Motorway Driving?

SillyMcCarthy

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0213/driving.html

Just reading this on the RTE website I was wondering what was
the ratio of male vs female? They never gave the statistics!

MrJoeSoap

SillyMcCarthy wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0213/driving.html

Just reading this on the RTE website I was wondering what was
the ratio of male vs female? They never gave the statistics!

I'd be more interested in how many are people from countries that drive on the right.

SillyMcCarthy

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

I'd be more interested in how many are people from countries that drive on the right.

True Joe, my wifes cousin was killed in same!

Cookie_Monster

So now we need another book to teach us about the most basic type of road driving :rolleyes:

Is there any hope left for the irish motorist

MrJoeSoap

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

So now we need another book to teach us about the most basic type of road driving :rolleyes:

Is there any hope left for the irish motorist

Have you ever seen a car drive down the wrong side of the motorway? Personally, I haven't. And the same goes for the roundabout "stat", I don't recall every encountering that in my life.

Whatever you say about the "Irish motorist", road deaths are almost half what they were only a dozen or so years ago. Drink-driving is a fraction of the problem it was in years gone by also.

Voodoomelon

They aren't talking about people going the wrong way around a roundabout, they are referring to general roundabout usage and the lack of knowledge on how to use them.

Why the hell is motorway training still not part of the driving test? Seriously, what is the reason?

MadsL

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Have you ever seen a car drive down the wrong side of the motorway? Personally, I haven't. And the same goes for the roundabout "stat", I don't recall every encountering that in my life.

.

Yes, Nissan Micra drove down the sliproad onto the M1 and then turned right!!! up the hard shoulder, phoned the Guards asap,

Davidth88

I personally would ask how many over 70 are involved driving the wrong way .

As for roundabouts , I have met 3 cars going the wrong way at my local motorway junction ( Celbridge West on M4 ) .... it shakes you up TBH

Edit , sorrry , should have added , 2 of those were grey import japs ( over 10 YO ) , one was blacked out 10 YO ( or thereabouts ) BMW , draw your own conclusions as to who was driving those cars.

Park Royal

I'd love to check my driving on a Motorway, but finding it hard to find one

in Mayo.....;)

There is a bit of one in Sligo....Collooney Bypass....

markpb

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Why the hell is motorway training still not part of the driving test? Seriously, what is the reason?

Because that would be a change and we do change reeeeeeeaaaallly slowly. Or preferably not at all.

Mint Sauce

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Have you ever seen a car drive down the wrong side of the motorway? Personally, I haven't. And the same goes for the roundabout "stat", I don't recall every encountering that in my life.

Whatever you say about the "Irish motorist", road deaths are almost half what they were only a dozen or so years ago. Drink-driving is a fraction of the problem it was in years gone by also.

I have seen a driver infront of me start indicating right on the approach of a central reservation driving along a single carriage way national road, and then actually drive into the oncoming lane.

Queue me flashing him to warn him, then my horn when he didn't seem to react, he didn't realease he was in the wrong until he was already on the wrong side of the carriageway, beyond the start of the central reservation and the oncoming traffic flashing him.

:eek:

dahamsta

I'd say I've seen people going the wrong way on a dual carriageway in Ireland twice or three times in my driving career of around 20 years; roundabouts around half a dozen times. It's not exactly common, but not all that rare either. Hell, I've gone around a roundabout the wrong way myself in other countries by mistake. It happens.

On the subject in hand though, a leaflet is useless, very few people will actually learn something from it, and the people who should be reading it will likely never even see it. We need Drivers Ed. over here, like the US only obviously improved over the special way they do things. Drivers Ed for teenagers in secondary schools, and as punishment for crap driving mandated by the courts and/or points system.

It won't solve the problem, but it could definitely help a lot imho.

Blazer

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Have you ever seen a car drive down the wrong side of the motorway? Personally, I haven't. And the same goes for the roundabout "stat", I don't recall every encountering that in my life.

Whatever you say about the "Irish motorist", road deaths are almost half what they were only a dozen or so years ago. Drink-driving is a fraction of the problem it was in years gone by also.

3 times and each timeit was an old gimp who didn't seem to realize what he was doing wrong despite numerous cars having to avoid him, blaring their horns and flashing their lights at them.. and each one was in broad daylight.
It seems to happen regularly in Limerick and it's not scumbags but old fellas who don't have a clue.

Anyone who's caught doing this should immediately be banned from driving for 6 months and their license revoked so they have to reapply and start at learner level again.
Let's see then if they do it again...

Cuddlesworth

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Have you ever seen a car drive down the wrong side of the motorway? Personally, I haven't. And the same goes for the roundabout "stat", I don't recall every encountering that in my life.

Whatever you say about the "Irish motorist", road deaths are almost half what they were only a dozen or so years ago. Drink-driving is a fraction of the problem it was in years gone by also.

About four times. It happens late at night when there is nobody else around and they get confused. Really scary when it happens.

I've also seen a huge number of U-turns into hard-shoulders because they missed their exit and swerving across 2-5 lanes because they sat in the wrong lane till the last moment. Its a pretty big problem here.

I should also add, I don't do that much driving.

BronsonTB

Park Royal wrote: »

I'd love to check my driving on a Motorway, but finding it hard to find one

in Mayo.....;)

There is a bit of one in Sligo....Collooney Bypass....

Presume you're just takin the piss & know that's the N4 (Dual carrigeway-100km) not M4 (motorway-120km)

Mr. Presentable

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Have you ever seen a car drive down the wrong side of the motorway? Personally, I haven't. And the same goes for the roundabout "stat", I don't recall every encountering that in my life.

Whatever you say about the "Irish motorist", road deaths are almost half what they were only a dozen or so years ago. Drink-driving is a fraction of the problem it was in years gone by also.

I have twice encountered a car on the wrong side of dual carriageway (not M-Way, but the same in principle), and several times seen wrong direction use of roundabouts - always by people taking a shortcut (first exit in the other direction.

bohsfan

There's a nun (believe it or not...) that's notorious for going the wrong way arounds roundabouts in Waterford... Met her about 3 times on the Tramore Road roundabout, totally oblivious she was. Altho, God is on her side I suppose.

I have also met a car coming the wrong way down motorway sliproads a couple of times.

Haven't met anyone going the wrong way on the motorway proper yet though, thankfully. I can't imagine a more terrifying sight out your windscreen

creedp

Voodoomelon wrote: »

They aren't talking about people going the wrong way around a roundabout, they are referring to general roundabout usage and the lack of knowledge on how to use them.

Why the hell is motorway training still not part of the driving test? Seriously, what is the reason?

Surely one of the reasons is that you can't get onto one legally until you pass your test. Ridiculous in my view. If you can't drive on a motorway before your test what make you qualified to drive on one after it? Having said that the last thing I would want is to have the MI/M50 junction blocked up even more by L drivers rear ending cars during rush hour. Luckily at the moment all drivers are qualified to drive on a motorway and therefore have the necessary skills to joint a motorway from a sliproad ... the Q is how come having done so many of them end up the ass of another poor sod trying to get to his destinaiton!

viewer

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Have you ever seen a car drive down the wrong side of the motorway? Personally, I haven't. And the same goes for the roundabout "stat", I don't recall every encountering that in my life.

Whatever you say about the "Irish motorist", road deaths are almost half what they were only a dozen or so years ago. Drink-driving is a fraction of the problem it was in years gone by also.

I encountered a car coming the wrong way on the M1 at Monasterboice near Drogheda about 3 years ago at about 9 o clock in the evening. I was heading towards Dublin and luckily for me I was in the inside lane heading down hill and the other car was in the outside lane coming towards me. If anyone had have pulled out to overtake me they would have stood no chance.

**Timbuk2**

I saw a car going the wrong direction in the overtaking lane of the M50 northbound carraigeway between Junctions 10 and 11 just over a week ago - completely oblivious, caused a massive backlog of traffic as everyone was trying to move out of the way. It was a Sunday so thankfully there wasn't more traffic on the road!

challengemaster

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Have you ever seen a car drive down the wrong side of the motorway? Personally, I haven't. And the same goes for the roundabout "stat", I don't recall every encountering that in my life.

So I count 19 reports of wrong side of a motorway so far on the thread, and I'll add my encounter to that too.

So in 21 (?) posts so far, there's 20 reports of it.

Also, funnily enough, it only carries the same penalty as speeding.

coffee_cake

challengemaster wrote: »

So I count 19 reports of wrong side of a motorway so far on the thread, and I'll add my encounter to that too.

So in 21 (?) posts so far, there's 20 reports of it.

Also, funnily enough, it only carries the same penalty as speeding.

that's because speeding is the worst thing in the whole world ever EVER

-Corkie-

challengemaster wrote: »

So I count 19 reports of wrong side of a motorway so far on the thread, and I'll add my encounter to that too.

So in 21 (?) posts so far, there's 20 reports of it.

Also, funnily enough, it only carries the same penalty as speeding.

Its less actually you only get 1 point..

dgt

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Have you ever seen a car drive down the wrong side of the motorway?

Coming off the M50 at the N3 exit I saw this Renault Clio had driven head on into an Audi A4 on the off ramp, no hope for either. Lucky for both parties that was a 30kmh zone, both cars looked quite badly damaged though...

Its common to see people driving the wrong way down the link road near the willows in Navan

langdang

bluewolf wrote: »

that's because speeding is the worst thing in the whole world ever EVER

No, failing an NCT on emissions and continuing to drive an otherwise roadworthy car is the worst thing ever! 5 points, therefore 5 times as LETHAL as driving the wrong way on a motorway!

I have seen a 2 or 3 Limerick roundabout fails, don't spend much time on motorways.

flyingsnail

I came across one just outside Shannon coming against me in the overtaking lane, seemed completely oblivious to what he was doing. Another muppet missed her exit on the motorway, stopped under the flyover bridge and then proceeded to reverse back in the driving lane. I reported both cases but never heard anything more.

Buffman

I had an encouter like this on the N4 around Mullingar, 2 women in a Micra driving the wrong way. It's not pleasant.

As said earlier, this should be an automatic ban, it's a joke that it's only a 1 point offence.

Also, the new Motorway junctions around Limerick seem to be a blackspot, I've only been down twice since the M7 was finished. Both times I saw people reversing on the hard shoulder at the M7-M20 interchange.

Shane Fitz

Buffman wrote: »

. Both times I saw people reversing on the hard shoulder at the M7-M20 interchange.

That's something equally as bad and dangerous. As someone who drives Kildare to Swords regularly ( motorway all the way) the amount of times I've seen muppets reversing back on hard shoulders or back up/down slips is ridiculous. drive to the next fuppin exit and come back opposite side safely. Rather be late than dead.

Fiona

Buffman wrote: »

I had an encouter like this on the N4 around Mullingar, 2 women in a Micra driving the wrong way. It's not pleasant.

As said earlier, this should be an automatic ban, it's a joke that it's only a 1 point offence.

It's only a 1 point offence :eek::eek::eek::eek:

Never knew that, god who makes up these rules Bosco?

creedp

mrs crilly wrote: »

It's only a 1 point offence :eek::eek::eek::eek:

Never knew that, god who makes up these rules Bosco?

Its only a dangerous offence if you are speeding up the wong way of a Motorway!!

Bigcheeze

After the M1 was upgraded to bypass the airport but before the M50/M1 junction upgrade to 5 lanes on the M1, it was a regular occurrence to see people reversing along the hard shoulder on the M1 as they had missed the exit for the airport. Sure they'd miss the flight if they had to drive all the way to Belfast.