Idiots on the ring road

rex-x

Maybe it's the Christmas cheer setting in :pac: but has anyone noticed an increase in the number of morons on the outer ring road?Trying to go straight through the roundabouts while in the overtaking lane, sitting in the overtaking lane all the way 'because they are turning right' or just plain ignoring the altered roundabout directions? Nearly been taken out quite a few times this week already

Wanderer2010

Im not sure about that but certainly the big roundabout down by the RSC/Aldi has its fair share of clowns- yesterday I was turning on to it and this "Friends of the Earth" big skip lorry ploughed right in front of me even though there was a tailback ahead of him which meant I had to slam on the brakes to stop hitting the back of the lorry.

I have seen a lot of bad driving in Waterford the last month, it seems absolutely everybody is on mobile phones when speeding down the road, or else texting and barely looking up, very depressing that people just aren't getting the message about this. I would literally tear a person limb from limb if they hurt a loved one as a result of them not concentrating on the road from being on the mobile phone. NOBODY is that important. :mad:

looksee

Approaching the ballindud roundabout from the cork road side and wanting to turn right, you have to get into the right lane before the bridge as the traffic approaches the roundabout so fast, in the right-hand lane, it is difficult to move across if you leave it too long. Then half of them cut across into the left turning lane at the last minute.

rex-x

The bridge is a very reasonable place to get in lane for that right turn, outside halfords however is not :eek:

kayaksurfbum

Its all over the country this time of year. I was in dublin yesterday mental driving. Saw a car stop in the middle lane of the M50, truck jacknifed trying to avoid it. Woman on the phone behind the wheel.

I beeped at a car indicating the wrong direction on the butlerstown roundabout today and she stopped the car to look at me, she was on the phone too.

More cops with cameras i say.

lertsnim

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

it seems absolutely everybody is on mobile phones when speeding down the road, or else texting and barely looking up

This!! There seems to be some load of drivers doing it lately. I really don't understand why they can't leave the phone down until the car is turned off. I'd be happy if they put the penalty points up to 6 for it and gave a big fine.

Max Powers

There are a lot of ignorant and stupid drivers out there, people texting when driving, eventually they go into a back of another car or even worse, run over someone.....couldn't wait to see the text, its younger people to blame on this one I'm afraid as older people aren't as obsessed with texting, Facebook and other such nonsense.never heard of anyone being stopped or getting points for it, I'm sure it has caused accidents and fatalities though.
Another stupid thing...warning other drivers of speed and garda vans, if they are driving recklessly,I hope they get caught.

Riva10

lertsnim wrote: »

This!! There seems to be some load of drivers doing it lately. I really don't understand why they can't leave the phone down until the car is turned off. I'd be happy if they put the penalty points up to 6 for it and gave a big fine.

Not much point putting the fine and points up when there is no one there to catch the morons on the phones

Cabaal

This is why I have a dashcam installed in my car,
Atleast if **** happens I have proof if the other driver fecking up

RubyK

Agreed, there is an increase in f*ckology on the roads of late. My two gripes are people driving up Bridge Street, who are turning off left at the Glen but don't bother indicate. Very frustrating when you are stuck in a queue at the Glen trying to turn down onto Bridge Street.

Plus, drivers on roundabouts in the right lane (so should be taking the 3rd exit, unless marked otherwise) cutting straight in on the driver in the left lane who is correctly taking the 2nd exit :mad: happens the whole time at Ballindud roundabout, from the city side heading to Tramore, especially when traffic is heavy.

Teebor15

Whats the thinking behind not having the right lane traffic go straight through? It does'nt affect left lane traffic and would decrease delays at roundabouts if both lanes were permitted to go straight which is the case at a lot of similiar setups.

Not being argumentative just curious.

BBM77

RubyK wrote: »

Agreed, there is an increase in f*ckology on the roads of late. My two gripes are people driving up Bridge Street, who are turning off left at the Glen but don't bother indicate. Very frustrating when you are stuck in a queue at the Glen trying to turn down onto Bridge Street.

Plus, drivers on roundabouts in the right lane (so should be taking the 3rd exit, unless marked otherwise) cutting straight in on the driver in the left lane who is correctly taking the 2nd exit :mad: happens the whole time at Ballindud roundabout, from the city side heading to Tramore, especially when traffic is heavy.

Plus one on that, people not indicating irritates me to. There is no excuse for it. There should be 5 penalty points given to people caught not indicating. If you are not paying enough attention to remember to indicate you should not be driving in the first place, you are dangerous. If you know you are not indicating you are just being a dick, you are dangerous and you should not be driving.

A lot of people seem to want to drive around these days and pretend they are the only one on the road. :mad:

looksee

There are quite a lot of variations on roundabouts in Waterford, but the road arrows are worn off to a large extent, and two cars length is not far enough back to show which lane you should be in - I am thinking of the Ballindud roundabout going in to town. Once you know it it is easy to understand, but if you are a stranger it is not obvious at all.

On the whole though, I think Waterford do very well with the roads, they are in much better condition than roads in Wexford and Tipp. We just need to upgrade some of the drivers.

JohnC.

I had a near miss yesterday too. I was driving down Bridge Street and someone drove straight across from The Glen to Summerhill Terrace. It's not that he didn't stop at the junction. He was stopped and then decided to just go for it, despite the traffic going down the hill.

Wanderer2010

Another awful spot is the roundabout near the Golden fry corner going into Johns Park, even after they made the lanes a bit wider you still have idiots coming from the Johns Park direction flying into the roundabout and leaving you to slam on the brakes when you are left with a tiny space (due to all the parked cars) to drive through.
Then you have the geniuses who decided to only allow left flowing traffic at the end of Ozaman Street so you are literally an inch away from all the other cars as they also allowed the traffic on Military Road to proceed- ridiculous and illogical concept.
I know its not related but why don't they do up the car park for the Holy Cross, its an absolute disgrace and the place is packed 7 days a week so they clearly have a few bob to make some repairs.

cosmos2016

Study the official R.S.A PDF document on using roundabouts on two lane dual carriage ways such as the Ring Road.

You will notice is states "Where traffic conditions dictate otherwise for example a long line of traffic in left lane signalling left or road works in the left lane, you may follow the course shown by the broken red line." (there is a diagram to illustrate this!)

It shows that you may use the right hand lane, when going straight if there is heavy traffic in the left lane. I confirmed this with a driving instructor.

So all you people getting pissed off, and the two who beeped at me furiously recently for driving in this manner... go study the rules of the road and familiarise YOURSELF with how to drive... as I'm only following the official rules.

iseegirls

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

I know its not related but why don't they do up the car park for the Holy Cross, its an absolute disgrace and the place is packed 7 days a week so they clearly have a few bob to make some repairs.

Great call there. The car park is in an absolute awful state. The potholes are massive in there, that it puts me off even going in there.

sunnysoutheast

cosmos2016 wrote: »

Study the official R.S.A PDF document on using roundabouts on two lane dual carriage ways such as the Ring Road.

You will notice is states "Where traffic conditions dictate otherwise for example a long line of traffic in left lane signalling left or road works in the left lane, you may follow the course shown by the broken red line." (there is a diagram to illustrate this!)

It shows that you may use the right hand lane, when going straight if there is heavy traffic in the left lane. I confirmed this with a driving instructor.

So all you people getting pissed off, and the two who beeped at me furiously recently for driving in this manner... go study the rules of the road and familiarise YOURSELF with how to drive... as I'm only following the official rules.

Yes but the issue is that, as a rule, the road markings, i.e. the massive arrows that only the blind can miss, on the ORR roundabouts are left lane for turning left and straight ahead, and right lane for turning right.

lertsnim

cosmos2016 wrote: »

So all you people getting pissed off, and the two who beeped at me furiously recently for driving in this manner... go study the rules of the road and familiarise YOURSELF with how to drive... as I'm only following the official rules.

If there is an arrow on the right lane pointing to the right only (as there is on the ring road) then you cannot use it to go straight on. So it is YOU that needs to familiarise yourself with the rules of the road. Your driving instructor is a spoofer if he told you that was ok.

kuang1

lertsnim wrote: »

If there is an arrow on the right lane pointing to the right only (as there is on the ring road) then you cannot use it to go straight on. So it is YOU that needs to familiarise yourself with the rules of the road. Your driving instructor is a spoofer if he told you that was ok.

Proof please?

lertsnim

Proof? Read the rules of the road. Are you incapable of doing this yourself?

MRnotlob606

Roundabout by RiverWalk is deadly too

kuang1

lertsnim wrote: »

Proof? Read the rules of the road. Are you incapable of doing this yourself?

Here you go my friend: (already posted here)

wrote:

You will notice is states "Where traffic conditions dictate otherwise for example a long line of traffic in left lane signalling left or road works in the left lane, you may follow the course shown by the broken red line."

i.e. in busy traffic situations you can enter the roundabout in the right hand lane, and take the 2nd exit into the right hand lane.

And to do so when they're are only 2/3 cars waiting in the left hand lane is not appropriate.

cosmos2016

I can't speak for the people doing it when there's 2 or 3 cars, but when i see close to or over 10 cars in a queue, I do as the rules of the road suggest I should do.

Decoda

cosmos2016 wrote: »

I can't speak for the people doing it when there's 2 or 3 cars, but when i see close to or over 10 cars in a queue, I do as the rules of the road suggest I should do.

Also from ROTR

Golden Rule
This ‘golden rule’ should help motorists to drive safely at any roundabout regardless of the number of exits:
Think of the roundabout as a clock. If taking any exit from the 6 o’clock to the 12 o’clock position, motorists
should generally approach in the left-hand lane. If taking any exit between the 12 o’clock to the 6 o’clock positions,
motorists should generally approach in the right-hand lane. If there are road markings showing you what lane you should be in,
follow those directions. Traffic conditions might sometimes mean you have to take a different approach but, in the main, the ‘golden rule’ will help you to drive safely on almost any roundabout.

Approaching a roundabout
Conditions at roundabouts may vary. When you are coming up to a
roundabout, look for directional arrows, road markings or signs which
might be indicating which lane you should use for the exit you’re taking.

spankmemunkey

http://www.rsa.ie/Documents/Road%20Safety/Leaflets/Leaf_booklets/Roundabouts_DL_2012_v3.pdf

Right side 2 paragraph down.

Going straight ahead.

I'm fairly certain there are no right turn arrows on the outer ring round about at the cork road roundabout, ballycashin roundabout six cross roads roundabout.

At Tesco Ardkeen roundabout there are arrows specifying which lane to be in and the roundabout before that.

spankmemunkey

Decoda wrote: »

Also from ROTR

. Traffic conditions might sometimes mean you have to take a different approach but, in the main, the ‘golden rule’ will help


But if the left lane is completely backed up and there are now arrows specifying you can use the right lane to go straight through.

iseegirls

cosmos2016 wrote: »

You will notice is states "Where traffic conditions dictate otherwise for example a long line of traffic in left lane signalling left or road works in the left lane, you may follow the course shown by the broken red line." (there is a diagram to illustrate this!)

But the presumption here is that every car in the left lane is turning left - which is not the case at that roundabout on the Tramore Road. How can you assume that all those cars are turning left before you make the decision to go into the right lane, and bypass those cars which have waited by staying in the correct lane but are still going straight on?

Road-Hog

iseegirls wrote: »

But the presumption here is that every car in the left lane is turning left - which is not the case at that roundabout on the Tramore Road. How can you assume that all those cars are turning left before you make the decision to go into the right lane, and bypass those cars which have waited by staying in the correct lane but are still going straight on?

Well one way around this whole issue is as follows.......
if you enter outside lane/overtaking lane on a dual carriage way in order to skip a 20 plus car buildup on the inside lane and you intend taking the second exit at the upcoming roundabout then just do a complete circumnavigation of roundabout and after you have done the 360deg veer into the inside lane of the roundabout and exit at your initially desired exit but this time being in the correct lane.....might take a minute or so longer to make the manouvre but I don't think there is anything in the rules of the toad preventing you from doing this and the 'keyboard know it all brigade' can stick their sanctimonious verbal criticism up their 'poop shoots'😀😀

rex-x

spankmemunkey wrote: »

http://www.rsa.ie/Documents/Road%20Safety/Leaflets/Leaf_booklets/Roundabouts_DL_2012_v3.pdf

Right side 2 paragraph down.

Going straight ahead.

I'm fairly certain there are no right turn arrows on the outer ring round about at the cork road roundabout, ballycashin roundabout six cross roads roundabout.

At Tesco Ardkeen roundabout there are arrows specifying which lane to be in and the roundabout before that.

All the roundabouts are clearly marked right turn only in the outside lane.

I think people forget that the ROTR and the RSA documents are really only guidelines and have no basis in law. They are an interpretation of the statute by laypersons and are often incorrect or poorly interpreted (example the term 'fast lane' being used in the past). I believe what they mean by using the right hand lane if the left is busy is in situations where BOTH lanes are marked straight ahead, in that situation you should always be in the left lane unless conditions dictate otherwise, the road markings take precedence though and the Waterford ring road clearly forbids using the overtaking lane for passing straight through.

Teebor15

rex-x wrote: »

the Waterford ring road clearly forbids using the overtaking lane for passing straight through.

Anyone know why?