Standard of driving

JagoMoon

Just looking to get a discussion going about the poor standard of driving on Ireland's roads.

I don't drive on the m50 much but i was shocked recently at how poor the standard of driving is, cars weaving in and out of traffic, cars slowly driving in right lane and poor use of indicators. I'm surprised there's not more accidents on the roads. Then add into the mix the amount of people who are texting on their phones.


People imo have developed serious bad habits and the rules of the road are not inforced at all. People have to take greater responsibility for their driving as they're driving a lethal weapon. 80% of road deaths are caused by human error. The NCT is a complete waste of money as it's meant to test for car defects and reduce emissions. But in my opinion does nothing to help reduce road deaths. I believe drivers should be made do a driving test every 5years.

Also, its crazy that no driving test is done on motorways. People pass their test and then they're allowed drive on a motorway with no experience. Madness.

We need to seriously think about how we make our roads safer. Other countries have introduced a curfew on under 25s between 11pm-5am and a limit on the amount of passengers they can have.

Any other thoughts?

veryangryman

The Motorway bit is due to some areas not having a Motorway close by e.g Letterkenny, Killarney, Portarlington

So for an equal test for all, they have to not use it. AFAIK they use Dual Carriageways when near.

Also, the law states no L driver is allowed on a Motorway. During your test you would continue to be classed as an L.

Rest of your post, yep driving standard is worse than brutal, what can ye do but give the gowls a wide berth.

Plumbthedepths

JagoMoon wrote:

Just looking to get a discussion going about the poor standard of driving on Ireland's roads.

I've driven in several different countries on all road types. Bad drivers and good drivers are everywhere. Not just an Irish thing.

FitzElla

I'd actually say most Irish drivers are pretty good, and the few idiots stand even more so because of it. We also have some of the safest roads in Europe so it could be a lot worse. Not saying there are not issues and better enforcement would be very welcome but I think some perspective does help.

ianobrien

The standard of driving here is shocking when compared to Europe. I've driven in France, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy in the past few years (and no, its not just for the 2 week's holiday in a hire car).

People here travel at wildly different speeds, people travel quite slow holding up traffic, slow moving vehicles don't pull in, theres massive inconsistencies in indicating, lane discipline, lane hogging, running red lights etc. Basically here you don't trust what the other person will do.

Travelling on the Continent, yes the speeds are higher but you can (generally) predict what the other person will do.

The only good thing about driving here is that thanks to the blitz on speed, people drive slower. As a result of the blitz on speed, there is practically zero punishment for any other driving offence

Kermit.de.frog

Ireland has it's fair share of idiot drivers - but as bad as Italy?

No. Just no.

Plumbthedepths

ianobrien wrote:

The standard of driving here is shocking when compared to Europe. I've driven in France, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy in the past few years (and no, its not just for the 2 week's holiday in a hire car).

I have to ask but do you think the standard of driving in Italy is superior to Ireland, if your answer is 'yes' then I can only assume you are a spoofer.

Walter Bishop

Eh yeah, there is no way they are generally better drivers in Italy than Ireland.

You could die of old age waiting to get let out of a side road in Italy, you have to just barge your way out like everyone else does.

Zebra3

Cycle for about twenty minutes on Irish roads and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion how bad the standard of driving here is.

Should be a lot easier to take licenses off people and a lot harder to get it in the first place.

A lot of motorists think they have a right to be on the road.

Auguste Comte

ianobrien wrote: »

The standard of driving here is shocking when compared to Europe. I've driven in France, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy in the past few years (and no, its not just for the 2 week's holiday in a hire car).

Do you really think that the standard of driving on the Brussels Ring or the Antwerp Ring is better or safer than the m50? not a hope.

The standard of driving here is not great but no worse than most.

Stephen15

The standard of driving is not bad in Dublin motorways are another thing I'd say Irish people are bad on motorways as they're a relatively new phenomenon here in Ireland and have only really risen to prominence in the last 20 years whereas on the continent motorways have been commonplace since the war. It's also mostly an older generation of drivers who are worst on motorways.

Saying Ireland is worse then Italy for the standard of driving lol. Italy has some truly awful drivers and that's coming from someone who has never actually driven there and only observed from buses and taxis. Was on holidays there recently and picked up a local newspaper and literally everyday there was a report about a serious accident where people were killed or seriously injured and that was just a local newspaper.

JagoMoon

JagoMoon wrote: »

The NCT is a complete waste of money as it's meant to test for car defects and reduce emissions. But in my opinion does nothing to help reduce road deaths.

You obviously don't recall some of the death traps and general balls of crap that used to pass for cars before it was brought in.

The NCT, has, without a doubt, saved lives, just its difficult to quantify based on something that can no longer be used

Another way of saying it would be in relation to the thread depth requirements for tyres. It's not possible to say how many lives that saves but you can be damn sure there would be deaths due to bald tyres without it

usernamegoes

I did a trip on the M50 this morning. Very quite on the road. The number of people driving in the middle lane for no reason. The number of them driving around 90kph in the middle lane is even more frustrating.

Lofidelity

usernamegoes wrote: »

I did a trip on the M50 this morning. Very quite on the road. The number of people driving in the middle lane for no reason. The number of them driving around 90kph in the middle lane is even more frustrating.

True. I would suggest the reason for hogging the middle lane is because there are so many exits and entrances on the M50.

Seth Brundle

Stephen15 wrote: »

I'd say Irish people are bad on motorways as they're a relatively new phenomenon here in Ireland and have only really risen to prominence in the last 20 years whereas on the continent motorways have been commonplace since the war.

Nonsense.
How long should we allowed drivers to be crap on a motorway before we demand better standards?

Stephen15 wrote: »

It's also mostly an older generation of drivers who are worst on motorways.

No it's not, it's all age groups!

One person's "bad driver" is another's "safe driver"

AndrewJRenko

I drove to Cork and back last week. There didn't seem to be the same number of speeding idiots buzzing around as I would have remembered from other years. When I was at the speed limit using cruise control, there was no shortage of cars moving past me.

On the return journey, two idiot ladies past me at Kildare and Rathcoole respectively while I was at the speed limit, both of them typing on their phones held at the steering wheel as they passed. Mobile phone abuse is absolutely endemic, and highly dangerous.