Appalling standard of driving among old men

Ally Dick

I don't know whether this is a new phenomenon, but it is becoming all too frequent. Old men driving extremely slowly or in an erratic manner around the place. I'm getting sick of it. The traffic levels are getting worse because more people are buying cars again, so at peak time the traffic is mental. Now when it is off peak, it's the old men causing the tailbacks with their slow ineffectual driving !

major bill

Always a 14 or 15 Reg car too

thelad95

Ally Dick wrote: »

I don't know whether this is a new phenomenon, but it is becoming all too frequent. Old men driving extremely slowly or in an erratic manner around the place. I'm getting sick of it. The traffic levels are getting worse because more people are buying cars again, so at peak time the traffic is mental. Now when it is off peak, it's the old men causing the tailbacks with their slow ineffectual driving !

A lot of them would never have sat a driving test. Obviously as you get older your judgement isn't as good as it used to be either.

Sheep Lover

It's the yummy mummy types with the people carriers and 27 kids crammed into it. That's a hazard on the road now. Although easily spotted with the stupid "baby on board" stickers and the smears of jam and chocolate on the doors.

Also, under no circumstances park beside this person, your car will be a different shape when you come back to it.

Ally Dick

thelad95 wrote: »

A lot of them would never have sat a driving test. Obviously as you get older your judgement isn't as good as it used to be either.

I used to think that women were the worst drivers, but old men take the biscuit

punisher5112

Ally Dick wrote: »

I don't know whether this is a new phenomenon, but it is becoming all too frequent. Old men driving extremely slowly or in an erratic manner around the place. I'm getting sick of it. The traffic levels are getting worse because more people are buying cars again, so at peak time the traffic is mental. Now when it is off peak, it's the old men causing the tailbacks with their slow ineffectual driving !

Reason at night is they are usually wearing glasses or nearly blind.

Reaction times get slower usually as one gets older.

I won't though as saving up to buy a Ferrari.

LadyAthame

Ally Dick wrote: »

I used to think that women were the worst drivers, but old men take the biscuit

Someone has twisted your biscuit.

doolox

I swear a man in a small Fiesta type car pulled out abruptly from a petrol station on the northbound road from Bray to Shankill in front of me and proceed painfully slowly through a green light at less tha 20 kph in a 50 kph zone then full dead stop at the (then) empty roundabout which leads onto the m50 northbound. I managed to get around him at the rdbt but I swear he joined the motorway behind me at no more than 30 kph..........

Minimum speed limit on motorways is 50 kph but most cars would find 60 - 70 kph in front of them an unexpected obstacle if their attention was distracted.

God knows what they would make of 30 kph Man in front of them.

Mint Aero

I keep misreading the title as "appalling standard of living accommodation"

The Backwards Man

I believe there should be a mandatory cut off age, no arguments, ifs or buts. A lot of it is pure pride, driving on long after they are fit because Gerry down the road is still diving away not a bother on him. Seventy five and that's your lot. I drive for a living, like my oul lad and his oul lad before him, and I hope to be off the road long before that age.

kneemos

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I believe there should be a mandatory cut off age, no arguments, ifs or buts. A lot of it is pure pride, driving on long after they are fit because Gerry down the road is still diving away not a bother on him. Seventy five and that's your lot. I drive for a living, like my oul lad and his oul lad before him, and I hope to be off the road long before that age.

What was his oul lad before him driving? a horse and cart?

doolox

you are required to do a medical and only get a 1 yr licence after 70.

The Backwards Man

kneemos wrote: »

What was his oul lad before him driving? a horse and cart?

An Austin 7 actually

hopgog

Ally Dick wrote: »

I don't know whether this is a new phenomenon, but it is becoming all too frequent. Old men driving extremely slowly or in an erratic manner around the place. I'm getting sick of it. The traffic levels are getting worse because more people are buying cars again, so at peak time the traffic is mental. Now when it is off peak, it's the old men causing the tailbacks with their slow ineffectual driving !

Old women are way worse for the slow.

RayM

It always seems really stupid that your car has to have a test every two years, but you just need to pass one test (or none at all, if you're a certain age) and you're automatically certified as 'competent' for the next forty years. All drivers, regardless of their age (or gender) should be tested every few years.

Jimminy Mc Fukhead

We cannot be too harsh. You must remember that across their whole life this generation has played virtually no computer games. Their coordination and spatial skills are massively unpracticed and undeveloped. Theyve also fallen just short of being around for the imminent self drive cars. Bad luck all round.

retro:electro

RayM wrote: »

It always seems really stupid that your car has to have a test every two years, but you just need to pass one test (or none at all, if you're a certain age) and you're automatically certified as 'competent' for the next forty years. All drivers, regardless of their age (or gender) should be tested every few years.

If it was a free test okay ya, if not fcuk right off

hopgog

RayM wrote: »

It always seems really stupid that your car has to have a test every two years, but you just need to pass one test (or none at all, if you're a certain age) and you're automatically certified as 'competent' for the next forty years. All drivers, regardless of their age (or gender) should be tested every few years.

My dad didn't even have to do a test he just asked for a licence back in the day, still driving about

K.Flyer

There are bad drivers in all catagories.
The worst drivers I see are the younger ones and the D4 execs. Male and Female, usually on the phone talking (in hand up to ear) or texting or whatever and not watching the road.
I was a front seat passenger in a car on the way back to Dublin from Limerick recently. It's rare that I'm a passenger, so I was able to take a good look at the type of drivers who eventually move over after lots of light flashing and the odd honk of the horn from the driver of our car, never mind the tirade of abuse that he hurled at some of them for hogging the outer lane as we hurtled passed some of them at over 100 mph at times. They were of all ages and gender, but so many of them oblivious to their surroundings and other road users.
The driver of our car drives hard and fast but safely, he reads the road very well and I always feel 110% safe in a car with him, even at speed well in excess of 100 mph. He has no time for crap drivers on the road and I am so surprised at how few penalty points he has for speeding.
The driver, he is my Dad, he is 74 years old and he is as sharp as a blade on the road.
Anyone who thinks "old" drivers are crap drivers would change their tune quickly after getting into a car with this "oul fella"

porsche959

Jimminy Mc Fukhead wrote: »

We cannot be too harsh. You must remember that across their whole life this generation has played virtually no computer games. Their coordination and spatial skills are massively unpracticed and undeveloped. Theyve also fallen just short of being around for the imminent self drive cars. Bad luck all round.

Personally, I'm more troubled by the generation that thinks life is a kind of computer game.

hopgog

porsche959 wrote: »

Personally, I'm more troubled by the generation that thinks life is a kind of computer game.

YOLO lets bomb down the road at 120kph, IRL RESPAWN once you don't make the bend in the road.

Junkyard Tom

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I believe there should be a mandatory cut off age ... Seventy five and that's your lot.

That would be just bad form in too many ways to list. There are plenty of entirely competent drivers who are 75+ years old.

Asides from being just wrong an arbitrary cut-off age would be political suicide for any legislator who'd even suggest it, and rightly so.

kneemos

The Backwards Man wrote: »

An Austin 7 actually

Had some of those down around here a while back while making a movie.Tiny little things that made a racket and were probably no faster than a modern racing bike.
Certainly earned his money your oul fellas oul fella.

Korat

You only notice it now because there aren't many drink drivers, there are less learners who've had no tuition at all and the roads are better.

That said, some people are bad drivers no matter how old they are.

LadyAthame

Older drivers tend be classier and have more manners.


Guess what ..I can't drive!

Kermit.de.frog

I think older people tend to be safer drivers tbh. And we younger folk are hardly ones to talk given the carnage and needless deaths amongst our cohort.

Nodster

Reminds me of the concerned daughter who phoned her elderly father on his way back from a visit to warn him after a radio report that a car was driving down the motorway the wrong way - "One of them?, theirs bloody loads of them!"

pappyodaniel

doolox wrote: »

I swear a man in a small Fiesta type car pulled out abruptly from a petrol station on the northbound road from Bray to Shankill in front of me and proceed painfully slowly through a green light at less tha 20 kph in a 50 kph zone then full dead stop at the (then) empty roundabout which leads onto the m50 northbound. I managed to get around him at the rdbt but I swear he joined the motorway behind me at no more than 30 kph..........

Minimum speed limit on motorways is 50 kph but most cars would find 60 - 70 kph in front of them an unexpected obstacle if their attention was distracted.

God knows what they would make of 30 kph Man in front of them.

I'm always amazed at these types of drivers, they have the balls to dangerously pull out onto oncoming traffic but don't have the balls to drive their car over 40kmh.

sligojoek

The amount of women in their 20s and 30s I see texting while driving with children in their cars is frightening. I often collect my two younger ones from school and I see them coming out of the car park onto a main road and texting. It's selfish and inconsiderate. It's only a matter of time before there's an accident and some poor innocent people will suffer.

ardmacha

Nodster wrote: »

Reminds me of the concerned daughter who phoned her elderly father on his way back from a visit to warn him after a radio report that a car was driving down the motorway the wrong way - "One of them?, theirs bloody loads of them!"

This is an young person's joke. The older generation would never be so irresponsible as to talk on the phone while driving.

Delicia

Jimminy Mc Fukhead wrote: »

We cannot be too harsh. You must remember that across their whole life this generation has played virtually no computer games. Their coordination and spatial skills are massively unpracticed and undeveloped. Theyve also fallen just short of being around for the imminent self drive cars. Bad luck all round.

Well, you see Jimminy (I'll be polite & call you by your first name), I learned to drive back in the good old days. We didn't have computer games then but oh golly gosh Dad said "F*ck it, it's time you drove the car". 'Need for Speed' - got it. 'Grand Theft Auto' - if Dad wasn't looking, got it. Computer games are for players, the rest of us just do it - including the odd bit of parallel parking. As for these imminent self drive cars? I heard that on Tomorrows' World 1974.

The Backwards Man

Junkyard Cat wrote: »

That would be just bad form in too many ways to list. There are plenty of entirely competent drivers who are 75+ years old.

Asides from being just wrong an arbitrary cut-off age would be political suicide for any legislator who'd even suggest it, and rightly so.

Indeed there are, but there are plenty of entirely incompetent drivers at that age too and I think this is one situation where tarring everyone with the same brush is a good idea.

hopgog

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Indeed there are, but there are plenty of entirely incompetent drivers at that age too and I think this is one situation where tarring everyone with the same brush is a good idea.

but there are plenty of entirely incompetent female drivers with kids and I think this is one situation where tarring everyone with the same brush is a good idea.

Dozer Dave

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I believe there should be a mandatory cut off age, no arguments, ifs or buts.

Life is institutionalised enough without this idiotic suggestion.

K.Flyer

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I believe there should be a mandatory cut off age, no arguments, ifs or buts.

I would be far more concerned about the drivers who fail their driving test(s) and are allowed back on the road afterwards, usually unaccompanied. ..

jimmycrackcorm

I wonder what the accident fatality stats are for these old men drivers compared to those young men in the OPS age group

LadyAthame

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I wonder what the accident fatality stats are for these old men drivers compared to those young men in the OPS age group

I think the op might have a chip on their shoulder.

Jimminy Mc Fukhead

Delicia wrote: »

Well, you see Jimminy (I'll be polite & call you by your first name), I learned to drive back in the good old days. We didn't have computer games then but oh golly gosh Dad said "F*ck it, it's time you drove the car". 'Need for Speed' - got it. 'Grand Theft Auto' - if Dad wasn't looking, got it. Computer games are for players, the rest of us just do it - including the odd bit of parallel parking. As for these imminent self drive cars? I heard that on Tomorrows' World 1974.

some of you prople would want to get a sense of humour.
did your dad tell you about that.

and they already have self drive cars. just not perfected.

the percentage of dickheads on this board is reaching epidemic proportions

LadyAthame

Jimminy Mc Fukhead wrote: »

some of you prople would want to get a sense of humour.

There is app you can download for that now. It's not very funny though. These kids today. They can type jokes they can google em ..but they can't tell em!

Dozer Dave

Jimminy Mc Fukhead wrote: »

the percentage of dickheads on this board is reaching epidemic proportions

The youth of today are gone to fuck Jimminy, bring back the sally rod.

Reminds me of this mother in law joke.

My mother in law has been driving for nearly 40 years and has never had a single accident, but she's seen hundreds of crashes!

Connemara Farmer

Ally Dick wrote: »

I don't know whether this is a new phenomenon, but it is becoming all too frequent. Old men driving extremely slowly or in an erratic manner around the place. I'm getting sick of it. The traffic levels are getting worse because more people are buying cars again, so at peak time the traffic is mental. Now when it is off peak, it's the old men causing the tailbacks with their slow ineffectual driving !

One day you will be old, no doubt you'll still be perfect then too.

titan18

Don't need to limit it to men, old women can't drive either.

namloc1980

RayM wrote: »

It always seems really stupid that your car has to have a test every two years, but you just need to pass one test (or none at all, if you're a certain age) and you're automatically certified as 'competent' for the next forty years. All drivers, regardless of their age (or gender) should be tested every few years.

For political reasons that'll never happen. By its nature older people would be more likely to fail such a test. They'd scream ageism and victimisation. No politician would dream of upsetting the grey vote like that.

El_Duderino 09

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I believe there should be a mandatory cut off age, no arguments, ifs or buts. A lot of it is pure pride, driving on long after they are fit because Gerry down the road is still diving away not a bother on him. Seventy five and that's your lot. I drive for a living, like my oul lad and his oul lad before him, and I hope to be off the road long before that age.

Why not make tests mandatory after a certain age. I'm looking at it from a social and positive aging point of view. Getting out and about is really good for old people and they should be encouraged and facilitated. If they can drive safely and can pass a test to prove it, then let them.

I wouldn't have problem with everyone having to do a test every 10 years. Driving isn't a joke and standards are changing all the time. I don't want to end up as one of those old boys driving to 2015 standards in 2045

2Bints1Joe

I's be more concerned with people using their mobiles when driving. Id love to be a Garda for a day

Sheep Lover

Sheep Lover wrote: »

It's the yummy mummy types with the people carriers and 27 kids crammed into it. That's a hazard on the road now. Although easily spotted with the stupid "baby on board" stickers and the smears of jam and chocolate on the doors.

Also, under no circumstances park beside this person, your car will be a different shape when you come back to it.

Mothers outside a school.

Lethal. Liable to do anything, will stop on pedestrian crossings, won't indicate, focussed solely on getting their kids on the doorstep.

First Up

I'll be on the M50 in about a half hour from now. I will expect to see:

-An almost empty inside lane
-Young women in the middle lane staring vacantly ahead
-A host of white vans in the middle lane with drivers on the phone
- A few boy racers lashing along in the outside lane and nipping in and out

I probably won't see many doddery old gents because they tend to be afraid of motorways but wherever they are driving, they are unlikely to be breaking as many laws as those listed above.

The Backwards Man

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Why not make tests mandatory after a certain age. I'm looking at it from a social and positive aging point of view. Getting out and about is really good for old people and they should be encouraged and facilitated. If they can drive safely and can pass a test to prove it, then let them.

I wouldn't have problem with everyone having to do a test every 10 years. Driving isn't a joke and standards are changing all the time. I don't want to end up as one of those old boys driving to 2015 standards in 2045

It's a money racket, Joe.

I'd be all for that regardless of age, be costly though.

Dublinflyer

It's the people who claim they feel safe driving at 100 mph+ that worry me. If I was to be in a accident I would prefer to be hit be someone who was just not paying attention but driving at a normal speed than some Muppet that thinks that he can read the road but has zero time to react as he was doing a speed that is far in excess of the legal limit. From time to time we all make mistakes and do something silly while driving, sometimes we may not even know we have done it as some other driver has reacted and prevented something nasty from happening. I have an advance driving licence, got it for the cheaper insurance, and when I was doing the lessons it's amazing to see how much more the instructor see's and have other peoples mistakes and your own pointed out. I always thought I was a good driver until I did this and realized I was not as good as I thought.

17larsson

Old people are generally fine at driving. It is just that they are very slow. If everyone else wasn't in such a rush there would be no problem