Overtaking and breaking red light

Pherekydes

I couldn't believe what I saw today.

I was waiting at the junction of the N4 and the Newcastle Road in Lucan on the Lucan side. The traffic facing me had green. It changed to red (I could tell this because the next car down stopped). A white van man steamed down the hill, swerved around the now stationary car and went straight through the red light.

Dangerous and stupid.

mike65

Yup! Hers's my story. On Thursday I was in Tipp town at the sole traffic light junction I was waiting on red, second in the queue. The lights turn red on the main road and then a flat-bed lorry carrying a tonne of bricks ran through.

I was glad I was the second vehicle cos as I push away smartly from stationary at that junction (it being on a slope) I would have taken a nasty drivers side hit.

Mike.

Spitfire666

this is a hugh problem, iv heard of it happining loads and not to put the white-van-man down but its mostly them that seem to be what i hear of. its the overtaking the cars stoped at the red light and either running the light or swearving infront of the first car at a dodgy angle.

unkel

Worse and also in Lucan. On the Newcastle road there is a traffic light that lets only one lane go at a time over the narrow bridge over the canal. I used to come along parallel to the canal on a laneway and take a left turn onto the Newcastle road to go southbound in the Newcastle direction. This is past the traffic light, so I am allowed to take the left turn at any time irrespective of the traffic lights (which I can't see). Cars going northbound can't see this laneway from their traffic light and some are obviously unaware of its existence.


After doing exactly what your white van driver did, people have shat themselves when they found themselves on the wrong side of the road, speeding in a direct line towards my 7-series that suddenly appeared around the corner. Happened 5 times in 2.5 years. These 5 sh!tters were 2 Honda Civic drivers and 3 motor cyclists. Amazing none of these 5 occasions ended in an accident. I probably should not have braked and instead I should have just let Darwinism take it's course

Unfortunately, my little laneway closed late last year

colm_mcm

My pet hate is the N7 on the limerick side of the M7, people overtaking lines of traffic and forcing the oncoming drivers to pull into the hard shoulder to let them pass, basically like a huge game of chicken. Usually people in low powered cars are the biggest offenders, well powered cars can overtake in a smaller space.
The annoying thing is that, even though I never use this tactic, and I overtake safely, I usually end up 2 or 3 cars behind them coming into a town.

Hotblack Desiato

Unkel, are you sure you had the right of way?
Even if you did, sometimes discretion is the better part of valour, especially if the visibility of other drivers is limited.

As a motorcyclist I'm usually at or near the front when lights turn green, I can never trust the drivers on red to stop. Until I've seen them stop I won't proceed. Junction of SCR and Clanbrassil St is the worst. Drivers (including Dublin Bus) coming over the canal bridge think they have right of way on red. F**kers. I give them a good long blast of twin 120Db Stebel air horns which produces a rapid attitude adjustment.

The worst red light incident I had the misfortune to be involved in was a few years ago on the junction between Townsend St. and Tara St. I was at the head of the queue, lights turned green, halfway across the junction I see a builders' lorry coming from my right doing at least 40mph - I had the presence of mind to realise that my chances of survival depended on accelerating rather than braking; the Micra driver behind me had the presence of mind to realise that his/her survival depended on hard BRAKING. They stopped just in time to allow said builder to screech across the junction then f**k off before any of us got our heart rates back to normal. F**king builders.

MrPudding

ninja900 wrote:

Unkel, are you sure you had the right of way?
Even if you did, sometimes discretion is the better part of valour, especially if the visibility of other drivers is limited.

As a motorcyclist I'm usually at or near the front when lights turn green, I can never trust the drivers on red to stop. Until I've seen them stop I won't proceed. Junction of SCR and Clanbrassil St is the worst. Drivers (including Dublin Bus) coming over the canal bridge think they have right of way on red. F**kers. I give them a good long blast of twin 120Db Stebel air horns which produces a rapid attitude adjustment.

The worst red light incident I had the misfortune to be involved in was a few years ago on the junction between Townsend St. and Tara St. I was at the head of the queue, lights turned green, halfway across the junction I see a builders' lorry coming from my right doing at least 40mph - I had the presence of mind to realise that my chances of survival depended on accelerating rather than braking; the Micra driver behind me had the presence of mind to realise that his/her survival depended on hard BRAKING. They stopped just in time to allow said builder to screech across the junction then f**k off before any of us got our heart rates back to normal. F**king builders.

I have stopped at red lights on the N11 on several occasions to have the guy behind me stop, change his mind, pull past me and run the red light. ON one occasion weaving between the cars that had started to move through the junction on their green.

MrP

unkel

ninja900 wrote:

Unkel, are you sure you had the right of way?

Absolutely

ninja900 wrote:

sometimes discretion is the better part of valour, especially if the visibility of other drivers is limited

If that's aimed for me, you're misquoting Willy S. there

Northbound drivers / bikers who swerved into the wrong side of the road because the car in front of them had stopped at the red light and they desired to brake the red light themselves obviously knew the road. They knew that southbound drivers were stopped at the southbound traffic light. If they knew that, they knew the road and they also knew that there are laneways on both sides of the canal that can access the Newcastle road into either direction. They took a risk and they are lucky not to have crashed...