Can't wait to get back to the terrible Irish drivers

Bepolite

Over in blighty for Xmas to see the in-laws, out laws and my own folks. Doing the run from Manchester to Oxford along the M6... bloody hell people are mental. Highlights included:

People reading books, tablets and mobiles on the steering wheel in the inside and in one case middle lane. Middle lane man was tailgating the car infront! :eek:

Morons cruising in the middle lane - unbelievable what a hold up this can create.

Undertaking (which I hate anyway but...) with absolutely no reason to undertake.

Can't wait to get back to Irish roads where I at least can take a guess as to what people are going to do!

Truckermal

We are better driver's like we can read books, tablets and use the phone in the FAST lane..:D

Bepolite

Truckermal wrote: »

We are better driver's like we can read books, tablets and use the phone in the FAST lane..:D

LOL - I had meant to put 'terrible' in quotes.

corktina

my experience is the exact opposite. I think they do flippin well over there considering they have about ten time the traffic.

Marcusm

Think that's bad, I'm experiencing Portugal for the first time. Middle lane is principal driving lane, mandatory SMSing, tailgate to 5 feet at 140km/h in outside lane in pouring rain and high winds. Then add Swiss drivers, of which there are planets, doing 170 minimum it seems. Have seen plenty of small shunts.

Mo60

Bepolite wrote: »

Can't wait to get back to Irish roads where I at least can take a guess as to what people are going to do!

But they only do what you have quoted about the UK - only more often.

I have driven both here and the UK and I know where I feel safer, even though there are far more vehicles.

ninty9er

My UK motorway experience is the same as the OP. I do find them to be better around town though.

Leonard Hofstadter

Another +1 on this. I don't think the standard of driving in the UK is anything to write home about, it's hardly any better than in Ireland. The one good thing is they don't dawdle on the motorways over there, you'll be left for dead on a (mainland) UK motorway doing anything less than 80 mph / 130 kph.

Bepolite

captainspeed wrote: »

Another +1 on this. I don't think the standard of driving in the UK is anything to write home about, it's hardly any better than in Ireland. The one good thing is they don't dawdle on the motorways over there, you'll be left for dead on a (mainland) UK motorway doing anything less than 80 mph / 130 kph.

Maybe because of the time of year but people where faffing about. 80MPH was about the max anyone was doing.

Days 298

captainspeed wrote: »

Another +1 on this. I don't think the standard of driving in the UK is anything to write home about, it's hardly any better than in Ireland. The one good thing is they don't dawdle on the motorways over there, you'll be left for dead on a (mainland) UK motorway doing anything less than 80 mph / 130 kph.

Call bollocks on that. Plenty do the speed limit or less on the motorway. They have average speed cameras too.

Bepolite

Days 298 wrote: »

Call bollocks on that. Plenty do the speed limit or less on the motorway. They have average speed cameras too.

I was surprised myself, you normally get going in the outside lane, not that the wife will let me in the outside lane when she's in the car

corktina

I think some Irish drivers are intimidated by UK motorways because they haven't the experience of driving on really busy roads.

dr.fuzzenstein

Bepolite wrote: »

I was surprised myself, you normally get going in the outside lane, not that the wife will let me in the outside lane when she's in the car

Simple solution:



In case the whine coming from the passenger seat starts to get louder than the engine.
Whatever about other road users, but passengers can be ten times worse.
Kippe aus, anschnallen, Schnauze halten.

keithclancy

Bepolite wrote: »

Over in blighty for Xmas to see the in-laws, out laws and my own folks. Doing the run from Manchester to Oxford along the M6... bloody hell people are mental. Highlights included:

People reading books, tablets and mobiles on the steering wheel in the inside and in one case middle lane. Middle lane man was tailgating the car infront! :eek:

Morons cruising in the middle lane - unbelievable what a hold up this can create.

Undertaking (which I hate anyway but...) with absolutely no reason to undertake.

Can't wait to get back to Irish roads where I at least can take a guess as to what people are going to do!

Hey .... at least they were sober, I spent a week in the Belgian ardenne that^^ sounds tame in comparison

Speeding (Crazy speeding, like one of those signs that tell you your speed said the car that overtook me shortly before a small town was doing 122km/h in a 50km/h zone) this was the case pretty much every time coming back from the supermarket, most people were around 40-50km/h over the speed limit.
Drunk drivers
Park anywhere (Come around a bend and someone has just left their car in the driving lane)
Cark Park crazyness (2 lads ran into each other trying to get into a free space first, although this was technically Luxembourg)
Another guy drove the wrong was down a road and floored it when he saw cars coming off the roundabout while flashing his lights.

Drive back today via Liege was OK, the Belgians can just about manage driving in a straight line :pac::pac::pac:

grainnewhale

the driving on u.k motorways is a standard I would love irish drivers to reach.
I don't know whether its policing, more expierence or just more courteous.

kay 9

The m25 is a nice spin in the early hrs with an Irish registration. on a more serious note, I find driver's in the UK have a better understanding of cars, how to drive and maintain them. Alot of irish don't know how to open a bonnet never mind check the oil. They generally drive alot slower and cars are filthy. Apart from the caravans @ weekends UK wins. Rant over lol

CiniO

Bepolite wrote: »

Over in blighty for Xmas to see the in-laws, out laws and my own folks. Doing the run from Manchester to Oxford along the M6... bloody hell people are mental. Highlights included:

People reading books, tablets and mobiles on the steering wheel in the inside and in one case middle lane. Middle lane man was tailgating the car infront! :eek:

Morons cruising in the middle lane - unbelievable what a hold up this can create.

Undertaking (which I hate anyway but...) with absolutely no reason to undertake.

Can't wait to get back to Irish roads where I at least can take a guess as to what people are going to do!

Hmmm.
I'm currently in Poland for few weeks.
And I must say after being used to Irish driving style, I'm impressed how everything works well here in Poland.
Drivers really do obey rules of the road, which no one even dreams of obeying in Ireland. Everyone uses the correct lane, they indicate appropriately, obey road markings, etc...
Yes - there are exceptions - and mainly this is speeding, which is committed nearly by everyone. Some drivers don't keep enough distance. Irish drivers are better at those two.

But in general, after being used to Irish driving style, driving in Poland is so much easier. Once you obey the rules, you don't need to worry about people cutting in front of you, forcing right of way, etc...

In west of Ireland (where I do most of my miles) it's nearly impossible to drive 100km without encountering at least few situations where I have to react to avoid accident, just because someone cuts right in front of me, changes lane suddelnly without indicating, turns without indicating, or does anything else which is not normally expected.
Sure - people are used to drive defensively, so this kind of behaviour from other drivers doesn't cause accidents in most cases, because other drivers react appropriately.
But in Poland driving defensively is just nearly not needed, as vast majority of drivers obey the rules they should.

Just usually after 1 day driving in west of Ireland, I can cut at least few situations from my dashcam showing someone breaking the rules of the road which could lead to accident if other driver didn't react accordingly.

In Poland in last week I don't have a single one recording showing anything similar.