Driver tried to stop me merging onto M50

Johnny Storm

Yesterday I was trying to merge onto the M50 heading south from the Red Cow Roundabout. At this stage the filter-in lane from the Red Cow Roundabout is kind of mixed with the filter-out lane for the next exit.
I saw my "natural" opening between two cars. The second of the cars had his indicator on indicating he was about to leave the M50 at the upcoming exit. Great, I thought. I put on my indicator and begin to move right. But think again, Mr Smartypants-second-car speeds up to block me. I slow down, he slows down, I speed up, he speeds up.
At this stage I was running out of room so I slapped on the brakes and let him pull in in front of me. I was really pissed off at this guy's antics so I gave a good blast of the horn. As he went up the exit ramp I had a good look at him. Not some kind of demented teenage aggro-head but a "respectable"-looking, pudgey, mid-thirties, middle-class twat with a receding hairline. The thing that REALLY annoyed me was the smarmy-looking grin on his face. Obviously he thought it was great gas.
I'd be really interested in people's opinions as to what this guy thought he was doing and as to what I should have done. As far as I can see I didn't do anything that might have annoyed this guy.
Have we gotten to the stage where even the middle-class **** are acting like Mad Max?

prospect

He sounds like a grade A vanker.

seamus

That exit can be a nightmare at times - people just come off the Red Cow roundabout going far too slowly, much worse than the other interchanges.
Last week I was coming down the M50 southbound, driving lane, doing 120kph (it was late evening, so not too much traffic) learner driver comes down from the Red Cow, no indicating, no looking, no waiting, straight off the sliproad onto the motorway, doing about 55kph. Luckily, from the moment I'd seen her I'd gotten a sixth sense that she would do just that, but by the time she was on the carriageway I'm still going 100kph. So heavy braking ensues, followed by a flash and a long blast on the horn. Still didn't react. I was taking the next exit anyway, so I undertook her and got a look, she was oblivious, unphased, chatting away to her mate.
One day she'll do the same thing in front of a truck and not come out so well.

I do find that people generally are much more aggro and "get out of my way" on M50 - especially the middle/upper-class suits. When moving onto the slip road in the car (two lanes merge onto the slip at Lucan), I've had people speed up to prevent me merging onto the slip. Luckily, also having a bike makes you ballsy in these situations, so I just remain in the hatched area and force my way in.

Keyzer

I read somewhere recently that Irish drivers are the worst in Europe, 2nd only to the Italians.

I'd well believe it, sometimes I really wish I was driving a banger, I'd crash into the muppets who pull out in front of me. Or maybe mount a cannon on the roof and shoot them instead.

jlang

What might have been funny was if he'd blocked you the whole way and you'd had to run up the ramp at Ballymount/Cookstown and down the other side again while he'd have to continue on till Tallaght!

Also, a large part of the M50 upgrade is that in addition to a third lane on the main carriageway, there will be a fourth lane for merging in/out between most of the junctions in exactly the configuration that you mention above.

Johnny Storm

jlang wrote:

What might have been funny was if he'd blocked you the whole way and you'd had to run up the ramp at Ballymount/Cookstown and down the other side again while he'd have to continue on till Tallaght!
..........

I seriously thought of doing that at the time. (But TBH I forgot about going down the other side)
I also thought of following him up the ramp and beating the **** out of him - but I caught onto myself - I'd probably be posting this now from either hospital or jail.

Corben Dallas

Grade A plonker.

Common courtesy would normally make space to let u in, unless u were doing a stunt driver move and were squeezing into an impossible gap. If you were id do the same.

It is up to the merging driver to safely join the traffic,not the M50 drivers to move over cause they see u coming down the slip road. If you hit him while merging u would be in the wrong.

prospect

seamus wrote:

Last week I was coming down the M50 southbound, driving lane, doing 120kph (it was late evening, so not too much traffic) learner driver comes down from the Red Cow, no indicating, no looking, no waiting, straight off the sliproad onto the motorway, doing about 55kph. Luckily, from the moment I'd seen her I'd gotten a sixth sense that she would do just that, but by the time she was on the carriageway I'm still going 100kph. So heavy braking ensues, followed by a flash and a long blast on the horn. Still didn't react. I was taking the next exit anyway, so I undertook her and got a look, she was oblivious, unphased, chatting away to her mate.

What she did wrong:
1. If she was the L driver she shouldn't even have been on the motorway.
2. She should have indicated
3. Should have made an effort to safely try and match the speed of the traffic.
4. She should have been aware

What you did wrong
1. As you say you saw her coming down the slip lane, you should have moved out into the overtaking lane, to allow merging traffic onto the motorway.
2. Slowed down to allow the merging traffic onto the motorway, and then taken your exit, observing the appropriate speed limits

seamus

prospect wrote:

What you did wrong
1. As you say you saw her coming down the slip lane, you should have moved out into the overtaking lane, to allow merging traffic onto the motorway.

I couldn't move out (there was traffic in the overtaking lane). She was first in the merging queue, so I had no prior warning that there was traffic preparing to merge.

2. Slowed down to allow the merging traffic onto the motorway, and then taken your exit, observing the appropriate speed limits

Clearly I did slow down between the time the potential hazard was spotted and the time it became a hazard. Speed limits were observed at all times.

What I did wrong was undertake her, and I probably could have braked a bit harder before she arrived on the m-way, but either way I would have flashed and beeped her.

prospect

seamus wrote:

and I probably could have braked a bit harder before she arrived on the m-way

Even then, some other fekker, too busy picking their nose, would probably have rear ended you....


Sometimes you just can't win


Funny thing is, she deffo heard you beep, and probably saw you flashing, but she was so oblivious to the fact that she can't drive for sh1t, she assumed your anger was directed at someone else, "Oh he can't be beeping at me WHAT did I do wrong?" :rolleyes:

seamus

Aye. But live and learn. There's always something more I could have done to prevent the idiots from affecting me

My better half has the opposite problem. Whenever she hears anyone beep, anywhere, she immediately assumes she was the one who's done something wrong and panics

Mr Magnolia

I had a guy do something similar to me, I was entering the M50 from the N4, he nearly hit the car in front rather than let me on to the slip road, I squeezed out anyway and took his wing mirror with me. He wasn't at all amused, he was raving about calling the Gardai, never heard anymore about it!
I'm generally always courteous on the road but I'd had enough that day.

BrianD3

prospect wrote:

What you did wrong
1. As you say you saw her coming down the slip lane, you should have moved out into the overtaking lane, to allow merging traffic onto the motorway.
2. Slowed down to allow the merging traffic onto the motorway, and then taken your exit, observing the appropriate speed limits

Nah, he's not obliged to do either of these things. In fact, moving into the overtaking lane or slowing down to allow merging vehicles in could well cause more harm than good as he could impede or surprise traffic behind him. Obviously this would depend on the traffic conditions.

The only wrong doing in this case was by the stupid retard who cut onto the motorway mainline at 55 km/h.

However actively blocking somone from merging by speeding up, slowing down, speeding up etc. as in the original post is obviously not on.

NeMiSiS

You would assume the big sign heading down onto the motorway saying 120kph would make people try at least attain something close to that speed before merging.. Course not !
TK

prospect

BrianD3 wrote:

Nah, he's not obliged to do either of these things

'Obligation' had nothing to do with my point.

I was referring to good manners, ettiquette, safe driving and collision avoidance.

At the time I made the point I was under the impression the road was very quiet:

seamus wrote:

(it was late evening, so not too much traffic)

In which case this would have been the safest and most logical course of action.

Letter of the law Vs Spirit of the law

BrianD3

NeMiSiS wrote:

You would assume the big sign heading down onto the motorway saying 120kph would make people try at least attain something close to that speed before merging.. Course not !
TK

Ah sure why would anyone want to do 120 km/h? Don't we all know that SPEED KILLS. Much safer to stick to 50 or 60 km/h :rolleyes:

Gilgamesh

seamus wrote:

from the moment I'd seen her I'd gotten a sixth sense .

so you saw dead people? :eek:

BrianD3

prospect wrote:

'Obligation' had nothing to do with my point.

I was referring to good manners, ettiquette, safe driving and collision avoidance.

At the time I made the point I was under the impression the road was very quiet:

In which case this would have been the safest and most logical course of action.

Letter of the law Vs Spirit of the law

OK fair enough. But one problem with this is that as people start followng the spirit of the law rather than the letter then idiots can get confused. Eg that retard that pulled out in front of seamus. She probably does this on a regular basis and is used to people jumping out of her way into the overtaking lane to make room for her. After seeing this often enough she could well start to belive that they are *obliged* to do this and that she has priority when merging.

prospect

BrianD3 wrote:

OK fair enough. But one problem with this is that as people start followng the spirit of the law rather than the letter then idiots can get confused. Eg that retard that pulled out in front of seamus. She probably does this on a regular basis and is used to people jumping out of her way into the overtaking lane to make room for her. After seeing this often enough she could well start to belive that they are *obliged* to do this and that she has priority when merging.

True,
Then it all falls back to driver education, and proper enforcement.

Damn ass stupid Irish driving test :mad:

LegacyUser

Some drivers seem afraid of doing the speed limit. Granted while no-one should be forced to bucket along at 120km/h if they're not up to it, there should be a minumum speed limit (e.g. 80 km/h), and tbh if people dont want to move at the flow of traffic and want to go out on a "Sunday drive" during rush hour, then they shouldnt be on the motorway.

As earlier mentioned some M50 drivers seem unable to grasp the concept that on merging with the motorway, they should be doing a speed somewhere approaching the speed limit coming towards the end of the ramp.

the_syco

prospect wrote:

True,
Then it all falls back to driver education, and proper enforcement.

Damn ass stupid Irish driving test :mad:

To have L plates, you don't even need to know how to drive...

Alun

The worst thing is when you end up coming onto the motorway behind one of these people. If there's no one behind me I often deliberately hang back on the on ramp to create a larger than necessary gap just to give me room to accelerate up to a reasonably safe speed to merge.

Oh, and BTW, it's km/h people ... not kph, kmph or (most bizarre of all) kmp/h Reminds me of a Kia something-or-other I saw driving around the airport area last week with advertising blurb all over it proclaiming it did "over 90kpg" ??!!

fletch

Yeh it really does my head in when people dawdle along down the slip road onto a motorway, I use it as a chance to get up to cruising speed on the motorway (120km/h)
As Alun jus said, I generally hang back & then when I have sufficient gap in front of me to allow myself get up to 120km/h, I floor it! Pisses some people off behind ya cause they are wonderin what the hell you're at but I drive quite an underpowered car which can bog down if I don't get up to speed (particularly on the M50 Blanchardstown Northbound ramp cause after the ramp, the road is uphill)

Bluetonic

seamus wrote:

....learner driver comes down from the Red Cow, no indicating, no looking, no waiting, straight off the sliproad onto the motorway, doing about 55kph...

How did you know the driver was a learner driver?

Don't use the auld "the car had L plates on it" answer, that doesn't prove a thing.

el tel

http://www.lireland.com/theory/motorwaydrv.htm

The text should come printed on the dashboard of all cars in Ireland.

(as should http://www.lireland.com/theory/roundabouts.htm )

0utshined

Bluetonic wrote:

How did you know the driver was a learner driver?

Don't use the auld "the car had L plates on it" answer, that doesn't prove a thing.

It should. If it's not the learner driving they should take down the plates.

seamus

Bluetonic wrote:

How did you know the driver was a learner driver?

Don't use the auld "the car had L plates on it" answer, that doesn't prove a thing.

What, are you indignant that I would dare assume a learner doesn't know how to drive?

It had L plates on it, had a young woman in it, and drove like a muppet. The odds are good that she was a learner.

Karma

So we should pack up our day jobs and not let them on the roads???
https://www.publicjobs.ie/cand/Regulations/05095_Driver_Tester.doc
Currently recuiting...

Bluetonic

0utshined wrote:

It should. If it's not the learner driving they should take down the plates.

Not to get away from the original topic in the least but could you direct me to section in the rules of the road where this is stated.

I actually have been looking for it for some time.

Johnny Storm

Bluetonic wrote:

Not to get away from the original topic in the least but could you direct me to section in the rules of the road where this is stated.

I actually have been looking for it for some time.

I have no idea if that is actually stated in the ROTR or not. But if it isn't then IMHO it definitely should be.

blastman

Why would you want to drive with L plates if you aren't a learner anyway? Might as well paint a bullseye on the car...