Foreign visitors appalled by our driving standards

Tenzor07

Is this a Surprise for anyone? I also see that Cyclists have also come in for a bad review..
So looks like when us Irish get behind the wheel, be it 2 or 4 we get very bad reviews!

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/foreign-visitors-appalled-by-our-driving-standards-survey-finds-2298679.html

Cookie_Monster

And our notoriously bad driving habits -- road rage, tailgating, speeding and using the mobile phone behind the wheel -- have not improved by much in the past 10 years.

Mobile phone use while driving, speeding, aggressive driving and tailgating are all cited as the major causes of concern by responsible motorists.

Funny, thats exactly what I would have said if asked on holiday in Italy, or when I was in Dubai, or Oman...

djimi

Irish driving might be bad, and believe me it very much is, but there are not a lot of countries in continental Europe, at least not the ones Ive been to anyway, who can afford to look down their noses at us...

Tenzor07

It's this one that is so true...

Many of those surveyed, especially drivers from the US, the UK, Australia and continental Europe, also complained about the inability of Irish drivers to use motorways correctly.

Especially on 3 lane motorways..

Its: Inside lane: Empty, maybe the odd truck or bus..
Middle Lane: cars under 100kph
Outside lane: Nascar Racing lane

:rolleyes:

djimi

Its true about the motorways alright. Although in light of all the recent threads on here about the topic, I was pleasently surprised yesterday when driving on the M4(?) from Kilcock to Mullingar that in the entire stretch of motorway I didnt encounter one outside lane hogger. First time for everything I guess!

whippet

I don't pay much heed to these types of surveys.

While I accept that irish motorway behaviour leaves a lot to be desired and that in certian parts of rural ireland madness decends but haven driven quite a bit all over the world I wouldn't be jumping on the bandwagon saying ireland is the worst.

Poland is by far and away the worst I have ever come across, the insanity of over taking and speeding on badly finished back roads outside of Krakow was jaw droppingly mental

In italy I found tailgating to be cronic along with terrible lane manners on motorways, ducking a weaving all over the place.

Parts of spain can be nasty with many drivers just pulling out in front of you and cutting you up in traffic

In the UK agression on the road is pretty bad, despite the popular belief on these boards the number of drivers who just race to the outside lane and foot to the floor is bizzare, especially on motorways outside of the main urban centres. Coupled with the fact that the majority of these drivers have sat navs with speed camera warnings .. causing irrattic breaking for no apparant reason.

monkeypants

Hmm, so the person surveyed thought that they were a better driver than the other people around them...quelle surprise.

Matt Simis

djimi wrote: »

Its true about the motorways alright. Although in light of all the recent threads on here about the topic, I was pleasently surprised yesterday when driving on the M4(?) from Kilcock to Mullingar that in the entire stretch of motorway I didnt encounter one outside lane hogger. First time for everything I guess!

The M4 (outside rush hour when it becomes a two lane highway) and the M3 are usually fine IMO, I drive them all the time. I assume when people bitch about motorways, its the Dublin-y ones, the M50 and M1.

djimi

Matt Simis wrote: »

The M4 (outside rush hour when it becomes a two lane highway) and the M3 are usually fine IMO, I drive them all the time. I assume when people bitch about motorways, its the Dublin-y ones, the M50 and M1.

The road in which I experience the worst offenders is the N7; that three lane stretch is a complete nightmare. Nobody seems to understand what the middle lane is for or how to drive it; the common consensus seems to be that the middle lane is the driving lane, the outside is for those who wish to speed and the inside is some mystery lane that eventually heads into Naas so its best to avoid it at all costs.

Victor

djimi wrote: »

Its true about the motorways alright. Although in light of all the recent threads on here about the topic, I was pleasently surprised yesterday when driving on the M4(?) from Kilcock to Mullingar that in the entire stretch of motorway I didnt encounter one outside lane hogger. First time for everything I guess!

They were all queued up behind you. :pac:

af_thefragile

I've seen more drivers with UK license plates drive recklessly here than I've seen Irish drivers. Almost every UK driver I've seen drives appallingly on Irish roads. Maybe they drive properly in UK but its like when they come here they are suddenly exempt from all driving laws and can do whatever they want.

whippet

whippet wrote: »

Poland is by far and away the worst I have ever come across, the insanity of over taking and speeding on badly finished back roads outside of Krakow was jaw droppingly mental

You don't need to go to Poland to see how they drive, most PL reg cars I've seen here driving on the roads, their driving is mental, they don't even bother to slow down coming up to a bad bend and just cut straight into the opposite lane. I've once ended up having to go into a ditch to avoid getting hit by a speeding PL reg BMW on my side of the road on a bend :mad:

Anan1

af_thefragile wrote: »

I've seen more drivers with UK license plates drive recklessly here than I've seen Irish drivers. Almost every UK driver I've seen drives appallingly on Irish roads. Maybe they drive properly in UK but its like when they come here they are suddenly exempt from all driving laws and can do whatever they want.

What makes you so sure that UK plate = UK driver?;)

af_thefragile

Well, considering the north as a part of UK, a UK license plate should be a UK driver now... innit?

Anan1

af_thefragile wrote: »

Well, considering the north as a part of UK, a UK license plate should be a UK driver now... innit?

A lot of UK plated cars here have been imported by local tax-dodgers - they often stand out on account of their driving style.

af_thefragile

^Aah... But usually they're pretty good cars. Like once in the city I was driving normally, if not slightly slowly (was finding my way) and then this UK reg Audi driver undertakes out of nowhere gesturing and screaming something at me and drives of at like 60-70kmph in the city center...

Vertakill

My problem is that Irish people are completely oblivious to their mistakes, combined with a poor level of driving ability.
Whereas, I've clocked up several hours of being a passenger in Hong Kong taxis where they knowingly do some ridiculous sh1t, but since they're decent drivers, nothing comes of it.

To me, it seems that in other major countries, the people doing the stupid/dangerous stuff are usually aware of breaking the rules, but do it anyway.

In Ireland, people do stupid crap and are completely unaware as to how stupid/dangerous it is until it's way too late.

Matt Simis

af_thefragile wrote: »

^Aah... But usually they're pretty good cars. Like once in the city I was driving normally, if not slightly slowly (was finding my way) and then this UK reg Audi driver undertakes out of nowhere gesturing and screaming something at me and drives of at like 60-70kmph in the city center...

When people go to the hassle of importing cars they usually are pretty decent models. Ive driven on several UK regs here till the VRT is done (I always get it done, I just dont run to do it).

I would guess the majority of UK Regs driven here are Irish (ROI) people.

getz

i drive a lot on irish roads, and from my point of view i find irish drivers very good,it could be because of my english reg,and they are showing me that they are good drivers ,my irish friends are always trying to tell me that the drivers in ireland are bad compared to england,but not from the way i see it

Alun

Vertakill wrote: »

My problem is that Irish people are completely oblivious to their mistakes, combined with a poor level of driving ability.
Whereas, I've clocked up several hours of being a passenger in Hong Kong taxis where they knowingly do some ridiculous sh1t, but since they're decent drivers, nothing comes of it.

To me, it seems that in other major countries, the people doing the stupid/dangerous stuff are usually aware of breaking the rules, but do it anyway.

In Ireland, people do stupid crap and are completely unaware as to how stupid/dangerous it is until it's way too late.

I think that's an accurate description of the difference between the bad driving you see elsewhere and what you see here, i.e. many drivers here are genuinely unaware of the fact that what they're doing is wrong / stupid / illegal, whereas in other countries they know what the rules are but do it anyway. I'm not sure that necessarily makes one better than the other, but it's the way I see it as an outsider.

celticbest

getz wrote: »

i drive a lot on irish roads, and from my point of view i find irish drivers very good,it could be because of my english reg,and they are showing me that they are good drivers ,my irish friends are always trying to tell me that the drivers in ireland are bad compared to england,but not from the way i see it

I think that no matter what country you are in you will always have bad drivers & the country in which you currently are will always have the worst as these are the last drivers you were in contact with & any bad manoeuvres will be fresh in the head.