Has anyone here driven outside of the island of Ireland before?

Commotion Ocean

Which countries have you driven in and how did you find the standard of driving? Are there may other countries where the driving is worse than ours? (Apart from developing countries).

I've never actually driven myself, but I've been a passenger in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, UK and USA. Most of the aforementioned countries are by a long shot better than Ireland.

Fol20

Iv driven in Ireland,France, England, Whales, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.. Thailand driving was interesting to say the least. Oddly enough, i found french driving the best.. At least over there when a car is in the over taking lane, they are actually over taking.

whiskeyman

Italy I found were huge risk takers and tailgaters.
France was good.
Hungary was a fupping nightmare.
Ireland isn't as bad as you make out however in the grand scheme of things.

Nekarsulm

Drove in Germany, found it very easy. Everyone knows the rules, and makes them work. France no problem either. Rush hour around Paris is a bit of an experience! Found the worst aspect were people on those 3 wheel motorbikes(with the 2 wheels close together on the front) cutting in in front of you and braking hard.... A good sat-nav essential, or I would still be there...

Edit. Piaggio MP3 is the name of the 3 wheelers.

Peregrinus

The driving in Belgium is appalling, in my experience.

I haven't driven there, but Poland, Greece and Romania all have road accident fatality rates (expressed as number of deaths per 100,000 population) which are more than twice ours. Portugal, Hungary, Belgium (naturally), France and Germany all have higher rates than us, but not twice as high.

Of course, there's more than the standard of driving going into this. Poor road design or maintenance, for example, could be contributing, although that's hardly the explanation for Germany, France, Belgium or Italy.

pa990

Iceland .... no traffic
Cuba ... no traffic
Poland.. not much traffic
Vietnam.. mental, but strangely relaxing
Thailand.. more mental
Germany. Fast. Very fast.. then it gets boring
UK. Same as here
Spain .. grand
Hungary.. ok
USA.. miles and miles of nothing... and massive parking spaces
Canada. See USA.
Netherlands... straighter than a straight guy in a gay night club, and flatter than a set of pancakes
Italy... crazy. Just crazy
Belgium.. concrete washboard roads

pa990

Peregrinus wrote: »

The driving in Belgium is appalling, in my experience.

I haven't driven there, but Poland, Greece and Romania all have road accident fatality rates (expressed as number of deaths per 100,000 population) which are more than twice ours. Portugal, Hungary, Belgium (naturally), France and Germany all have higher rates than us, but not twice as high.

Of course, there's more than the standard of driving going into this. Poor road design or maintenance, for example, could be contributing, although that's hardly the explanation for Germany, France, Belgium or Italy.

Have you driven in Germany ?
Autobahns built in the 40s, only 2 lanes wide, very short slip roads.
It's no Eldorado

Lyle Lanley

Belgium: Grand, bit mental at night cause they're not concerned about drink driving

Italy: they're ok, but don't expect your car to last long without scratches

Spain: Tailgating, always. When it rains they just tailgate slightly slower.

UK: Same as Ireland

Thailand: Bit mad in general, caution advised

Vietnam: Learn their system and you'll be ok. Pretty cool place to drive

US: Couldn't be easier, massive straight roads.

Argentina: They're crazy. But the roads outside the towns are good. In the towns can be a bit ****. They don't bother fixing holes too often.

Possibly forgetting one or two.

Special Circumstances

They all go fierce fasht. Shpeed kills!

Ah jaysus... I just replied to dfeos daily opinion poll. D'oh!

BreadnBuddha

dfeo wrote: »

Which countries have you driven in and how did you find the standard of driving? Are there may other countries where the driving is worse than ours? (Apart from developing countries).

I've never actually driven myself, but I've been a passenger in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, UK and USA. Most of the aforementioned countries are by a long shot better than Ireland.

So what you're saying is that you're a back seat driver with international experience?

I have driven in the UK for years and find that overall they obey the rules of the road far better than here but it helps that sign posting is much better there.
Driven in France & Germany and it makes for a good driving experience.
Driven in the US and found the drivers OK there. I certainly felt everyone drove a bit slower than here.

beechwood55

South of France - driving is appalling.
Rest of France (apart from Paris which is also appalling) is fine.

amcalester

I drove in Egypt, mostly in Cairo but also and up and down the Suez toward Port Said on the Med Coast.

Driving in Cairo was great craic, 4 cars spread across 2 lanes, pedestrians just walking out in front of you, and if you were overtaking a car just give 2 beeps so they know you're squeezing past.

Driven in Denmark, Germany, Austria, Spain, France and the UK, the standard was usually better than Ireland.

V Eight

France - not too many RN & OY plates driving in the overtaking lane.....

lawred2

dfeo wrote: »

Which countries have you driven in and how did you find the standard of driving? Are there may other countries where the driving is worse than ours? (Apart from developing countries).

I've never actually driven myself, but I've been a passenger in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, UK and USA. Most of the aforementioned countries are by a long shot better than Ireland.

Driven in the US, Canada, Australia, Mexico, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, UK, Thailand.. Probably a few others.

I find drivers are much the same everywhere I've been.

Some good some bad.

nhunter100

whiskeyman wrote:

Italy I found were huge risk takers and tailgaters. France was good. Hungary was a fupping nightmare. Ireland isn't as bad as you make out however in the grand scheme of things.

Second that the Italians are nuts behind the wheel, particularly in Rome. Outside of the car I love them.

lawred2

nhunter100 wrote: »

Second that the Italians are nuts behind the wheel, particularly in Rome. Outside of the car I love them.

Having driven the length of Italy and in many cities over there - I found them generally fine.

Except for the scooters on the Amalfi coast. That was an experience :eek:

nhunter100

lawred2 wrote:

Having driven the length of Italy and in many cities over there - I found them generally fine.

On the autostrada I'd agree but in cities and lesser roads, No I still think they are nuts. Always found Florence a nightmare with those f***ing scooters.

IrishZeus

Have driven in the US, Canada, Finland, France, UK. All fine, found them easier than Ireland in that people follow the rules more and definitely understand how to use motorways a bit better. That being said, I've spent much less time driving there than here, so the experience is relative.

Was a passenger in Rome. Possibly the only time in the past 10 years when I was nervous in a car!

whiskeyman

pa990 wrote: »

Netherlands... straighter than a straight guy in a gay night club, and flatter than a set of pancakes

Lol!
So true!
It's as if they are ashamed to be in a car and know they ought to be on a bike instead.
They are incredibly considerate and pay amazing attention to cyclists... kinda obvious I guess in a country where the bike rules.

whiskeyman

nhunter100 wrote: »

On the autostrada I'd agree but in cities and lesser roads, No I still think they are nuts. Always found Florence a nightmare with those f***ing scooters.

Definitely agree about less roads and country.
I had a huge bus overtake me on a blind bend up on the hills of Tuscany before... Forced oncoming cars right onto the verge, but they seems like it was an everyday occurrence!:eek:

Deise Vu

lawred2 wrote: »

Having driven the length of Italy and in many cities over there - I found them generally fine.

Except for the scooters on the Amalfi coast. That was an experience :eek:

+1 for this. I was convinced half of them were trying to open the boot they get so close and have such a knack of finding blind spots in your mirror. For a proper Italian experience you really need to try driving in Sicily though. No lane discipline, in fact no discipline at all. Everyone driving a bucket of ****e and if they can get 6 inches further up the road will cheerfully swerve around a speeding truck in a crowded street. Mental.

I have also driven in the USA & Canada (nobody for miles), France, Spain, Holland, Germany, Crete, Malta, Tanzania (no traffic on the road but watch out for people and wildlife) Dubai and Istanbul (not recommended, the infrastructure just cannot cope).

If have to add though, I came back from a three week fly/drive holiday in Northern Italy years ago. The most mental thing was the day we got back, the Old Kinsale Road Roundabout in Cork. If you could handle that, you could drive on the moon.

scamalert

Ireland isnt bad comapred to most eastern european countries,irish drivers would fall into range of decent and rule abiding,in eastern Europe,everyones for themselves,wanna get into juction tough luck most likely every single person will block you,no indication signals,corrupt cops etc.Theres a reason places like Russia everyone has dash cam in car.

wandatowell

Drove in the UK a few years ago. Grand I guess. Was surprised by the amount of trucks on the road and how often they overtake.

grogi

USA, UK, Portugal, Spain, Italy (South, North and the islands), Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Belgium and The Netherlands.

Italians are crazy, the further south you go, the more mental... But they master their vehicles as well. Germans are German - organised and efficient. Dutch are similar - but often get frustrated because of the sheer number of cars on the roads. They tend to commute rather far away with cars too.

In comparison to other nations, Irish are very polite drivers, there is always room for errors and people don't get mad about that. But majority motorists have no clue what they are doing. Observation and thinking skills in line with a squid.

Mycroft H

Ireland ; actually fine in the grand scheme of things
Northern England ; City driving is crap, motorways are rubbish condition and there's always someone doing 90+ (or trying to)
Northern France/Central ; Actually quite enjoyable.

New York, Texas, England, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Czech Rep, Slovenia........... few more too.

much of a muchness everywhere IMO

casscass4444

Drove all over the uk.roads are top class and well run.strangely drove from hollyhead to Yorkshire and back.3 lane motorways top class and not one toll.got back into Dublin port and got charged a tenner to go through the port tunnel by a Chinese woman."welcome home casscass get the wallet out".
If we had roads as good as the uk you would want a mortgage to go from Galway to Dublin the way they rip us off.theres already 3 tolls going from Galway to Dublin airport ffs.6 tolls by the time you get home.mickey mouse of a country.
Drove in Italy.impatient fuxxers on the road over there if they see you driving a rental.drove a diesel punto over there and was pleasantly surprised with it and it was a miser on fuel.
Drove in Australia.nice roads.fraser island is beach roads policed like normal roads.you get a bolloking for doing donuts on this beach.whod have known?

Risteard81

Ireland; England; Scotland; Wales; Jersey; Italy; San Marino; Australia; New Zealand; Iceland; Jordan; Syria.

Also Saudi Arabia (just as a child in the desert - steering as I couldn't reach the pedals).

I may well have missed some.

casscass4444

casscass4444 wrote: »

Drove all over the uk.roads are top class and well run..............

I wouldn't agree tbh.

h3000

Portugal: fairly good drivers just don't get in their way.
Sicily: Nutters on scooters everywhere. Tiny ting city/town streets. Every car dented and scratched. But I loved driving there.
USA: Florida - Very easy to drive there with patient drivers. Texas - again easy enough but slightly more aggressive drivers.
Canary Islands: Very easy to drive there. Fairly light traffic.

HeidiHeidi

Bosnia and Croatia - scary stuff!

This was abut 15 years ago - mostly driving rattletraps, so not high-speed stuff, but their propensity to overtake whole lines of cars on blind bends on single-lane roads was jawdropping. (They didn't seem so keen to do the overtaking on the straight bits for some reason)

Coast road between Dubrovnik and Split was the worst.

And I have NEVER anything like the roadkill in Bosnia :eek: The place was practically carpeted, they have seriously kamikaze wildlife over there.

quad_red

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Bosnia and Croatia - scary stuff!

This was abut 15 years ago - mostly driving rattletraps, so not high-speed stuff, but their propensity to overtake whole lines of cars on blind bends on single-lane roads was jawdropping. (They didn't seem so keen to do the overtaking on the straight bits for some reason)

Coast road between Dubrovnik and Split was the worst.

And I have NEVER anything like the roadkill in Bosnia :eek: The place was practically carpeted, they have seriously kamikaze wildlife over there.

Ha! I was just about to post that. Have driven in many countries but nothing close to Croatia. Absolutely insane stuff. We flew into Trieste then crossed the border and down to Dubrovnik. The amount of times we turned corners into mad overtaking attempts.

H3llR4iser

grogi wrote: »

...
Italians are crazy, the further south you go, the more mental... But they master their vehicles as well...

You nailed the picture - it's difficult to classify driving in "Italy" as it's gonna differ massively between areas; Also, as you pointed out, amid the general chaos most drivers have an increased level of situational awareness and vehicle control.

The majority of Irish motorists are happy to be "carried around by their vehicle", rather than drive it. It's the biggest difference I can spot and the source of most issues - from lane hogging to "falling asleep at the lights" to the couple of frankly hilarious "slow motion accidents" I witnessed.

Very little alert and expectation for the unexpected and a sense of entitlement as big as a multi-story car park (Like "I have no license but I must drive...").

lawred2 wrote: »

Having driven the length of Italy and in many cities over there - I found them generally fine.

Except for the scooters on the Amalfi coast. That was an experience :eek:

Yep, scooters and small motorbikes are the bane of Italy, in the cities you're often literally swarmed by them zipping from every single corner.

And mobile phones...if you think it's bad here, you've seen nothing. Last month, visiting the family, I actually made a joke about the law being changed from "it is forbidden to drive while handling a mobile phone" to "it is mandatory to play with your iPhone while driving"; I'd literally find it hard to spot a single driver who wouldn't be fiddling around with a phone.

ION08

I'm sorry, but to those posters who said UK is the same as here, you are deluded.

People in the UK for the most part know how to drive, are wayyy more aware of their surroundings and actually know how to use an overtaking lane. :rolleyes:

Apporach anyone at speed from behind in the UK and they will move straight away.

Here? you'd be lucky if they even notice you in their rear view mirror and if they do, the attitude is "im doing the speed limit and therefore doing nothing wrong"

I was behind some dopey woman last night who merged onto an empty 3 lane motorway and went straight onto the overtaking lane where she sat for some time Id say (i just blew past and took the next exit)

seachto7

ION08 wrote: »

Here? you'd be lucky if they even notice you in their rear view mirror and if they do, the attitude is "im doing the speed limit and therefore doing nothing wrong"

I was behind some dopey woman last night who merged onto an empty 3 lane motorway and went straight onto the overtaking lane where she sat for some time Id say (i just blew past and took the next exit)

So what's the problem?

ION08

seachto7 wrote: »

So what's the problem?

I'm definitely gonna assume you are joking

HeidiHeidi

seachto7 wrote: »

So what's the problem?

ION08 wrote: »

I'm definitely gonna assume you are joking

*Grabs popcorn*

or

*Unfollows thread*

Undecided.

Heighway61

France. First three roundabouts off the boat I looked right.

Boscoirl

NZ - Grand, when they suggest 15Kmph on a bend, they mean 15Kmph
Athens - Mental, its a drag race between lights in the city, normally between 3 Taxi's and 11 Scooters lined up across the road
US - Grand, not a fan of undertaking on the Freeways, but love the 4way stop sign,
Rest of Europe - grand too

HeidiHeidi

Boscoirl wrote: »

NZ - Grand, when they suggest 15Kmph on a bend, they mean 15Kmph
Athens - Mental, its a drag race between lights in the city, normally between 3 Taxi's and 11 Scooters lined up across the road
US - Grand, not a fan of undertaking on the Freeways, but love the 4way stop sign,
Rest of Europe - grand too

This!

Drove in SF, and it was sooo civilised! Everyone trundled around the place at a moderate speed, and played 100% by the rules at junctions, and it worked like a charm! Most stress-free driving I think I've ever done!!!

The freeways took a bit of getting used to alright!

edburg

Not done much abroad mainly France and Italy with odd excursion into Switzerland/Germany. As most places City driving is busy and hectic where ever you are.

Away from cities they all seem very good and aware of there surroundings bar odd tailgater in Italy. I did find up in alp's locals were impatient and angry bar one muppet who was to busy looking trying to take a photo of surroundings while driving and nearly wiped me out. He turned out to be Irish and from outside Limerick, but at least apologise after he took his pic. Big cities are mayhem with scooters/bikes every****ingwhere.

In my 4-5 years delivering long distance in UK I would say in general decent roads, to many road works, a decent ability to drive everywhere bar taxi drivers and white van drivers and vast majority of drivers inside the M25 in London who just want to be anywhere but here yesterday and are angry about it 24/7.

Ireland I find there is a lack of awareness/care of other road users, a need to police roads themselves from those that are permanently late. The further away from big towns and cities the worse it gets. I would also say vast majority seems to be of the older generation 50+ age bracket.

I don't think Irish are that bad as I guess likes of India, parts of Africa and south America are most likely going to be in top end of factual lists of death milarkeys people love to bring up as proof of awesomeness.

Dpg21

New Zealand- grand in the north island, not so good in the south,

Cook island-Rarotonga - basically only one road going around the island so it's hard to go wrong lol

Australia, grand, just have to be aware of wildlife when not in the cities

Indonesia- Jakarta- was my first time driving in Asia and my head was melted, Bali wasn't so bad,

Thailand, just had mopeds on some of the islands, so I thought it was grand,

Vietnam, wasn't to bad once you know how the drive in Asia,

Myanmar- was very confusing at first, because they drive on the right hand side but most cars ect have the steering wheel on the right hand side so you get people taking risks while passing out even when they can't see

PaulK_CCI

pa990 wrote: »

Netherlands... straighter than a straight guy in a gay night club, and flatter than a set of pancakes
Belgium.. concrete washboard roads

Love the comment about Holland . I drive in Holland all the time (because I live there), drive a lot in Belgium, France, UK and Germany. As of recently been back in Ireland so getting to grips with Irish driving...  Have driven in Tsjechoslovakia, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal in the past.
Roads in Holland are carefully planned and well designed, well signposted and smooth so once you get used to the volume of traffic on the roads, driving is very straight forward. Fines for road traffic offences are humungous here, so people kind of stick to the rules of road quite well. Belgium roads are a lot worse condition, and bends are generally a lot tighter and smaller so you need your wits about.
An insteresting thing that struck me while driving in Ireland lately was the frustratingly long periods of waiting for traffic lights. I felt this was very noticeably longer than in Holland and Belgium, and I found myself getting annoyed a lot lately waiting for seemingly pointless red lights for ages!

macroman

Drove coaches all over Mainland and Eastern Europe - Germans, Swiss & Dutch were the best drivers, Italians are f**king mad!

Dutch roads just work, they have a priority rule to allow side street traffic out, have signs on side of the road that give you a speed to stick at to make all green lights and TURBO ROUNDABOUTS where you don't have to stop if going straight! (Google it and imagine the carnage if they brought them into Ireland!)

MJohnston

For people who've driven in the US, you can't just only say 'USA', you need to be talking about the state in question. I've driven in Maryland, New Jersey, Philly, Delaware, New York on the east coast, and California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.

New York City was far easier than reputation would have you believe, though the conditions of the streets in Manhattan and Queens is absolutely horrific - I've seen boreens with better road surfaces than the BQE (which is an elevated, extremely busy 3 lane freeway).

Californians are just awful drivers, I guess they have a lot of issues maybe with immigrants who come and don't need to retest, plus their driving test (which I had to take) may as well not exist (drive around for 15 minutes obeying all the rules, and reverse without hitting a curb, that's IT!). The state has no law against passing on the 'inside', so if you're on a busy freeway it can be terrifying having 30 year old clunkermobiles weaving in and out lanes at 80mph. Easily the worst driving area I've been in my life. California specially (but the USA to a lesser extent more generally) is just fully designed socially, culturally, geographically, commercially...in every aspect, it's designed around having a car. You can get basically nowhere without one unless you happen to live in the big cities which might have decent Metro/Subway systems.

In a way, I loved driving in the US because of that, because everything was designed to give me in a car priority...but I also hated it.

grogi

MJohnston wrote: »

For people who've driven in the US, you can't just only say 'USA', you need to be talking about the state in question. I've driven in Maryland, New Jersey, Philly, Delaware, New York on the east coast, and California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.

New York City was far easier than reputation would have you believe, though the conditions of the streets in Manhattan and Queens is absolutely horrific - I've seen boreens with better road surfaces than the BQE (which is an elevated, extremely busy 3 lane freeway).

Californians are just awful drivers, I guess they have a lot of issues maybe with immigrants who come and don't need to retest, plus their driving test (which I had to take) may as well not exist (drive around for 15 minutes obeying all the rules, and reverse without hitting a curb, that's IT!). The state has no law against passing on the 'inside', so if you're on a busy freeway it can be terrifying having 30 year old clunkermobiles weaving in and out lanes at 80mph. Easily the worst driving area I've been in my life. California specially (but the USA to a lesser extent more generally) is just fully designed socially, culturally, geographically, commercially...in every aspect, it's designed around having a car. You can get basically nowhere without one unless you happen to live in the big cities which might have decent Metro/Subway systems.

In a way, I loved driving in the US because of that, because everything was designed to give me in a car priority...but I also hated it.

I can second that... Especially around LA, the traffic is one big jungle.
Once I got out to the country roads, it was much more relaxing.

Driving around Seattle, WA and Boston, MA was rather enjoyable I must say. But that might be to the fact that I rented the cars purely for fun - Dodge Ram both times

dogmatix

I've driven in Cyprus twice in 4 years.

The good: the weather is nice and dry, the main roads are of a good standard and they drive on the left like we do.

The bad: they are not the safest of drivers. Not horribly bad but below Irish standards, which is not saying much.

edburg

dogmatix wrote: »

I've driven in Cyprus twice in 4 years.

The good: the weather is nice and dry, the main roads are of a good standard and they drive on the left like we do.

The bad: they are not the safest of drivers. Not horribly bad but below Irish standards, which is not saying much.

With that name I would have expected you to have spent a lot time in Gaul!!!!!!

cml387

lawred2 wrote: »

Having driven the length of Italy and in many cities over there - I found them generally fine.

Except for the scooters on the Amalfi coast. That was an experience :eek:

I have driven a lot in Italy, but would never on the Amalfi cost for that precise reason.
The tunnel between Naples and Sorrento....shudder.

pajor

I live in NL, so here. Have driven on holidays in Germany and Belgium.

Dutch roads are great, especially the quality of the surfaces. Driving from Germany back across the border, going from basically concrete to the smoothest asphalt. I'd say Dutch drivers are better than Irish drivers overall but are speed freaks.