At last!!!!

TheChizler

Drove on the M50 for the second time ever last week, quite a few times when I went to overtake they sped up to match my speed (cruise control on the whole time), so it looked like I was just sitting in the second/third lanes. Driver behavior noticeably changed once on the city side of Naas.

Pov06

TheChizler wrote: »

Drove on the M50 for the second time ever last week, quite a few times when I went to overtake they sped up to match my speed (cruise control on the whole time), so it looked like I was just sitting in the second/third lanes. Driver behavior noticeably changed once on the city side of Naas.

The M50 is probably the most horrible motorway to drive on in the country from my experience. I always enjoy the drive on the M1/2/3/7 but it's a different game on the M50.

sdanseo

TheChizler wrote: »

Drove on the M50 for the second time ever last week, quite a few times when I went to overtake they sped up to match my speed (cruise control on the whole time), so it looked like I was just sitting in the second/third lanes. Driver behavior noticeably changed once on the city side of Naas.

It's the three lanes that melts people's brains. The two lane motorway still sees a lot of hogging, but people seem to know they're doing wrong.

When it goes to three lanes, it's an "ah sure there's a lane either side for people to pass" mentality.

Celly Smunt

ofcork wrote: »

Can afford a 5 series but still doesn't know correct motorway driving!

How does income correlate with motorway discipline?

mags1962

Did you not know that those pesky bmw and audi drivers are the worst in the world and are to blame for everything bad that happens on the roads?
Sure they are always looking to overtake others that are driving at the speed limit in the fast lane anyways

challengemaster

Truckermal wrote: »

Fair play AGS!

Fair play for finally starting to do their job? o.O

It's good they're doing it, but they should have been all along.

AndyBoBandy

Pov06 wrote: »

There is no point telling drivers "don't hog the middle lane" if they don't even understand what lane hogging is.

maybe large billboards are required at the beginning and along all the motorways explaining what it is for a few years is whats required for the current drivers.

and better training/testing for the new drivers coming through.

highdef

pippip wrote: »

Just cause it had L plates doesn't mean the driver was the learner. Might have been doing something else to cause getting pulled over.

If L plates are up, the driver should be a learner. I remember seeing one of the UK police shows a few years ago. The police pulled in a car with L plates. They were going to do the learner driver for driving on the motorway. Upon speaking to the driver, he was not a learner at all and had a full licence. So instead he was done for wasting police time.

inforfun

1 penalty point for lane middle lane hogging?
NCT out is 5 points?

Can we have that the other way around please?

While a car should be tested, al clear sign of not knowing how to behave on a road should be punished harder than a car being a month out of the NCT.

_Kaiser_

Seriously, I sometimes think all you who give out about these "middle lane hoggers" never drive on 3-lane roads like the M50, because if ye did you'd understand how this is a minor consequence of much larger issues...


- People who can't merge properly.. either ridiculously slowly or even stopping dead at the end of the slip road - or the other sort who jump out over the hatch markings directly into the path of oncoming traffic in Lane 1

- People in Lane 1 who won't move over to accommodate merging when safe to do so - if even out of courtesy and common sense/personal safety!

- Dawdlers in Lane 1/2 doing 20 km/h+ lower than the limit for no good reason (no, saving fuel doesn't count, nor does the whole "it's a limit not a target" shyte.. it's a motorway not a country lane. Drive the f*ck on!)

- poor junction design like the Ballymount N merge leading directly onto one of the busiest exits in the country (the Naas Road/N7) or the Stillorgan/J14S exit beyond which the M50 becomes 2 lanes so you get a stream of cars trying to exit at the same time as trucks and others lumber across into the middle-but-soon-to-be-left lane

- Idiots undertaking (because even here there's lots of people who think it's perfectly fine!) or aggressively lane-hopping to get a few car lengths ahead

- People leaving it to the last minute to get across for their exit, or who'll even slow dramatically/stop until someone lets them across

- People changing lanes without indicating, or even looking!, or who think they can force their way over regardless. This is worse again when it's a 40 foot truck overtaking another, AKA elephant racing

- Tailgating asshats .. admittedly partly to dissuade the group above I suppose

- Honorable mention too to the eejits driving in the dark/rain (particularly with the poor drainage on the M50) with no/minimal lights.. these become practically invisible which just adds to the chaos


The M50 is impossible to use in the same manner as a "normal" motorway as a result.. mostly because of the above but also the volume of traffic and number of exits/merges that are placed over a few km (particularly the busiest stretch.. Tallaght to Blanch) but for "fun" I tried to rigidly follow the "rules" on the 3-lane stretch of the N7 recently and between all of the above carry on it was an incredibly stressful and indeed dangerous idea.

So I'll stick to my normal practise thanks.. drive at the limit/traffic flow if safe to do so and in a defensive manner, and seeing as that normally means moving faster than anything to the left I usually find myself in lane 3, while constantly overtaking a line of slower traffic beside me... but for the pedants, this is not the same as "holding up" other traffic - as above it seems that most can't even keep up with traffic nevermind overtake it.


When AGS start addressing the above (and I wouldn't be surprised if the only reason those guys on the Twitter feed were pulled was because the Gardai were speeding along in the outside lane behind them themselves) then maybe "middle lane hogging" will be a valid complaint

pippip

highdef wrote: »

If L plates are up, the driver should be a learner. I remember seeing one of the UK police shows a few years ago. The police pulled in a car with L plates. They were going to do the learner driver for driving on the motorway. Upon speaking to the driver, he was not a learner at all and had a full licence. So instead he was done for wasting police time.

No offence but I don't believe that for a second, I'd say it was laughed out of court. This has come up a few times over on the learning to drive forum and every time the answer is the same that there is nothing in the rules stating they must be taken down. The only provision given to the L plates is that they must be shown when a learner is driving.

I've seen a few things on those UK driving shows that aren't true. Sure instructors would have a hard time driving home with all the L signs on their cars.

OK a new road sign for the M50



Granted it's a UK clone but our problem is worse, yes we have the crap mergers to deal with, something that happens rarely in the UK.

pippip

pippip wrote: »

I've seen a few things on those UK driving shows that aren't true. Sure instructors would have a hard time driving home with all the L signs on their cars.

Driving school cars are usually left alone because the L plates are fixed to the car as part of the logo of the driving school. A smart lawyer would declare the signs to be an advertisement for the driving school as opposed to an "L" plate on its own, but it doubles as an "L" plate when the student is driving the car.

No copper with half a brain cell is going to try an charge a driving instructor for illegally driving with "L" plates on the car.

Of course if the driver doesn't have a full license and they're driving unaccompanied, then usual rules apply.

PeteK*

cisk wrote: »

Very simple, stay left unless overtaking. This applies to almost all road driving.

What do you actually do for slow drivers hogging lane 2 and 3 of a three lane road?

I definitely read somewhere that undertaking is only allowed when vehicles travelling in the overtaking lanes are travelling at a slower speed (than the limit, I guess). But, I imagined it's really only for when traffic is very heavy.. like M50 rush hour.

I since found this:

http://www.drivingschoolireland.com/good-driving.html#2

inforfun wrote: »

1 penalty point for lane middle lane hogging?
NCT out is 5 points?

It's 3 points for NCT, unless you end up with 5 in court.

pippip wrote: »

Just cause it had L plates doesn't mean the driver was the learner. Might have been doing something else to cause getting pulled over.

I don't think you're allowed have L-plates up if you're not a learner.

inforfun

That undertaking is allowed when traffic in your lane is faster than the others probably will not fly when the traffic goes 80 km/h but only when crawling towards a traffic light or in very heavy stop/go traffic.

v240gltse

hi all

on the N7 this morning heading to dublin and a solid line of traffic in the middle lane from the Esso station to the castlewarden exit. So I take the inside lane and pass them all and when I get to the top the lead nupty he starts flashing me and I was going the limit .

god these twats relly annoy me

Seth Brundle

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

- People who can't merge properly.. either ridiculously slowly or even stopping dead at the end of the slip road - or the other sort who jump out over the hatch markings directly into the path of oncoming traffic in Lane 1

Just to pick up on one item: sometimes it is necessary to stop at the end of a slip road if you are unablento merge e.g. the M50 S slip coming from the N4 Eastbound. The rightmost slip is short and sometimes in the mornings, traffic is busy and they won't let you in or two or three artics moving at speed and you can't realistically take your chances.
As traffic on the road has priority, traffic on the slip must stop.

CiniO

kbannon wrote: »

Just to pick up on one item: sometimes it is necessary to stop at the end of a slip road if you are unablento merge e.g. the M50 S slip coming from the N4 Eastbound. The rightmost slip is short and sometimes in the mornings, traffic is busy and they won't let you in or two or three artics moving at speed and you can't realistically take your chances.
As traffic on the road has priority, traffic on the slip must stop.

Stopping on slip road would in nearly every case be the most dangerous thing to do. Once you match the speed on vehicles on the motorway, you can nearly always merge unless there are two vehicles where one is tailgaiting by few metres at motorway speed which in my experience doesn't really happen at all.
If someone doesn't want to let me in on purpose, I always just force my self in.
Still much safer than stopping on the slip road.

frozenfrozen

I completely agree about not even considering stopping on the slip road. What do you do after you've stopped? Attempt to merge with a difference in speed of 120kmh? Reverse back up the slip and try it again? :pac:

The problem would be sorted if nobody was hogging lane 2, so people from lane 1 could move over to let you merge, or just speed up or slow down to let you merge.

Pov06

CiniO wrote: »

Stopping on slip road would in nearly every case be the most dangerous thing to do. Once you match the speed on vehicles on the motorway, you can nearly always merge unless there are two vehicles where one is tailgaiting by few metres at motorway speed which in my experience doesn't really happen at all.
If someone doesn't want to let me in on purpose, I always just force my self in.
Still much safer than stopping on the slip road.

I said this once in the motors chat thread and people thought I'm insane and don't know how to drive on the motorway :pac:

inforfun

Most of the time it is just a matter of people not looking any further than the boot of their car + 5 meter.
Almost everywhere where you have to merge you have a while to determine between which cars it is best to merge. Adjust speed, bit slower of faster to just end up there where you want to be and off you go.

But well, what can you expect when a lot of people seem actually surprised when they need to pay for shopping, when they have been waiting 15 minutes for a bus and only get their money sorted when they actually are facing the bus driver and so on and so on.
In other words, people don't prepare for the things they know that will come.

mfceiling

The morning I went to the airport on my holidays I joined the M50 at tallaght. I set the cruise control at 98kmh. From there to lucan exit I undertook 6 cars all travelling approx 80Km in the middle lane and all travelling within 6-7 car lengths from each other. Few cars in the furthermost right lane at approx 90kmh.

This was 4.50 a.m. I would have had to move from lane one to lane 3 then slow down and sit at 90kmh then hope they would move over and let me past and then I could move from lane 3 back to lane 1. I didn't....I just continued in an empty lane the entire way to the ballymun exit.

inforfun

THose are the moments you dont want to be in a car but in an A10 warthog: Brrrrrrrrrrt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvIJvPj_pjE

Pov06

inforfun wrote: »

THose are the moments you dont want to be in a car but in an A10 warthog: Brrrrrrrrrrt

Terrorist alert!!!!














Ok, maybe not :pac:

Seth Brundle

CiniO wrote: »

Stopping on slip road would in nearly every case be the most dangerous thing to do. Once you match the speed on vehicles on the motorway, you can nearly always merge unless there are two vehicles where one is tailgaiting by few metres at motorway speed which in my experience doesn't really happen at all.
If someone doesn't want to let me in on purpose, I always just force my self in.
Still much safer than stopping on the slip road.

I'm referring to some situations in rush hour when traffic is flowing at about 50km/h.
There are occasions where there is not room to merge and the only options are to stop or drive on the hatched lines. If you commute along here you would know what I'm referring to.

CiniO

kbannon wrote: »

I'm referring to some situations in rush hour when traffic is flowing at about 50km/h.
There are occasions where there is not room to merge and the only options are to stop or drive on the hatched lines. If you commute along here you would know what I'm referring to.

Well you must be doing something wrong then if you encounter such cases.
Never happened to me that there was no room to merge, and I've traveled more than half a million kilometres in my life in many countries and in different vehicles including buses and truck. Never even I had to stop on a slip road.

How long is your car? 4 metres, 5 metres? Are you seriously telling me, that at 50km/h everyone is driving not keeping that much distance between each other, so you can not squeeze in?

Seth Brundle

CiniO wrote: »

Well you must be doing something wrong then if you encounter such cases.
Never happened to me that there was no room to merge, and I've traveled more than half a million kilometres in my life in many countries and in different vehicles including buses and truck. Never even I had to stop on a slip road.

How long is your car? 4 metres, 5 metres? Are you seriously telling me, that at 50km/h everyone is driving not keeping that much distance between each other, so you can not squeeze in?

Some morning head down to the N4E/M50 and see for yourself.