Are Irish drivers slow off the mark?

ballooba

One thing I've noticed about Irish traffic since returning from overseas is that people seem to be slow off the mark at traffic lights. This also applies to taking corners. Are Irish drivers slow off the mark or am I imagining it? It seems like a lot of the congestion in Dublin is caused by this.

Matt Simis

ballooba wrote: »

One thing I've noticed about Irish traffic since returning from overseas is that people seem to be slow off the mark at traffic lights. This also applies to taking corners. Are Irish drivers slow off the mark or am I imagining it? It seems like a lot of the congestion in Dublin is caused by this.

Irish drivers drive slow, underpowered crap, generally poorly maintained on bald tyres, they are doing the best they can. You jerk.

We also dont have the change to amber before green system the UK has. Or the deluge of easy/fast off the line Autos like the US.

Sobanek

ballooba wrote: »

One thing I've noticed about Irish traffic since returning from overseas is that people seem to be slow off the mark at traffic lights. This also applies to taking corners. Are Irish drivers slow off the mark or am I imagining it? It seems like a lot of the congestion in Dublin is caused by this.

Yeah, there's a lot of sleepy heads on the road every morning. Annoys me every time I've to stop at the traffic lights. Light turns green and the eejit won't move for another 5-7 seconds...

tossy

Sobanek wrote: »

Yeah, there's a lot of sleepy heads on the road every morning. Annoys me every time I've to stop at the traffic lights. Light turns green and the eejit won't move for another 5-7 seconds...

Does that 5 to 7 seconds include 5 and 7 or is it just 6 seconds? If it's just 6 seconds then i think you are over reacting,but if it's 5 to 7 seconds (including 5 and 7) then i feel your pain,5 to 7 seconds can make such a difference to my day :rolleyes:

SuprSi

Well considering the amount of people that rush through changing lights the delay is probably a self-defence thing to allow them through without crashing!

Sobanek

tossy wrote: »

Does that 5 to 7 seconds include 5 and 7 or is it just 6 seconds? If it's just 6 seconds then i think you are over reacting,but if it's 5 to 7 seconds (including 5 and 7) then i feel your pain,5 to 7 seconds can make such a difference to my day :rolleyes:

When the queue is 15 cars long and the traffic lights are really short, it can make a 20-25 minutes difference.

Davidth88

It used to drive me mad when I first moved here from the UK .

Then I realised what it was , there is no red/amber phase on Irish lights , they got from red directly to green

Means that you lose about 4-5 secs of each phase


If someone somewhere could explain why this is so I would be interested

Heroditas

ballooba wrote: »

One thing I've noticed about Irish traffic since returning from overseas is that people seem to be slow off the mark at traffic lights. This also applies to taking corners. Are Irish drivers slow off the mark or am I imagining it? It seems like a lot of the congestion in Dublin is caused by this.

Ever seen American drivers take right-hand corners?

tossy

Sobanek wrote: »

When the queue is 15 cars long and the traffic lights are really short, it can make a 20-25 minutes difference.

I agree,the attitude to the lights going green should be that of an F1 starting grid.how long is acceptable in your head?

tossy

Davidth88 wrote: »

It used to drive me mad when I first moved here from the UK .

Then I realised what it was , there is no red/amber phase on Irish lights , they got from red directly to green

Means that you lose about 4-5 secs of each phase


If someone somewhere could explain why this is so I would be interested

Lets be honest this is IRELAND if we introduced the amber before green system people would just drive off on amber and we all know that is a fact

I.S.T.

ballooba wrote: »

One thing I've noticed about Irish traffic since returning from overseas is that people seem to be slow off the mark at traffic lights. This also applies to taking corners. Are Irish drivers slow off the mark or am I imagining it? It seems like a lot of the congestion in Dublin is caused by this.

I agree, Irish drivers are very dozy at traffic lights. From driving in the UK the difference is very noticeable. One think about the UK is the lights don't stay red for very long. You would not have time to write a text message for example, so people have no choice but to watch the lights and be prepared for the green.

dr.fuzzenstein

I think a lot of Irish drivers have quite a hesitant and wimpish driving style.
They don't like to accelerate, break or corner too much.
It gets drilled into your head that Speed Kills and that is all that matters.
The end result is that you get a lot of people driving really slow, so it doesn't matter if they drive badly.
Now, I am flying to Memmingen tomorrow, drive around the area there a bit and drive up to Frankfurt and back on Thursday, so I can say more about this later on in the week.
Down the Allgau region it wouldn't be hugely different to here, a lot of mostly elderly tourists from all over are driving around for their holidays, mostly going at 30 km/h whilst looking at the scenery.
But around urban centers like Frankfurt you will get a lot of commuters and business travelers, so I'd expect them to move quite smartly and me in my poor little rental POS Ka probably getting bullied quite a lot.
All I do remember is driving through Germany, France, Italy and some other countries and their driving style could mostly be considered on the sharper side.
If you're here, just get a 1.4 Golf or Focus like everyone else and take two Valium, then you drive like most of the rest.:p

CiniO

ballooba wrote: »

One thing I've noticed about Irish traffic since returning from overseas is that people seem to be slow off the mark at traffic lights. This also applies to taking corners. Are Irish drivers slow off the mark or am I imagining it? It seems like a lot of the congestion in Dublin is caused by this.

Yes. Irish people seem to be more slacky for starting off from green light, but that might be due to lack of amber light before green, which is common all over EU.

I didn't notice anything about the corners. Even opposite. People on country roads seem to be going through the corners pretty quickly.

secretambition

I think one reason is the lower volume of cars on the road. If you drive in congested cities, you're ready to go the second your chance comes because if you don't you'll miss it. I'm thinking specifically of waiting for a gap in traffic to join a large road from a side road, or going onto a roundabout. I think pedestrians are equally casual in Ireland, crossing where they like and expecting cars to slow down. They would not try it if the roads were busier.

ballooba

ballooba wrote: »

One thing I've noticed about Irish traffic since returning from overseas is that people seem to be slow off the mark at traffic lights. This also applies to taking corners. Are Irish drivers slow off the mark or am I imagining it? It seems like a lot of the congestion in Dublin is caused by this.

Do you have any idea how low your MPG goes for those first few seconds if you take off fast?! It could mean the difference between 15mpg and 4mpg for those 4-5 seconds! GOD.

mikemac1

In Ireland, amber means put the boot down and get through

Drive a bike and I know the sequences on my route so I can be gone the instant the lights change so I don't slow anyone.
But even that is dodgy, red light breakers can come flying across you.

Doesn't happen that often but it definitely happens

probably because of the people who think orange/red means "just one more car through, i'll chance it", so people are slow to take off in case they get rammed

duno
i'm always keeping an eye on the opposing lights so i can take off quickly

soupdrinker

Likewise I always keep my eye on the opposing lights so am ready to take off when they go green, but then usually have to wait while about 4 cars that have broken the red light go through the junction!

doolox

There is a driving style which uses traffic lights and the road in general in a punctual manner. Off at green in one or two seconds. Upt to rated speed limit in 5 seconds at least. Keeping for at least 5kph under to 5 kph over the posted speed limit. Keeping to the left lane as much as possible to let faster traffic by if possible.Timely indication when turning right and pulling out as much to the white line where possible to allow ongoing traffic by.

Three bigger sinners are apparent. Speeders who go more than 20kph over posted speed limit and tailgaters and speed limit dictators who hug the white line at 10-20 kph below the posted speed limit in good conditions and a road wide enough to let faster traffic by. One feeds the anger and frustrations of the other.

There are worse drivers than the Irish, Tunisia and Portugal come to mind but we are unfortunate to be beside some of the best, UK( speed limits and lane discipline) and France ( consideration for bikes and other vulnerable vehicles) so we suffer by comparison.

kevohmsford

A lot of people, including my parents, leave the car in neutral when stopped at lights. I was thought anyway to leave the car in first when stopped for short periods at lights. This speeds things up a good bit.
Another things I notice a lot is people braking going around corners.

eth0

Rabble rabble rabble, everything's better abroad!

Zubeneschamali

kevohmsford wrote: »

A lot of people, including my parents, leave the car in neutral when stopped at lights.

I always stick on the handbrake and go into neutral. This doesn't slow me down at all, I keep an eye on the lights and move off briskly.

Particularly irritating slowpokes are the guys who never really stop at all, they slow to a crawl, inch forward on the clutch towards the red light, then the light goes green, and the feckers don't notice until someone beeps them out of it!

af_thefragile

You never saw me driving OP haven't you?...


Although you do have to be careful. One thing I learnt from driving here is never assume anything! Just because the signal has turned green doesn't mean no one will be coming from the other side and crash into you...

eagerv

Its because most of us are driving Diesels which seem to take for ever to spool up to a reasonable torque level.

ballsymchugh

Davidth88 wrote: »

It used to drive me mad when I first moved here from the UK .

Then I realised what it was , there is no red/amber phase on Irish lights , they got from red directly to green

Means that you lose about 4-5 secs of each phase


If someone somewhere could explain why this is so I would be interested

i think that red to amber before green was for colour blind people. away with you and your foreign dodgy eyes!

Bannasidhe

mikemac1 wrote: »

In Ireland, amber means put the boot down and get through

Drive a bike and I know the sequences on my route so I can be gone the instant the lights change so I don't slow anyone.
But even that is dodgy, red light breakers can come flying across you.

Doesn't happen that often but it definitely happens

It can be bloody terrifying on a bike at lights. Light goes green. Bike goes. Bike narrowly missed by car who broke red light. A friend of mine had her hip crushed by a truck who plowed into her bike after breaking a red light - and the driver of the truck tried to claim off her insurance for whiplash!

shedweller

Sobanek wrote: »

ballooba wrote: »

One thing I've noticed about Irish traffic since returning from overseas is that people seem to be slow off the mark at traffic lights. This also applies to taking corners. Are Irish drivers slow off the mark or am I imagining it? It seems like a lot of the congestion in Dublin is caused by this.

Yeah, there's a lot of sleepy heads on the road every morning. Annoys me every time I've to stop at the traffic lights. Light turns green and the eejit won't move for another 5-7 seconds...

Thats bad enough, but when every car in the line behind the first car does the exact same thing, it really gets annoying.

bazz26

What's the big hurry?

ballooba

tossy wrote: »

Lets be honest this is IRELAND if we introduced the amber before green system people would just drive off on amber and we all know that is a fact

Not to mention the cultural significance of the colours.

My camper with 130 PS that weighs over 3 tons loaded is apparently one of the fastest accelerating vehicles around when driving in Ireland. In France it is definitely not.

Enough said :-)

langdang

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Particularly irritating slowpokes are the guys who never really stop at all, they slow to a crawl, inch forward on the clutch towards the red light, then the light goes green, and the feckers don't notice until someone beeps them out of it!

Closely related to the stop-starters, who have no concept of momentum.

RED light = crap, better stop. Let me see if I can get this braking thing right this time.

Oh, I'm stopped 20m behind the car ahead. Better shuffle up.

Oh, I'm getting fierce close now, better stop.

Oh, I'm stopped 10m behind the car ahead. Better shuffle up.

etc etc

firefly08

OP, where overseas were you? If you think Dublin drivers are slow you should come to the States for a while.You'd think the human life span is 500 years the way they drive here.

Pottler

Try the dozy start in France and you'd get blown out of it-the horns definitly work there anyway. Not alone do the dozys here take seconds to see the lights changed, every car behind does the same, it's like an accordion. If most Irish motorists had to drive in Paris, London or Milan, they would get run off the road by the locals for being doddery snails. Making progress seems to be an alien concept to many here and I include a lot of my own family in that category. If I'm a passenger with them, they drive me nuts - every trip seems to be their first and every junction is a lottery. On the plus side, when I get off the ferry coming home from abroad, it's like pulling into the pits at a grand prix-noticeably less frenetic but the novelty soon wears off.

_Kaiser_

DSG gearbox for the win here. It's like I'm driving an F1 car pulling away from the lights most of the time as the rest of them fade into the distance

carbon nanotube

ballooba wrote: »

One thing I've noticed about Irish traffic since returning from overseas is that people seem to be slow off the mark at traffic lights. This also applies to taking corners. Are Irish drivers slow off the mark or am I imagining it? It seems like a lot of the congestion in Dublin is caused by this.

i noticed this years ago, i have long left Ireland. driving in Ireland is a 'mare.

Guy:Incognito

Davidth88 wrote: »

It used to drive me mad when I first moved here from the UK .

Then I realised what it was , there is no red/amber phase on Irish lights , they got from red directly to green

Means that you lose about 4-5 secs of each phase


If someone somewhere could explain why this is so I would be interested

At most lights you can see some of the lights for other directions. If you keep an eye on the other lights and the traffic, you can almost always be ready to go on green. It's not difficult. Peopel just sit at the lights much the same way they drive, oblivious to whats going on around them.

tossy wrote: »

Lets be honest this is IRELAND if we introduced the amber before green system people would just drive off on amber and we all know that is a fact

Nothing got to do with IRELAND. Everywhere I've driven in the UK the cars are off and moving on amber.

Voodoomelon

It's not the late moving off at lights that annoys me, its the gimps 10 cars back that only get ready to move off when the car in front moves.

So the lights are green for a good 9-10 seconds and gimpston in front is daydreaming, not only misses the green light, misses the fact that the car infront has already moved off. Eventually cops on, releases the handbrake, sticks her in gear and trundles off through the amber light, leaving me and 3 other cars behind spluttering in fury!

AHHHHH!

MetzgerMeister

I think every car in the country should be fitted with launch control. Problem solved

mb1725

alias no.9

Sacramento wrote: »

Do you have any idea how low your MPG goes for those first few seconds if you take off fast?! It could mean the difference between 15mpg and 4mpg for those 4-5 seconds! GOD.

An extra 30 minutes idling will probably be worse for your mpg than a 4 or 5 second burst of 4mpg.

alias no.9

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

At most lights you can see some of the lights for other directions. If you keep an eye on the other lights and the traffic, you can almost always be ready to go on green. It's not difficult. Peopel just sit at the lights much the same way they drive, oblivious to whats going on around them.

The delay in the guys moving off when they get a green also encourages the 5 second rule on red brigade as they see this delay as their safety margin. Its a self fulfilling prophecy.

ninty9er

Anyone who had a decent driving instructor will know that it doesn't take too much effort to keep an eye on the amber of the crossing traffic (tough on bright days) and get ready to move off.

The argument that no amber before green is disastrous doesn't particularly stack up if drivers are properly instructed. In the UK people sometimes drive on amber too, but I can't see it making a vast difference here. The drivers are the problem, not the traffic management.

Victor Meldrew

Matt Simis wrote: »

Irish drivers drive slow, underpowered crap, generally poorly maintained on bald tyres, they are doing the best they can. You jerk.

We also dont have the change to amber before green system the UK has. Or the deluge of easy/fast off the line Autos like the US.

When I was in the US on the J1 in the mid 90's I was amazed at what constituted a valid opening into which you would enter traffic flow.

then I was given an introduction to a 4.7L V8 auto and it all made sense...

Coupled with cheap gas...

At the moment, I can eek 8.9l/100km (32mpg) from the 1.8 petrol doing nothing but suburban short hop cold engine driving.

If I drove like a yank I'd be in the low 20 mpg band... and be killing my car.

There is a role here for hybrids or soft hybrids to deal with the 0-30km/h space.

dr.fuzzenstein

Just a little add-on to this thread. Just back from Germany (Well, Sunday, but only now have time to write). I have driven 500 km in Ireland to get to and from the airport and 800 km in Germany to get to an interview.
Specifically on motorways Germans are way more aggressive.
Lots of lane-hopping, lots of bad lane hopping and a lot of people driving without any forward planning whatsoever.
I.e. if I see someone pull out to overtake ahead of me I take my foot of the gas and gradually slow down without braking to match his speed (or speed up even) and speed up again once he pulled in. And most people are careful when they pull out.
There people just pull out anyway (nearly got mashed by trucks on several occasions), while the guy in the overtaking lane seems to maintain his speed and only mashes the brakes 5 meters behind the other guy.
This leads to something you don't see very often on Irish motorways: The concertina effect.
Meaning that you could be driving along at 140 km/h and, without any warning whatsoever, traffic ahead of you comes to a complete and shuddering stop, forcing you to jump on the brakes and hope you make it and likewise for everyone behind you.
There is a more gradual driving style on Irish motorways, I have never encountered a concertina effect as bad as in Germany. And maybe there are also just less cars on them, in Germany you can sit in the same spot for half an hour, not moving and you know there's sometimes up to 100 km of traffic jam ahead of you.
So all in all it's not that bad.

P.S:
For a good scare, use the A8 from Ulm to Karlsruhe. You will find trucks moving on top of you, giving you the choice of moving or being crushed, cars pulling out ahead of you with no warning, traffic like you will never have seen in this country, miles and miles of roadworks, traffic coming to a complete stop from 140 km/h within meters and seriously silly speedlimits. (60 km/h for some roadworks)

pred racer

Just to dispute the amber before green argument, they use the same sequence as us here in paris and if your car isnt moving within a millisecond of green you're gonna get blown out of it. Plus there is normally a bike beside you that is in the next county by the time the lights have finished changing:D
So an amber light wont change anything, a few french drivers and a horde of bikes/scooters might.

But once you get out of the paris its exactly the same as home:rolleyes:

Jimmy Bottlehead

Sacramento wrote: »

Do you have any idea how low your MPG goes for those first few seconds if you take off fast?! It could mean the difference between 15mpg and 4mpg for those 4-5 seconds! GOD.

That's why you should buy a diesel, unlimited torque and 168MPG.

pdmc

ballooba wrote: »

One thing I've noticed about Irish traffic since returning from overseas is that people seem to be slow off the mark at traffic lights. This also applies to taking corners. Are Irish drivers slow off the mark or am I imagining it? It seems like a lot of the congestion in Dublin is caused by this.

The majority are hopelessly so, yes. I think there is a really strong arguement FOR an amber traffic light signal before the light turns green, as employed by the UK, as it appears that the Irish are generally at best dim-witted and at worst completely oblivious and incapable of 'anticipation'! If I were a driving tester I'd fail people for this if I could. Same goes for respecting the yellow junction boxes, yielding on roundabouts, dithering for too long on roundabouts, WAITING for something to come on roundabouts - etc.

As for taking corners at a snails pace, I find that the horn works wonders to assist other motorists with completing this highly complex and infamously dangerous manoeuvre. It's like a cornering turbo for their car - controlled from your own steering wheel.

I have a theory about bad driving in general. If you're not interested in something, you will not be good at it precisely because you do not have the interest to either perfect your skills or take pride in your ability to do it well. For example, I have aboslutely no interest in football and I would never embarrass myself by even attempting to play even for fun - I'll leave that to those who enjoy it. However, I do have an interest in cars and driving, so consequently I take pride in both my car and my ability to drive it properly.

Veloce

Pottler wrote: »

Try the dozy start in France and you'd get blown out of it-the horns definitly work there anyway. Not alone do the dozys here take seconds to see the lights changed, every car behind does the same, it's like an accordion. If most Irish motorists had to drive in Paris, London or Milan, they would get run off the road by the locals for being doddery Osnails. Making progress seems to be an alien concept to many here and I include a lot of my own family in that category. If I'm a passenger with them, they drive me nuts - every trip seems to be their first and every junction is a lottery. On the plus side, when I get off the ferry coming home from abroad, it's like pulling into the pits at a grand prix-noticeably less frenetic but the novelty soon wears off.

If you blew the horn at a slow starter here in Ireland you would more than likely get the finger stuck up at you.

I have missed countless green (or yellow!) lights as a result of someone being slow to move off. It can get get very frustrating.

bjak

Once saw the car in front me being hit very hard on the side by a seriously late red-light jumper. Up to that point I would have been in a hurry off the green light .. not any more tho. Especially wary when buildings etc. obscure my view of the junction / approaching traffic even on a green light. Nothing like seeing various fatal road collission incidents over the years, or a 4 year old child run out in front of your car etc. etc. to calm your inner italian driving style.

For all of you in a serious hurry off the lights, where's the fire? Traffic lights are rarely in sequence so you are usually only racing off to the next red light anyway.

I agree that driving standards in Ireland are poor - all the more reason to be wary.

If you want to race, go to Mondello.

@pdmc. Blow your horn enough times at other road users and you will eventually meet someone who will do a lot more than stick their finger up at you. Lots of people out there under severe pressure at the moment, you only need to meet one who snaps back.

whomitconcerns

In Romania most traffic lights are in line with the front of the traffic, so people automatically beep the front car as you cant actually see the lights if at the line. And if you don't go off like a rocket you will have someone on your bumper within a second!

Chris_Heilong

Ireland has an attitude that the horn is the equivalent to insulting someone verbally, unlike other countries where the horn is over-used, I am not sure if it is a good or a bad thing, I usually use the horn if the lights have gone green and the car in front has not moved after 5 seconds but I always press it very lightly trying not to offend.