Motorway slipways

Akrasia

Do you know what really grinds my gears?

Seriously, are people effin stupid or something? The whole point of a slip road is to get up to motorway speeds before you merge with traffic

Every second morning I am confronted with some eejit dawdling down the slipway at 40mph which results in a queue of traffic trying to merge with motorway traffic doing twice our speed.

It's lethal.

We're always getting road safety campaigns telling people about how to use roundabouts or junctions, but I have never seen anything warning people about the dangers of merging with motorway traffic at the wrong speed.

Gay Byrne, get yer finger out and inform people that they are creating the potential for catastrophic pile-ups...

Tallon

Oh yeah, blame Gaye for these idiots driving :rolleyes:

I really hate that attitude!

Maybe he should get together with Michael Bay to do a 3 hour movie on every single aspect of road usage... or maybe people could, I dunno, Learn the rules of the road

dgt

Akrasia wrote: »

Do you know what really grinds my gears?

Akrasia

Tallon wrote: »

Oh yeah, blame Gaye for these idiots driving :rolleyes:

I really hate that attitude!

Maybe he should get together with Michael Bay to do a 3 hour movie on every single aspect of road usage... or maybe people could, I dunno, Learn the rules of the road

The road safety authority are given a lot of money to educate people about safe driving. Don't ya think they should do their job?

Tallon

Akrasia wrote: »

The road safety authority are given a lot of money to educate people about safe driving. Don't ya think they should do their job?

Answer the question then, do you want to see an ad on TV for every single rule on all 232 pages of the ROTR?

Paddy@CIRL

There's a reason they're called acceleration / deceleration lanes in Germany ...

Akrasia

Tallon wrote: »

Answer the question then, do you want to see an ad on TV for every single rule on all 232 pages of the ROTR?

Not all rules are the same, most rules don't have the potential for multiple car pile-ups if they're not followed.

F-Stop

Tallon wrote: »

Answer the question then, do you want to see an ad on TV for every single rule on all 232 pages of the ROTR?

But who in their right mind would equate TV ads with sufficient driver education? And who is in a real position to change how drivers are educated? No, of course an ad on TV for every rule of the road isn't the answer because ads on TV don't serve as proper methods of education for anything. The fact that they put a TV presenter 'in charge' of the RSA kind of points to the root of the problem we have in this country.

Atomic Pineapple

Lack of driver education and lack of ROTR enforcement along with the anti speed campaign has caused bad driving like this in my opinion, you also have people on motorways doing 120km/h overtaking a car doing 118km/h and taking ages to get by because they are too afraid to tip over the limit and return back to the limit after getting by for fear of getting a fine and points. Its bred a ridiculous culture of "if your not speeding, your a good driver".

munchkin_utd

Paddy@CIRL wrote: »

There's a reason they're called acceleration / deceleration lanes in Germany ...

+1

the Irish rules of the road actually also use that terminology though

Use the acceleration lane to build up your speed before merging into traffic on the motorway.

and similarly for exiting the motorway.

http://www.rotr.ie/pdf-downloads/english/rules-of-the-road%20eng.pdf
from page 119

yizorselves

No fear of that here. Boot it onto the motorway and cut across the ghost island if nothings nearby behind awww yeeeaaahh!!!

Seweryn

draffodx wrote: »

you also have people on motorways doing 120km/h overtaking a car doing 118km/h and taking ages to get by because they are too afraid to tip over the limit and return back to the limit after getting by for fear of getting a fine and points.

That is what is wrong with most of people... No patience. We seem to lost it all. Driving over speed limit is illegal no matter you are overtaking or not.

Bruthal

Tallon wrote: »

Answer the question then, do you want to see an ad on TV for every single rule on all 232 pages of the ROTR?

I dont think anyone needs to refer to the rules of the road for the exceptionally simple concept of driving down the ramp, and accelerating to motorway speed, in order to enable smooth merging.

I too find this very annoying. You then see them unable to merge without causing interruption to everyone around them.

And the most annoying thing about it is, how difficult is it to then learn why they struggle to merge each time they enter a motorway?

CR 7

The rsa seem to be doing their best to teach people the opposite, that traffic in the driving lane must give them right of way and move to the overtaking lane. So now they just roll along at whatever speed they want and just move out, without looking, at the end of the merging lane.

Atomic Pineapple

Seweryn wrote: »

That is what is wrong with most of people... No patience. We seem to lost it all. Driving over speed limit is illegal no matter you are overtaking or not.

Never said it wasn't illegal, I'm saying it shouldn't be illegal to break a limit to safely and quickly pass a car, it doesn't make sense to punish someone for driving safely just because they break a posted limit.

What has patience got to do with it either? If cars quickly overtake and move back into the driving lane then motorways become safer and more efficient.

Stark

Seweryn wrote: »

That is what is wrong with most of people... No patience. We seem to lost it all. Driving over speed limit is illegal no matter you are overtaking or not.

Speed limit or no speed limit, plonking yourself next to someone for 10 mins and blocking two lanes is just bad driving. They banned lorries from using the overtaking lane because too many of them were acting the maggot in this regard. If the car in front of you is doing 1km/hr slower than you and you don't want to overtake promptly for whatever reason, then don't overtake at all.

Akrasia

robbie7730 wrote: »

I dont think anyone needs to refer to the rules of the road for the exceptionally simple concept of driving down the ramp, and accelerating to motorway speed, in order to enable smooth merging.

I too find this very annoying. You then see them unable to merge without causing interruption to everyone around them.

And the most annoying thing about it is, how difficult is it to then learn why they struggle to merge each time they enter a motorway?

The worst thing is that because the idiot at the front is driving too slow, it causes cars behind (who are trying to accelerate to the correct speed) to bunch up behind them and then instead of 1 car joining the motorway at 100-120kph, there are 4 cars joining the motorway at 80kph, and some of those cars will try to cross directly into the overtaking lane to get past the slow driver at the front. It's a very dangerous situation.

creedp

Stark wrote: »

Speed limit or no speed limit, plonking yourself next to someone for 10 mins and blocking two lanes is just bad driving. They banned lorries from using the overtaking lane because too many of them were acting the maggot in this regard. If the car in front of you is doing 1km/hr slower than you and you don't want to overtake promptly for whatever reason, then don't overtake at all.

Add that to the list of ROTR that are not enforced. I see it everyday on the M1 and no one bads an eyelid. Its not like its not obvious! Actually in any case I don't agree with that rule because why enfore a speed limit on a truck that is dependant on the guy in front. Does anyone think it is reasonable that a truck has to remain behind a 50kmph vehicle on a motorway for km's on end when he could safetly overtake and be on his way! Madness! This is another case of a rule implemented because it exists elsewhere without considering that it applies to 3 lane motorways in other jurisdictions. I've no problem with this applying to the outside lane of a 3 lane motorway but it makes no sense on a 2 lane motorway. Imagine the stupidty of a rule which says you can't overtake on a motorway but you can on a single lane carriageway .. its no wonder people ignore ROTR!

Bruthal

Akrasia wrote: »

The worst thing is that because the idiot at the front is driving too slow, it causes cars behind (who are trying to accelerate to the correct speed) to bunch up behind them and then instead of 1 car joining the motorway at 100-120kph, there are 4 cars joining the motorway at 80kph, and some of those cars will try to cross directly into the overtaking lane to get past the slow driver at the front. It's a very dangerous situation.

Common sense goes out the window with many as soon as they get into a car. Or maybe its a case of common sense just not being as common as its name suggests, and this is displayed by the individuals lacking it, in public while drivinng.

seagull

They need to introduce mandatory motorway driving lessons before you can get your license.

SuperGrover

Donabate to M1 Southbound last weekend... A Micra driver in front of me regularly tapping the brakes on the way down the sliproad, apparently to keep their speed at 40 kmh or thereabouts. I cried a little.

bbuzz

If I think that the car in front is not going to join at a high enough speed I normally hang back at the top of the on-ramp and then put the foot down. You end up overtaking the car in front just as they join the mainline.

Having said that I always have trouble getting on the M50 southbound at the red cow coming from Naas, but I think that's because of the junction design.

keithclancy

Seweryn wrote: »

That is what is wrong with most of people... No patience. We seem to lost it all. Driving over speed limit is illegal no matter you are overtaking or not.

F*ck the speed limit, I'll observe that once i've safely joined the Motorway.

cjt156

Seweryn wrote: »

That is what is wrong with most of people... No patience. We seem to lost it all. Driving over speed limit is illegal no matter you are overtaking or not.

Oh yeah? So its more important to drive legally than safely?

So the doofus doing 40km/h trying to merge with 120km/h traffic is preferable to someone overtaking at 130km/h, pulling back in & dropping back to 120km/h?

Gregor Samsa

seagull wrote: »

They need to introduce mandatory motorway driving lessons before you can get your license.

It would be a bit difficult for the people in Donegal who are at least 100 miles from the nearest motorway.

Atomic Pineapple

phutyle wrote: »

It would be a bit difficult for the people in Donegal who are at least 100 miles from the nearest motorway.

Dual carriageways can be used to teach and test in the same manner if required and failing that simulation capsules should be provided to teach and test.

Cessna_Pilot

Slip road from Sandyford industrial estate on to the M50 southbound is a place typical of these downright dangerous drivers. There's two lanes on it, and of course the people in the outside one are doing 40km with their heads rested on the steering wheel.
Many times I have come down that slip road and have to drop into the inside lane of the sliproad as some idiot slams their brakes on in case they go over 50kph!
They should all be taken off the road and re taught, at their own expense. Then retest them and if they fail, ban them from driving and bubble wrap them because they clearly shouldn't be out in public as they're such a risk!

Not

F-Stop wrote: »

But who in their right mind would equate TV ads with sufficient driver education? And who is in a real position to change how drivers are educated? No, of course an ad on TV for every rule of the road isn't the answer because ads on TV don't serve as proper methods of education for anything. The fact that they put a TV presenter 'in charge' of the RSA kind of points to the root of the problem we have in this country.

But people do pay attention to these adverts. Two or three years ago the RSA brought out an ad to teach people how to use a roundabout properly. As part of that ad, they showed an animation of how to use indicators on a roundabout if turning right. The animation showed the car indicating right as it approached the roundabout, and continuing to do so as it went around the roundabout. Then, if you looked very closely, for a split second the animation showed the car indicator switching to left as the car departed the roundabout, but it was very very easy to miss. Result - now it seems it's the done thing to continue indicating right when exiting a roundabout if the exit is to the right of the approach entered by - this was something I had never seen happening until that ad came out.

As for the motorway driving ad that encourages people to move out to allow drivers merge in, I do think this has the potential to contribute to motorists behaving like they have the right of way when pottering into traffic moving twice their speed from an on ramp, a behaviour which has lead to me having to take evasive action on numerous occassions.

I believe traffic on the motorway should be as courteous as possible to help merging traffic filter in, but if a filtering vehicle is moving too slowly, it's just not safe to brake in traffic to facilitate it and often at the same time theres faster traffic passing on the right making moving out not an option, however in most of these cases the slower driver just barges in anyway like they have the right of way resulting in emergency braking in the traffic.

The worst case I have experienced, I, and several others, were nearly killed a few years ago by some idiot who pulled staight into the motorway lane on top of me from almost stationary as I was passing him in a traffic flow at 70mph - three cars do fit across two lanes, just about - the driver to my right was doing about a ton and almost ended up going across the central reservation which at the time only had a few bushes to keep him out of the oncoming carrageway.

I have also experinced being stuck behind the driver doing 40 km/h on the motorway entrance ramp, it difficult to believe but its no exaggeration, it does happen, people do go down motorway ramps and try to filter at that speed :eek::eek: The big problem is that if they are filtering at 40km/h into motorway traffic, you too are forced to filter at 40 km/h into traffic moving at 120+km/h with a lump of metal in front of you preventing you from speeding up, which is bloody scary, in particular when the traffic is coming out of a low winter morning sun.

Henry Ford III

Something I've noticed is the seeming inabilty of the existing traffic in lane 1 to move into an empty lane 2 when traffic on an acceleration lane is trying to enter the motorway.

It's pretty ignorant.