What's Right With Irish Motoring?

cormie

There's so many threads on here about what's wrong with motoring in Ireland, I though I'd see if we could get some points of what's right and what we have that's better than other countries.

For a start, I think our reg plate system is good. You can tell the year of the car by the reg which can come in handy and it's pretty basic that the letter is the county and the following numbers are the the position of its register.

Is that it?:o

IrishRover

Reg plate system has got nothing to do with driving though. Stop going off topic on your own thread!

So, what's right with Irish driving then?
Can't think of anything offhand...

pp_me129

Nothing:p

C_Breeze

irish drivers make fun obstacles?

bbbbb

Stretching a bit here, as technically it's not driving either, but I think the NCT has been a good thing. Helps keeps cars on the road in a safe condition. At least storeis of people failing over silly things (e.g. reg plates) seem to be getting less as well.

eachtrannach

Personally I think the registration system is crap ... because of the emphasis on age of car (which interests nobody tbh) while you cannot see where the car might be from - other countries habe a local registration that changes when your residence changes. Makes it easy to spot "foreigners" and be a bit more forgiving with erratic driving.

Now what this or the NCT has to do with driving is beyond my ken ...

jayok

Well before I had driven in Italy, I would have said "nothing". However after driving there recently I can say that we could be worse. Relative to the Italians our road manners is quite good. Having said that there are no where as good as the Germans. Ignorance (as in lack of knowledge) is our biggest problem, there are muppets on every road in the world.

[OT] People think the Italian's are good drivers, they are not they are simply dangerous. It would explain why, when hiring a Hertz car in German we were forbidden to drive into Italy, where pretty much everywhere else was ok...:) [/OT]

cormie

Ok, I've changed it from Driving to Motoring to allow for stuff like NCT, Reg Plates and the Toll Bridge:eek:

IrishRover

Cormie, you can't change the terms of your thread just cos there's no such thing as good Irish driving habits.
Pretty sure it's in the rules and you can get banned from the whole site for doing it. And the Internet as well I think.

jayok wrote:

[OT] People think the Italian's are good drivers, they are not they are simply dangerous. It would explain why, when hiring a Hertz car in German we were forbidden to drive into Italy, where pretty much everywhere else was ok...:) [/OT]

At least they are dangerous in a consistent and predictable way. If you're Italian and going to have a TA at least they do it with some style. To an Italian, if you're not cool, you're better off dead - and if you're going to die, do it with a bit of flair and panache.

I remember being in a car doing over the ton on an Italian autostrada, guy in a Lancia Thema behind was so close it looked like it was coupled to the rear of the car like a trailing locomotive carriage. The cool thing was that a few milliseconds after we would go over a bump, it would be echoed in his car's suspension.

Fair enough and all that, and you might see that in any other country, but the Italian element of style that he added was that far from looking tense and gripping the steering wheel, he had one hand vaguely touching the twelve o'clock position, the other arm wrapped behind the passenger seat headrest, and his seat was so reclined he was pretty much as horizontal as the seat would go. He was so cool that he was actually bored by the whole travelling fast within millimeters from the car in front. Just in case anyone didn't get how laid back he was, he made sure we could see him struggle to stifle a few yawns.

See that's the Italians for you. Seriously stylish. Dangerous maybe, but the difference is it's on purpose!

mike65

I honestly can't think of a single aspect of motoring/driving that is done better here.

Mike.

zuutroy

Far more courtesy and politeness on the road here than Central Europe and the US. In my experience no one thanks you for letting them out etc. I have to say, the standard of driving in Britain is the highest I've seen.

WizZard

zuutroy wrote:

Far more courtesy and politeness on the road here than Central Europe and the US. In my experience no one thanks you for letting them out etc. I have to say, the standard of driving in Britain is the highest I've seen.

Meh - I don't agree with that. Sometime people let others out when there is no need for it - e.g you are behind a car with a clear road behind you, then the guy in front slows down to let someone else out... Plain dangerous IMO

I've driven from the west to Dublin this morning and the amount of people with no lights on at all, not keeping any distance between cars on M50 in driving rain, and passing our on bends is insane.
How is it that few people can drive correctly in the rain even though we get so much of it?

bennyx_o

The fact you can (or used to) fail the NCT for not having the county in irish at the top sums it up for me really.

maidhc

We don't blow the horn in gridlock.

mike65

Not being as bad as the Italians is nothing to be proud of!

Mike.

JohnCleary

I once saw someone use one of those indicator thingys... pitty it was only the once!

Wishbone Ash

maidhc wrote:

We don't blow the horn in gridlock.

I agree with you maidhc. After spending some time in India, I was astounded at how low the traffic noise levels were in Dublin. It's ridiculous how drivers in some countries continuously sound their horn in heavy traffic, as if it is going to make any difference. Indian taxi drivers even do it while they are turned around talking to passengers!

ds20prefecture

Excellent tax breaks for classic drivers. No NCT for classic drivers. Ideal climate for classics. No salt on the roads in winter.

numorouno

its great the way inexpieranced drivers can go get their driver theory test done in the morning, get their license in the afternoon and buy a car and get insured by evening having never sat in a car before then they can drive to a test centre fail their driving test and drive home......oh wait thats not good!
i think courtesy is the best thing on irish roads. we may have crap drivers and roads but at least everybody is waving at everybody else!

zuutroy

ds20prefecture wrote:

Excellent tax breaks for classic drivers. No NCT for classic drivers. Ideal climate for classics. No salt on the roads in winter.

Would be nice to have similar breaks for 20-30 year old cars. It's obvious that most pre-86 cars are owned by enthusiasts/ not used to regularly.

Alun

What's right with Irish motoring? Absolutely nothing IMO. Crap roads, crap drivers, crap law enforcement. I used to actually enjoy driving before I moved here, now it's just a chore, and a scary one at that lots of times.

IrishRover

Where are you from Alun?

Alun

IrishRover wrote:

Where are you from Alun?

England originally, but did most of my 'real' driving in Germany and the Netherlands which is where I lived for 20+ years before moving here.

DublinWriter

Alun wrote:

England originally, but did most of my 'real' driving in Germany and the Netherlands which is where I lived for 20+ years before moving here.

It was always quite funny driving from Belgium up to Holland - all the Beglians would be doing 100Mph+ then as soon as they hit the Dutch border they stuck to 70Mphg religiously.

peasant

Well ..there is one good thing about driving in Ireland ...it's always a challenge.

No way does it ever get boring or monotonous, you always have to be concentrated and on your toes.

Alun

DublinWriter wrote:

It was always quite funny driving from Belgium up to Holland - all the Beglians would be doing 100Mph+ then as soon as they hit the Dutch border they stuck to 70Mphg religiously.

That's because the Dutch police were waiting for them on the other side with the power to exact on-the-spot speeding fines, and the Belgians do exactly the same on their side of the border to the Dutch! Of course they ignore their own fellow countrymen speeding past them and concentrate on the more lucrative 'foreign' market

murphaph

Our 'new world' warning signage (when properly implemented-rare) is far superior to what goes in the rest of Europe. It is visually way more striking. Unfortunately, as with many things, the initial deployment is often poor and follow up maintenance non-existant.





Now, if we could only adopt the standard european symbols for our yellow diamonds and actually maintain them, we'd be sorted.

I also find we are more courteous than many places, but I'd actually rather no courtessy and people driving to the rules of the road than the idiocy that passes for driving presently.

MivecSocky

Well after driving to dublin the other night for the first time I can say theres nwot good about irish driving. Yes some drivers are courteous but the majority are clowns, and no need of it..
Case points:
The M50 (nuff said)
Road signs (some would be nice, the ones that are there are too hard to read/in irish/too close to the junctions)
Tailgating
Overtaking when there is clearly no point in doing so (i.e rows of 10 or so cars doing same speed with traffic comming other way..)

kilasser

Living in London and drive a lot in Ireland, mainly the west. I will agree that the standard of driving in the UK is better than in Ireland. But the courtesy and politeness of Irish drivers compared to the lack of it from UK drivers is the best thing about Irish motoring. I have only driven in the UK and Ireland so can’t comment on any other country.

unkel

Alun wrote:

What's right with Irish motoring? Absolutely nothing IMO. Crap roads, crap drivers, crap law enforcement. I used to actually enjoy driving before I moved here, now it's just a chore, and a scary one at that lots of times.

I wish I could disagree with you, Alun, but I can't :mad:

I feel more relaxed cruising at 170km/h in a supermini like a Fiat Punto on any quiet continental European motorway. I am tense and wary doing 120km/h on an equally quiet M50 late at night in a car much bigger and safer than said Fiat Punto

In the past, I thought Irish drivers were aggressive and rude. Now I know I was wrong. They were not rude, they were not aggressive. It wasn't on purpose, they just didn't have a clue. No idea of what was happening around them :eek:

Another thing: In my 20 years of driving (10 years over there, 10 years over here), I never ever flashed over there. I never ever undertook over there. Now I flash and undertake. Quite a lot, I am ashamed to say...

gaui3d0pnbz86o

I have driven or been driven in Ireland, UK, Belguim,France,Germany,Neatherlands and Lux(cant spell but you know the one!) on both motorways and national roads in all countries.

I find the driving in Ireland probably the worst, and I believe it comes down to lack of knowledge of the average Irish motorist. Im not saying im perfect by any means but I am safe and stick to the rules.

Why is it Some people think they have a God given right of way at all times!

BrianD3

I know people give out about it but I think the NCT is pretty good and better than the UK MOT.

Also we might think we have bad gridlock here but if you take the country as a whole we have an awful lot of underused roads. We still have one of the lowest car ownership rates in europe, our population is relatively dispersed, we have a massive road network relative to the size of the country. Compare all that to the situation in the UK.

Stark

Alun wrote:

That's because the Dutch police were waiting for them on the other side with the power to exact on-the-spot speeding fines, and the Belgians do exactly the same on their side of the border to the Dutch! Of course they ignore their own fellow countrymen speeding past them and concentrate on the more lucrative 'foreign' market

That happened to us when we were driving from Latvia and Lithuania before. Our driver thought he was doing the speed limit but there was a town just after the border with the sign for the town about 3 miles before the town itself. What we didn't know was that the speed limit automatically decreases to 50 km/h when you see the sign for the town even though there are no speed limit signs. Cue police car waiting to slap us with an on-the-spot fine. Bastards.

Irish Salfordia

JohnCleary wrote:

I once saw someone use one of those indicator thingys... pitty it was only the once!

An English driving instructor friend of mine used to tell all his pupils "Never trust someones indicator. The only thing an indicator really tells you is that the light bulb is working".

Whoever said the good thing is that everyone waves at everyone else. The question is "what exactly are they waving???"

I would find it difficult to come up with much good about most Irish driving. Obviously exceptions to every rule. Problem is we all know we can get away with everything, so we don't bother to do it right !!