Responding to road signs.

2 stroke

When I learned to drive I was encouraged to respond to road signs when I could read them. Check mirrors and slow down/speed up/indicate as appropriate, if safe to do so. I drove this way on my test and passed first time.
Can anyone tell me is this the same training as given today, or have things changed.
The background to this question is that I have recently received a penalty point notice for doing 60 km/h travelling from a 50 zone to an 80 zone.
Basically what I'd like to know is when approaching a end of 50 km speed limit sign, outside a rural village with no pedestrians, moving vehicles, or even houses in view, with good visibility and a wide dry road. Does one make reasonable progress or wait to pass the 80 km sign before accelerating.
(this is a location where the vehicle behind is likely to overtake impatiently if you don't move your ass, as it's one of only 3 straight sections of roadway in 10 miles and the widest of the 3)

challengemaster

Doesn't make any sense to do that. Speed limit signs mark the boundaries of the limit, so from where the sign is is where the limit applies to.

me_irl

2 stroke wrote: »

The background to this question is that I have recently received a penalty point notice for doing 60 km/h travelling from a 50 zone to an 80 zone.

Was there a "speed up to match the minimum km/h" sign in between?

EDIT: I see you edited your post.

You stay in that speed limit until you reach a sign saying otherwise. I.E. you were in a 50, you say going 50 and then accelerate when you pass a sign that states 80.

In black-and-white: you were going 60 in a 50 zone.

GhostyMcGhost

Are you sure it's not 80 to 50? Meaning you did 60 (10km over the limit)

jimgoose

So you responded to this particular road sign by contravening it and committing a speeding offence? You're doing it wrong! :pac:

challengemaster

GhostyMcGhost wrote: »

Are you sure it's not 80 to 50? Meaning you did 60 (10km over the limit)

As in, they were in a 50km/h zone, could see the 80km/h sign ahead but had not gone by it yet, but started speeding up and were caught doing 60km/h in the 50 zone.

2 stroke

challengemaster wrote: »

As in, they were in a 50km/h zone, could see the 80km/h sign ahead but had not gone by it yet, but started speeding up and were caught doing 60km/h in the 50 zone.

Yes. That is how I learned to drive. Respond to road signs when you can read them (if its safe to do so). You don't wait to pass a SLOW or STOP sign to put your foot on the brake.
I passed my test first time and have well over a million miles driven since, with no accidents other than being hit in the rear a few times and this is my first speeding offence.

Wossack

the stop sign example wouldnt follow the same logic as your speed limit one, unless you stop when you see the sign up ahead, and stay stopped until you pass it :pac:

jimmii

2 stroke wrote: »

Yes. That is how I learned to drive. Respond to road signs when you can read them (if its safe to do so). You don't wait to pass a SLOW or STOP sign to put your foot on the brake.
I passed my test first time and have well over a million miles driven since, with no accidents other than being hit in the rear a few times and this is my first speeding offence.

In the same way you have to stop at the stop sign you can only do 80 after the 80 sign. How far away you can see it from is irrelevant. Do you turn left as soon as you see a turn left sign or do you wait until the road turns?

2 stroke

jimmii wrote: »

In the same way you have to stop at the stop sign you can only do 80 after the 80 sign. How far away you can see it from is irrelevant. Do you turn left as soon as you see a turn left sign or do you wait until the road turns?

When I see a left turn sign, I check my mirrors, and i indicate and slow down if I plan to turn left.
Is it possible to get an answer from a driving instructor or someone that has passed their test recently?

me_irl

2 stroke wrote: »

When I see a left turn sign, I check my mirrors, and i indicate and slow down if I plan to turn left.
Is it possible to get an answer from a driving instructor or someone that has passed their test recently?

So you can be vindicated?

You were caught doing 60 in a 50 zone.

More info...

http://www.rsa.ie/Documents/Learner%20Drivers/Rules_of_the_road.pdf

2 stroke

me_irl wrote: »

So you can be vindicated?

You were caught doing 60 in a 50 zone.

No. So that I can get an answer to current training. On my way out now, hopeing to book a refresher lesson.

challengemaster

2 stroke wrote: »

No. So that I can get an answer to current training. On my way out now, hopeing to book a refresher lesson.

No current training is going to instruct pupils to break the law.

languagenerd

2 stroke wrote: »

When I see a left turn sign, I check my mirrors, and i indicate and slow down if I plan to turn left.
Is it possible to get an answer from a driving instructor or someone that has passed their test recently?

For what it's worth, I passed my test 4 months ago after many, many lessons and was never told to speed up the second you see a speed limit sign. The reverse is true - when you're going from a higher limit to a lower limit, start slowing down when you see it because legally you need to be under it by the time you pass the sign.

From lower to higher, though, there's no obligation to be driving at 80 by the time you pass the 80 sign. You could keep trundling along at 50 if you wanted. It would annoy other drivers maybe but it wouldn't be illegal.

DriveSkill

2 stroke wrote: »

When I see a left turn sign, I check my mirrors, and i indicate and slow down if I plan to turn left.
Is it possible to get an answer from a driving instructor or someone that has passed their test recently?

Well I'm not an ADI anymore but I can assure no instructor is going to be advising drivers to speed up before the speed limit changes (at the sign). It's certainly advisable to be aware of the signs and be ready to take appropriate action but you cant preempt them - especially not for speed limit increases.

Rubberchikken

i would think it's 80 from the sign saying 80 or whatever. so no speeding up until at or after the 80 sign. the fact that someone is behind you and impatient is their problem. if you're stopped for speeding the garda isn't going to stop the car behind also, just you.

2 stroke

languagenerd wrote: »

For what it's worth, I passed my test 4 months ago after many, many lessons and was never told to speed up the second you see a speed limit sign. The reverse is true - when you're going from a higher limit to a lower limit, start slowing down when you see it because legally you need to be under it by the time you pass the sign.

From lower to higher, though, there's no obligation to be driving at 80 by the time you pass the 80 sign. You could keep trundling along at 50 if you wanted. It would annoy other drivers maybe but it wouldn't be illegal.

Thanks, obviously training has changed a bit. When I tested, if you kept trundling along at 50 and annoyed other drivers, you would get marked down for not making reasonable progress, 4 of these marks and you failed your test iirc. I even remember driving between playing fields in finglas on a 30mph road and the instructer telling me to drive between 30 and 40 if there was nobody visible in the fields or on the road, but if there was even one person visible to stay under the limit.

2 stroke

languagenerd wrote: »

From lower to higher, though, there's no obligation to be driving at 80 by the time you pass the 80 sign.

Advice was not to be at the next higher limit by the time you passed the sign. Just to show when you observed the sign by accelerating gently when you could read the sign. (This was before you needed an eyesight test to drive:eek:)

MascotDec85

2 stroke wrote: »

When I see a left turn sign, I check my mirrors, and i indicate and slow down if I plan to turn left.
Is it possible to get an answer from a driving instructor or someone that has passed their test recently?

Hi. Current ADI here. You're wrong. Take it on the chin. You were still in a 50 zone and accelerated too early. The speed sign indicates the start of the new limit. You should only increase your speed once you reach the sign. If the limit is reducing you should reduce your speed on the approach so that you are at the lower limit when you reach the sign. Hope that helps.

languagenerd

2 stroke wrote: »

Thanks, obviously training has changed a bit. When I tested, if you kept trundling along at 50 and annoyed other drivers, you would get marked down for not making reasonable progress, 4 of these marks and you failed your test iirc.

Well, yes, in your test you would get marked for progress if you stayed at 50 once you passed the sign, but I just meant legally.

You compared it to a stop sign but that's a false analogy: you HAVE to stop before you pass a stop sign but you don't HAVE to go any faster before (or even after) you pass a higher limit sign. A lower limit sign, as I said, is the opposite - you do need to slow to the lower number by the time you pass it. It does sound like you were unlucky though, if the limit was about to change where you were caught.

thesimpsons

2 stroke wrote: »

Thanks, obviously training has changed a bit. When I tested, if you kept trundling along at 50 and annoyed other drivers, you would get marked down for not making reasonable progress, 4 of these marks and you failed your test iirc. I even remember driving between playing fields in finglas on a 30mph road and the instructer telling me to drive between 30 and 40 if there was nobody visible in the fields or on the road, but if there was even one person visible to stay under the limit.

I'm wondering when you did your test. tbh that sounds like something from the dark ages when there wasn't much traffic around. I passed test almost 30 yrs ago and never heard something like that. A speed sign is a speed sign, not before it. My driving has been refreshed in last few years from teaching my kids to drive - I'd recommend it to everyone actually. Alot of things I had got lazy about I've stopped doing now.

ED E

Tbh I'm worried that somebody who has to ask this is road legal.