In France

MarkAnthony

Doing quite a bit of driving.

Done two trips to Bordeaux with a round trip of about 200 - about 150 of them on French motorways. So in 300Km I've not seen a lane hogger once, not once. They indicate, pull out, complete the over take and religiously pull back in.

I've seen the traffic snarl up once, wasn't year mans fault he wanted to bimble along at 120 and needed to overtake a lorry. Completed his over take, pulled back in, everyone pushed on.

I was sat with the Cruise control set at 140 last night on a busy motorway touched it less than half a dozen times.

Why, oh why Ireland! Why?!

I've also noticed people can drive on country roads. Okay they get up your arse a bit to make the point that you need to stay at 90, even in the turns but then they drop back, drop down a gear and are past you as soon as safe. Again, why oh why Ireland? I'm talking about rolling contryside in the South of France here, the slowest thing on the road is my Bother in law. The French are all quick off the mark and quite happy at the limit.

savagethegoat

Why? because of the lack of driving lessons and tests historically (and still the case very largely) and because of the almost total lack of enforcement.

Oh, and also because of damn bad manners.

MarkAnthony

savagethegoat wrote: »

Why? because of the lack of driving lessons and tests historically (and still the case very largely) and because of the almost total lack of enforcement.

Oh, and also because of damn bad manners.

I'm with you on enforcement and manners. To a degree lessons also. The UK can be as bad as Ireland. Perhaps not as many idiots but you still get the lane hogging dicks.

bmstuff

Proper training in France, including motorway. You are also tested on motorway during the test.
Fines are much dearer too. Proper police enforcement. If you don't pay fines, the tax office take it off your bank account end of story. Tax office has access to every single bank account. They do not need court orders. You don't pay, they take it from you.

A lot of advertisement over the years too on TV.
Cameras and average speed measures all over the place. Here at best you can cross the country and meet one speed camera if you are lucky.

I remember when I trained for my license, I was shouted at, at every single mistake, proper military style lol. Not all schools are like that of course. That would not go down at all here. But this one had 99% success rate. That paid off very well.

MarkAnthony

bmstuff wrote: »

Cameras and average speed measures all over the place. Here at best you can cross the country and meet one speed camera if you are lucky.

Ooopsie! :pac:

Perhaps I shouldn't have seen how fast the rental car would go!

Pov06

I had the same experience on the Autobahn. Everyone used lanes properly and there were no lane hoggers at all. Not sure how the driving test is structured in Germany but I wouldn't be surprised if it involves motorway driving too.

CR 7

Noticed the same myself driving across France a few years back. That is, until I encountered another Irish reg sitting in the overtaking lane.:o Normally would have just casually undertaken them, but for the sake of national pride I flashed them out of the way and shook my head disappointedly when passing.

MarkAnthony

CR 7 wrote: »

Noticed the same myself driving across France a few years back. That is, until I encountered another Irish reg sitting in the overtaking lane.:o Normally would have just casually undertaken them, but for the sake of national pride I flashed them out of the way and shook my head disappointedly when passing.

God help you when you make a mistake - you know about it lol. Parked in a stupid place and half the town came out to 'wish me on my way'.

coffeepls

Everybody knows that as soon as you pass the driving test you never need to use your indicators ever again. Middle lane hoggers? Sure as long as the engine is on anywhere up to 80 kph is fine. The middle lane is for normal driving. The left lane is for - well - nobody. The right lane is for daring people. I heard its some sort of an unspoken game - you stay in the real fast lane and see how many cars queue up behind you. I know these things from the driving I see any day on the N7 & M50.

In most European countries the driving we see here would be pulled up so fast by the police. I know of a guy who was on hols in Germany, rented a car. Not being too familiar with the car he accidentally turned on the fog light & left it on - he got a fine. Is that even listed for a fine here?

CiniO

Ireland used to give licences to drivers just because they applied at some stage.
Then until I think 2000 there was no theory tests, so you could pass a driving test without even knowing basic rules if you were lucky.
Few years ago mandatory lessons were introduced, but:
1. There's only 12 hours of them which is probably lowest number in Europe.
2. Anyone is allowed to drive on driving permit before actually attending driving lessons, so people acquire bad habbits right from the beginning.
3. Many instructors were never trained to become instructors, so possibly quality of lessons they provide might be very poor.

This all explains a lot.

F.e. in 1999 before I was allowed for driving test in Poland I had to do 20 hours lessons with instructor. It was changed to 30 hours minimum few years later.
When I applied for bus licence there, I had to do 60 hours lessons with instructor.

In Ireland I applied for truck licence, and didn't have to do a single lesson before I was allowed for a driving test.
Driving test was easy as well and didn't include many essential skills of driving.

Mc Love

When I was bringing my last car home from the UK, driving on motorway to the ferry, motorway all very civilised, everyone driving in lane one and using middle lane for overtaking, only to see two irish reg's using lane 3 for the driving lane!

MrMaki

These threads starts to be boring.
Maybe lets talk about people who park cars on roundabouts, or less than 10meters from pedestrian crossing ?

Why lane hoggers again...

dr.fuzzenstein

Pov06 wrote: »

I had the same experience on the Autobahn. Everyone used lanes properly and there were no lane hoggers at all. Not sure how the driving test is structured in Germany but I wouldn't be surprised if it involves motorway driving too.

My test didn't involve motorway, but my lessons sure did. As well as night driving, evening classes in theory, simple car maintenance, a first aid course, a medical test and without passing your theory test you can forget even sitting into a car.
I remember the motorway test, I was happy pootling along at 130 km/h when the instructor mashed the throttle (this was my very first time on the motorway, never passed 100 before) and got us up to 160 km/h. He got a great kick out of it. Did I mention the instructors name was Porsche? No really, it was!
Getting a license in Germany is no joke, but to me it's better than fart-arsing around with learner's permit for 15 years and doing 27 tests and being allowed to drive home after failing them! Then doing more "lessons" with Uncle Frank who passed his test, well, never and says things like "Yeah, of course after the test you can forget all that bollocks and start driving like you really should!"
A lot of people in Ireland also take a perverse pleasure in deliberately breaking the rules, because they all suddenly know how to behave when there's Gards about.
It's some kind of "rebel complex" to show what outlaws people are and sticking it to the man, but only when it's small stuff that's sticking it exactly to no one, except every other Joe Soap who has to suffer from these people's fcukaboutery. So we are only doing to ourselves. I say we because I've been living here for 20 years, one can't help but feel part of it.

316

CiniO wrote: »

Ireland used to give licences to drivers just because they applied at some stage.

We have Charlie Haughey to thank for that.

mikeecho

316 wrote: »

We have Charlie Haughey to thank for that.

I thought it was Sylvester Barrett.

Why does everyone blame CJ

Pov06

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

My test didn't involve motorway, but my lessons sure did. As well as night driving, evening classes in theory, simple car maintenance, a first aid course, a medical test and without passing your theory test you can forget even sitting into a car.
I remember the motorway test, I was happy pootling along at 130 km/h when the instructor mashed the throttle (this was my very first time on the motorway, never passed 100 before) and got us up to 160 km/h. He got a great kick out of it. Did I mention the instructors name was Porsche? No really, it was!
Getting a license in Germany is no joke, but to me it's better than fart-arsing around with learner's permit for 15 years and doing 27 tests and being allowed to drive home after failing them! Then doing more "lessons" with Uncle Frank who passed his test, well, never and says things like "Yeah, of course after the test you can forget all that bollocks and start driving like you really should!"
A lot of people in Ireland also take a perverse pleasure in deliberately breaking the rules, because they all suddenly know how to behave when there's Gards about.
It's some kind of "rebel complex" to show what outlaws people are and sticking it to the man, but only when it's small stuff that's sticking it exactly to no one, except every other Joe Soap who has to suffer from these people's fcukaboutery. So we are only doing to ourselves. I say we because I've been living here for 20 years, one can't help but feel part of it.

Hah.

Reminds me when my driving instructor changed the battery in his car and the digital speedo reverted back to MPH.

He came round to me to do a lesson and says "I changed the battery and the speedo broke, I think it needs diagnostics". I pressed the KMH/MPH toggle switch and it changed back to KMH. He was properly amazed and asked if I could also fix the passenger window regulator :pac:

Just goes to show how poor the driving instructors are if they cannot even understand basic car controls, never mind teaching someone lane usage.