Motorway driving

philiy

Its not thought in this country, we are given our licence and then expected to know how to drive on a motorway. Maybe the government expect us to go and read about driving on the motorway properly once we have pass our test but from driving on motorways Im confident its not the case.

Im just wondering what people know about driving on a motorway.
For me its simple:
Drive in the left lane and use the right lane to overtake making sure to use your indicators when changing lanes. If you are not overtaking anyone get into the left lane and dont sit in the right lane doing 100KM/H or 110KM/H blocking other people.

Another thing I feel strongly about is braking on the motorway. You should be far awy enough from the car in from to just have to take your foot off the accelarator to slow down, there should be no reason to brake on a motorway ever unless you are in really heavy traffic or some d**khead cuts infront of you caseing you to swerve. People unessasarily braking are the cause of phontom traffic jams on motorways, if you dont know how to drive on a motorway then dont.

Any thought or comments?

theocn

I suppose the problem in Ireland is that there aren't enough motorways to teach people on so they couldn't have it as part of the driving test. If you lived in Mayo or Donegal you'd probably have to drive for a couple of hours before reaching a motorway.
When I was in England last year I noticed on some of the motorways there were markings, like small arrows in each lane, and your supposed to be able to see at least 2 of them at all times when the road is dry, so its a way of checking that your keeping to the 2 second rule. I thought that was a good idea, because I think the problem with braking is that drivers stay too close to the car in front, and any change of speed requires them to brake.

Posy

Whenever I pass my test, I plan to take 2 one hour long lessons in my own car (assuming I have a car by then!) with my current instructor to get used to motorway driving. Unfortunately, in this country, it is up to each individual to make sure they are competent driving on the motorway due to (as stated by theocn) the lack of them. It would just not be feasible to make it compulsory but I do think there should be some sort of motorway course (say, lasting an hour or so) that new drivers should complete after they have passed a test.

Sunjammer

IMO the current test routine is poor at best as it concentrates on areas sometimes 90% of which are in housing estates and 99% in 50kph zones. I think they should take the tests out of cities & big towns and onto 100kph roads and through villages or towns in 30kph zones to really get an idea of someone's driving ability, Just because you can drive around a housing estate sometimes at a snails pace for 30 - 40 minutes doesn't mean in reality you have the ability to go on a motorway that's why I think the current test routine has some serious flaws

theocn

Sunjammer wrote: »

IMO the current test routine is poor at best as it concentrates on areas sometimes 90% of which are in housing estates and 99% in 50kph zones. I think they should take the tests out of cities & big towns and onto 100kph roads and through villages or towns in 30kph zones to really get an idea of someone's driving ability, Just because you can drive around a housing estate sometimes at a snails pace for 30 - 40 minutes doesn't mean in reality you have the ability to go on a motorway that's why I think the current test routine has some serious flaws

It definitely seems to be a flaw in the system alright, and is the reason why there's so much difference in pass rates in different centres. It's hard to see though how it can be overcome unless they just had a couple of test centres in each province and tried to standardise them to cover all different types of routes.
I think in some European countries you have to sit a few tests, like driving in towns, at night and on motorways, but I can't see that coming here soon.

timmywex

When i passed my test i was alowed to;

Drive a car or light van alone up to 3500kg(which is quite a heavy van)
Tow a trailer.(Up to 750kg)
Drive on the motorway. (Without any expirience)
Drive in a host of other countries and on the right hand side in said countries.



All that after a 25 minute drive around a town and route that id done most of before. That i knew the roads, I had a 150metre stretch on a 100km road, no country roads and no night driving or anything.


Tbh the responsibility that comes witha full licence far outweighs the test

Alanstrainor

timmywex wrote: »

When i passed my test i was alowed to;

Drive a car or light van alone up to 3500kg(which is quite a heavy van)
Tow a trailer.(Up to 750kg)
Drive on the motorway. (Without any expirience)
Drive in a host of other countries and on the right hand side in said countries.



All that after a 25 minute drive around a town and route that id done most of before. That i knew the roads, I had a 150metre stretch on a 100km road, no country roads and no night driving or anything.


Tbh the responsibility that comes witha full licence far outweighs the test

Indeed, if i recall correctly, my driving test lasted 15/20 minutes approx, i never entered a speed limit above 50km/h and never had to do a formal "hill start". Within a week i had my license and was let loose on the road. It's quite scary thinking about just how much is omitted from the driving test.

Tech3

philiy wrote: »

Any thought or comments?

The merging onto a motorway, many people shortcut this and merge off the slip early and are not up to the speed limit.

Move into the fast lane if traffic is attempting to merge onto the mainline to let them merge safely.

In general there isint many motorways in the country but now there is more km of motorways in Ireland per head of population compared to the UK. But with the inter urban network nearing completion and current dual carriageways being redesingated motorway at the end of August it will be above average for the size of our country.