dont you hate Sunday Drivers usually old biddies on the way home from Mass.... What a ****in Nightmare Like !!!!

jd

Sha wrote:

BrianD3 wrote:

I voted for the endemic ignorance option.

Reported one feking lorry driver asshole last week heading down the beaumont road with a stack of wrecked cars at the back. It was obviously unstable- I cringed watching him take a corner. Another guy in work who lives near me mentioned it to me as he was coming in to work the same time, so I wasn't over-reacting.

Oh and could someone do something about the junction of the Swords road with Coolock lane, The only way to have a clear run straight on is to get into the bus lane-grr
jd

Sha

Stephen wrote:

I hate each and every last one of you foglight dickheads.

You need to get over the foglights thing , whats the big ****in deal they look Cool !!! Wear a pair of sunglasses if you dont like it .... Cos i aint turnin off my spots for no-one !!!

Unless your a fit guard thats stops me, then ill do whatever you like "officer" :cool:

Johnny Storm

How about "all of the above" ?

I would also include :-
>"drivers" who decline to pull into a climbing lane when people behind them clearly want to overtake and
> people who wear hats or caps INSIDE their cars. I mean - wtf ?


Edit: Sorry to resurect this old thread. I came across it in a search and then replied before I noticed how old it was.

bang_bang_rosie

i voted for duelcarriageways/motorways.
I travel the M1 and the M7 regularly, do people not understand that the right lane is the overtaking lane ONLY! people decide to cruise along it at 60/70 miles an hour without a thought of moving back into the left hand lane when they can. Some drivers don't seem to realise that people might want to overtake them!
oh and another thing, men with flash cars who will do anything and any speed to overtake you back because a girl in a little peugot overtook them, what's the point? they were obviously happy with the speed they were already doing!

AMurphy

Sha wrote:

BrianD3 wrote:

I voted for the endemic ignorance option. Sums up Irish drivers quite nicely.

One annoyance that hasn't been mentioned is farmers in tractors plodding along country road at night with no rear lights on their tractor/trailer. Then you have others who turn on blinding *white* spotlights on the rear of their tractor while driving along. ......

.... Eg last week I saw a Ford Fiesta van towing a double horsebox and a Pajero jeep towing a triple axle trailer with a biggish (~3 tonnes) tractor aboard. ......!!!!

Pretty good summary.
However, jic you thought otherwise. The law is on the side of this stupidity, as some time back (about 18 mo.) I read of a case where someone had stopped a car with mains on, on the wrong (opposite) side of the road. An oncoming car drove between the lights and the ditch.
However the car with the lights on on the wrong side of the road was deemed not at fault by the Gown and Wig class.

It might be possible to reduce a lot of this overloading if the cost of vehicles, (VRT, Tax, Ins) were such that one could afford to have a vehicle for each purpose. Then you could have or rent a vehicle suitable for the task on hand without having to take out a 2nd mortgage.
The only thing worse than something small towing something bigger,is doing it in the lane at 40mph. Use the shoulder and do it at 25, if you must. Else do it properly.

As for night towing of Ag. implements. I'd not outlaw the rear facing lamps, immediately, though I might encourage toning it down a bit. I remember years ago at night. A Van coming towards me at about 45mph.... no big deal until it was going past... The edge of a baler being towed behind stuck outside the line of the van by about 18~24". No illumination whatsoever.
Sheer luck, whomever, whatever was looking out for me that evening.

To solve that problem, I fitted forward facing indicators and park/side lights on the horse box + a small brake relay lamp. ie a little, forward facing, lamp that illuminates with the brake lights. The driver can see it in the mirror.
I also put reversing lamps and beeper on it.

Of course this does not help one iota if the driver fails to plug the in trailer lights.... You cannot protect adults from themselves.

AMurphy

Sha wrote:

You need to get over the foglights thing , whats the big ****in deal they look Cool !!! Wear a pair of sunglasses if you dont like it .... Cos i aint turnin off my spots for no-one !!!

..... :cool:

I have not found a problem with fogs, IF and it's a big IF.... if they are of normal (55w) and well aimed/behaved. Typically, well aimed focused beams tend to be well behaved.

But if you drive with lit fogs, do drive against them on in a while, see if they are well focused/aimed.

Imposter

Where is the "driving in the first place" option?

edmund_f

'I consider the standard of driving to be generally acceptable.'

i was tempted....

nice to see the Fag lamp brigade out in force.

Dades

magpie wrote:

Dare I suggest a new category though? People who can't apply 'L' plates correctly to their car. These fall into 3 categories:

A) People who cut out the red 'L' from the white background and then apply it in order to make it less conspicuous.
People who put the 'L' the wrong way around, or upside down. Surely anyone displaying this level of stupidity should receive an automatic lifetime ban from driving?
C) People who are both special needs, and anxious to conceal their learner status, who combine A and B above.

Oh god yes - those gimps drive me mad!

My pet hate is CREEPERS.

In heavy traffic if there's some movement, say 50 yards, and the car in front of you creeps up the gap at 1/100th mph before finally reaching the car in front of them. At which point another gap opens up and they proceed to crawl over the newly opened gap.

AAaaarrrrRRRggghhh! Just put the car in gear - drive the gap - and stop. Just because you want to ride the clutch all the way into work doesn't mean everyone does! Some of us would like to stretch our left leg once an hour. And use your feckin' handbrake if you ever come to a standstill and stop searing my retinas with your brake lights.

*rant complete*

edmund_f

People who put the 'L' the wrong way around, or upside down. Surely anyone displaying this level of stupidity should receive an automatic lifetime ban from driving?

think we should put this in the constitution..

love to see someone justify this action (llistens carefully for the sound of all the learner drivers running out to check their l plates

wonder if anyone has ever been proscuted for illegal L plates?, probably all to busy drinking coffee in the back of Gatso vans.. well i suppose the coffee will not drink itself

galactus

A tough choice. I was hardly going to vote for the last one "acceptable"!!

Went for "General endemic ignorance etc". Wasn't surprised to see it's in the lead.

Poor driving is unfortunately a part of the Irish culture: 800 years of British rule etc. had left the us with a "feck the rules" mentality. Age has a lot to do with it too ( "feck the rules" etc.)

The gardai don't enforce the rules - we need dedicated traffic cops.

Dades

galactus wrote:

The gardai don't enforce the rules - we need dedicated traffic cops.

We need...

Hydroquinone

I voted for the endemic ignorance.

I think there are reasons for some if it, though.
For anyone over the age of about 30, there were no motorways/big old dual carriageways when they learned to drive. And as for roundabouts? Wha'? If you didn't live in the big city, you would never have even seen a roundabout except on the television on one of them there foreign programs.
Then again, for people about 60-odd there was an amnesty on driving licences and anyone at all could walk into the post office, (or wherever it was) and pick up a licence without passing any sort of a test of any descriptions.

So there are a huge number of people on the roads who were never taught a lot of the things that constitute many of the things listed.
If the government had an ounce of wit, they'd run a series of public information adverts on the telly. They managed it for the mph to kmh changeover, so why not for the basic rules of how to drive a car?. Far too many people in this country only know how to aim a car.

Now for my own private nark - the one that drives me nearly into a screaming mass of lunacy is those unspeakably brainless people who haven't got the lightest notion what that pretty yellow criss cross design painted on the road might be for. They deserve to be taken out and beaten to death with a shovel.
That is all.

Alun

Hydroquinone wrote:

If the government had an ounce of wit, they'd run a series of public information adverts on the telly.

They did a couple of years ago. There was one on the proper use of the overtaking lane, and one on the use of roundabouts IIRC. They only appeared briefly and then were never seen or heard of again.

campers

hehe, I enjoyed reading this thread

My pet-hate is wonky headlights-- either incorrectly aligned, one missing, or one failing to dip. How do these people get NCTs with wonky headlights?? I've noticed some GARDA cars are culprits for this aswell.

Is it just me, or do other people find old-skool double-filament brake lights more difficult to spot than a dedicated light? It's far easier to notice the illumination of a "new" light than a change in the intensity of an existing one. Old model Ford Fiestas are lethal :eek: . Thankfully, strip brake lights are standard now.

On the front-fogs: guilty
In my defence, they are small, correctly aimed (downwards) and dazzle/blind nobody.
The larger, customised ones are a different story.

My final pet-hate are people who crawl on the on-ramps to dual carriageways.... (no explanation required....) On a related story, my housemate once yielded (like he had a choice!) to a nutter reversing up an on-ramp.... apparently he'd gotten to the bottom but decided the traffic was a little heavy and changed his mind. Imagine!

On large roundabouts: I'm always amused (to the point of laugher) at cars (not HGVs) who indicate right, while entering a roundabout in the left lane. Where are these people going, exactly?!

On people who trim their L plates: don't the Rules of the Road say something about a 2cm margin? So, whaz da problem?!

Crossley

mike65 wrote:

Proper front fogs will cast thier beam no more than about 10 metres ahead, they won't cause dazzle unless they are pointing at the tree tops which being Ireland is entirely possible!Mike.

Yes, but fogs, unlike dipped headlamps, shine on both sides of the road. When the road surface is wet (which is more often than not) the glare is reflected towards the oncoming driver. Of course in fog this isn't a problem. Mainly because when it's really foggy nobody can see how "cool" your light bulb enclosed in a metal container is and you'll have switched them off ;-)

BrianD3

The Atheist wrote:

My pet hate is CREEPERS.

In heavy traffic if there's some movement, say 50 yards, and the car in front of you creeps up the gap at 1/100th mph before finally reaching the car in front of them. At which point another gap opens up and they proceed to crawl over the newly opened gap.

AAaaarrrrRRRggghhh! Just put the car in gear - drive the gap - and stop. Just because you want to ride the clutch all the way into work doesn't mean everyone does! Some of us would like to stretch our left leg once an hour. And use your feckin' handbrake if you ever come to a standstill and stop searing my retinas with your brake lights.

*rant complete*

I don't know about this - by your defintion I am a "creeper" as I tend to leave a good gap between myself and the car in front if I'm in a long line of heavy traffic. The queue of traffic is not going anywhere quickly so what's the point in driving jerkily and up the arse of the car in front all the time. As for riding the clutch - quite the opposite in fact, the more you creep the *less* you ride the clutch as you can fully engage the clutch immediately after moving off and then let the car creep along at low revs with your feet off all the pedals and your legs stretched out. Also, the bigger the gap you leave to the car in front, the less you have to use your brakes/clutch - if the traffic in front comes to a complete stop it may start moving again before you reach it therefore the creeper can maintain a constant speed and doesn't have to use his brakes or clutch at all.

BrianD3