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Are terrible driving habits on the rise?

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  • Posts: 24,713 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    In a short trip to a petrol station to grab some lunch had three separate incidents:
    1. When pulling into the petrol station I was blocked by someone reversing out of a car park space. I couldn't advance into the petrol station as the driver was reversing into my path. As I waited for them to finish I got absolutely blasted on the horn by a driver displaying an "L" badge behind me.
    2. Parked adjacent to an empty space that was clearly marked for Motorcyles. As I walked away from my car I saw a car squeeze into it. When I came back out an entirely different car was parked in it
    3. On the return journey someone absolutely flew through a round-a-bout I was about to enter. From their perspective I was waiting at the second exit. They ended up taking the third exit without using their indicators at any point, entering or leaving.

    None of them major but just an accumulation of these in a very brief period of time.

    In fairness who gives a feck about petrol station parking spaces! Park in the handiest place and get on with it!!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,333 ✭✭✭chooseusername


    In a short trip to a petrol station to grab some lunch had three separate incidents:
    1. When pulling into the petrol station I was blocked by someone reversing out of a car park space. I couldn't advance into the petrol station as the driver was reversing into my path. As I waited for them to finish I got absolutely blasted on the horn by a driver displaying an "L" badge behind me.
    2. Parked adjacent to an empty space that was clearly marked for Motorcyles. As I walked away from my car I saw a car squeeze into it. When I came back out an entirely different car was parked in it
    3. On the return journey someone absolutely flew through a round-a-bout I was about to enter. From their perspective I was waiting at the second exit. They ended up taking the third exit without using their indicators at any point, entering or leaving.

    None of them major but just an accumulation of these in a very brief period of time.

    What an eventful lunchbreak you had!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,363 ✭✭✭Jim Gazebo


    antix80 wrote: »
    I'll add a few.

    Indicating while switching lanes without even checking if the lane is clear.

    Slowing .. slowing.. breaking .. nearly at a stop... then indicating and turning a corner.

    Not driving up to a red light... instead letting the car come to a natural stop because there's a red light 400m ahead, regardless of the fact that the people behind you may be turning at a junction or entrance before the lights.

    Coming to a halt on a main road to allow someone to "filter" from a side road. Bonus points if they're making a right turn and there's traffic coming from the other direction.

    Refusing to move out of the overtaking lane on the motorway because you're doing the speed limit (or 110kph) and it's fast enough.

    Coming to a complete stop when going over ramps that aren't even that high.

    Not accelerating to reach a motorway-safe speed in the slip lane when joining a motorway.. bonus points if you don't use the full length of the slip-lane and join traffic while driving at 80kph.

    Not accelerating when moving off from a red light, taking a minute to reach 50kph.

    On windy roads, driving at a snails pace around bends and breaking constantly, then accelerating to dangerous speeds to prevent people from overtaking you.

    I don't really agree with your last one. I am a relatively new driver less than a year licenced , I have made mistakes, everyone does but I'd class myself as a safe driver, I haven't put myself or anyone in danger. I regularly end up on country roads I've never been on, I have to brake around a bend I can't see around, and of course I am going to the speed limit if it gets straight because I want to get there too. Just be patient, especially if it is dark. They may not know the road. Better safe than sorry.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,419 ✭✭✭antix80


    Jim Gazebo wrote: »
    I regularly end up on country roads I've never been on, I have to brake around a bend I can't see around, and of course I am going to the speed limit if it gets straight because I want to get there too.

    If you're being overtaken (after the bend) you should keep left and not accelerate until you're overtaken.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    antix80 wrote: »
    If you're being overtaken (after the bend) you should keep left and not accelerate until you're overtaken.

    The responsibilty is on the person overtaking to make sure it's safe to do so.
    degsie wrote: »
    Always remember folks, there are fully licenced drivers out there who have never sat a driving test :(

    Always remember folks, there are fully licenced drivers out there who have never sat an EDT lesson :(


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,419 ✭✭✭antix80


    The responsibilty is on the person overtaking to make sure it's safe to do so.

    And it is safe.. unless the person they're overtaking speeds up either to reach the speed limit regardless of being overtaken or worse: they accelerate to prevent safe overtaking.

    I drove in Israel before - they're not terrible drivers but if you indicate to change lanes you can be sure that someone will speed up to block you. That's similar to blocking someone from overtaking IMO except preventing someone from safely overtaking is a lot more dangerous.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    antix80 wrote: »
    And it is safe.. unless the person they're overtaking speeds up either to reach the speed limit regardless of being overtaken or worse: they accelerate to prevent safe overtaking.

    I drove in Israel before - they're not terrible drivers but if you indicate to change lanes you can be sure that someone will speed up to block you. That's similar to blocking someone from overtaking IMO except preventing someone from safely overtaking is a lot more dangerous.

    They aren't, they are just driving with caution. It's only a hinderance for the people behind them, when frustrated. Because they aren't going as fast as they'd like.

    We aren't in Israel. Why bring that up?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,178 ✭✭✭Mango Joe


    I'm on the M7 a lot and sometimes it feels like I'm the only one not browsing through Facebook on my phone......

    You can often tell this is the case when you see a car ahead of you drifting off course and suddenly correcting.

    Also the phone is usually very visual in the wing mirror.

    At one time you'd very rarely see Truck Drivers on their phones or doing paperwork, now I see it daily, again you'll often see them drifting out of their lane.

    - The top honor goes to the ladies though, putting on makeup after you've pulled down the visor blocking your view of the road, sometimes you'll even see them holding around 7 different types of brush in one hand as they try to manage the steering and effectively drive blind.

    - That's just remarkably idiotic and they should get put off the road for it IMO.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    Mango Joe wrote: »
    I'm on the M7 a lot and sometimes it feels like I'm the only one not browsing through Facebook on my phone......

    You can often tell this is the case when you see a car ahead of you drifting of course and suddenly correcting.

    Also the phone is usually very visual in the wing mirror.

    At one time you'd very rarely see Truck Drivers on their phones or doing paperwork, now I see it daily.

    - The top honor goes to the ladies though, putting on makeup after you've pulled down the visor blocking your view of the road - That's just remarkably idiotic.

    My preference would be to place my phone in that corner between steering wheel and wing mirror (if it'd fit). But I'd only have it running for maps. I wouldn't be using it otherwise.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,185 ✭✭✭Tchaikovsky


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,419 ✭✭✭antix80


    They aren't, they are just driving with caution. It's only a hinderance for the people behind them, when frustrated. Because they aren't going as fast as they'd like.

    It's a hindrance for the person behind if they are familiar with the road, comfortable driving faster, they indicate to overtake, move out, accelerate and then the person being overtaken hits 100kph in 6 seconds only to drive like a geriatric when they reach the next bend.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 653 ✭✭✭Gonad


    Blame the fluoride


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,549 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    Jim Gazebo wrote: »
    I regularly end up on country roads I've never been on, I have to brake around a bend I can't see around,...
    If a bend is sharp enough that you can't see around it on approach, you brake, or at least slow down, BEFORE you get to it, not in the middle of it. Once you're past the apex and can see sufficiently far ahead, you can then accelerate out of the bend.

    People often complain about the lack of motorway training, which is certainly true, but many drivers could do with lessons on how to drive on windy country roads too.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,665 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    Not indicating, and giving pedestrians enough space is top of my list, after walking (rather than driving) the children around this summer. I thought it was bad when I was on the bike, but zero respect is given to pedestrians by a very significant minority of people driving. Didn't hit, doesn't mean it was fine...

    Linked to above, Not driving to a speed that you can brake in the distance you can see.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,419 ✭✭✭antix80


    Alun wrote: »
    People often complain about the lack of motorway training, which is certainly true, but many drivers could do with lessons on how to drive on windy country roads too.

    My friend was breathalysed when driving in Northern Ireland. They pulled him in for braking on bends and driving slowly and assumed he'd been drinking. His excuse: he wasn't familiar with the roads.

    (apologies to Dravokivich, I realise we're not in the UK)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,363 ✭✭✭Jim Gazebo


    Alun wrote: »
    If a bend is sharp enough that you can't see around it on approach, you brake, or at least slow down, BEFORE you get to it, not in the middle of it. Once you're past the apex and can see sufficiently far ahead, you can then accelerate out of the bend.

    People often complain about the lack of motorway training, which is certainly true, but many drivers could do with lessons on how to drive on windy country roads too.

    This is what I am talking about, I just did not word it very well. As for poster above, no one mentioned someone indicating behind to overtake. I'm talking about people not being anyway considerate just because "they know the road". I get frustrated on roads I know when someone drives slow but I don't mind if they can hit the limit on the straights. A bit of caution on blind bends is good driving.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,363 ✭✭✭Jim Gazebo


    Today as well to follow up on many above, indicators on roundabouts, imagine how many crashes there would be if you pulled out on the basis of someone's indication on a roundabout. It's unreal, how hard is it to use them.

    Why are the gardai not out in force at rush hour to put a little discipline on road users instead of focusing on speeding all the time?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,333 ✭✭✭TheRiverman


    Unfortunately we only have a fraction of the Traffic Policing Units required to enforce the road traffic laws.We probably need about two thousand more Gardai just for to exclusively police our roads.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,333 ✭✭✭TheRiverman


    Jim Gazebo wrote: »
    Today as well to follow up on many above, indicators on roundabouts, imagine how many crashes there would be if you pulled out on the basis of someone's indication on a roundabout. It's unreal, how hard is it to use them.

    Why are the gardai not out in force at rush hour to put a little discipline on road users instead of focusing on speeding all the time?

    We don't have near enough Gardai to do it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,802 ✭✭✭✭fullstop


    I, for one, won’t be using my indicators next time I’m in Israel. Or braking on bends in Northern Ireland.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,419 ✭✭✭antix80


    fullstop wrote: »
    I, for one, won’t be using my indicators next time I’m in Israel. Or braking on bends in Northern Ireland.

    Well... My point was some of its cultural.

    Obsession with being "in the right" as a reason for hogging roads or motorway lanes, or trying to mow down pedestrians because you sped round a bend and they're crossing at a non-designated spot, or beeping/flashing/tailgating some who who accidentally pulled out 50m from you while you were doing 80kph in a 50kph zone because you have the "right of way"

    It's a bit tiresome to see people acting so brave in the safety of their big cars, not to mention the damage they could do if they cause an accident.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,665 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    We don't have near enough Gardai to do it.
    And no political will to use ANPR camera's to their full potential. Even within the RSA.

    Speeding (including average speed), red lights, yellow boxes, bus lanes, illegal turns just off the top of my head that could be addressed by cameras. You could add in tax, insurance, nct, unaccompanied learners to the mix too.

    Not hi visibility enough for the RSA to push for....


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,164 ✭✭✭Bigbagofcans


    I don't get people not using indicators. For me, it's as natural as, say, putting on my seatbelt. It's second nature to me.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,281 ✭✭✭CrankyHaus


    Macy0161 wrote: »
    And no political will to use ANPR camera's to their full potential. Even within the RSA.

    Speeding (including average speed), red lights, yellow boxes, bus lanes, illegal turns just off the top of my head that could be addressed by cameras. You could add in tax, insurance, nct, unaccompanied learners to the mix too.

    Not hi visibility enough for the RSA to push for....

    I agree with all of this but you have to appreciate the backlash there will be against this sort of thing.

    Simply introducing a joined up public services card to address rampant fraud was an attack on civil liberties on a par with Kristallnacht as far as much of the commentariet were concerned.

    Rolling out cameras to address rampant dangerous driving will be far more vociferously attacked. As well as the useful idiots out front bleating about the surveillance state you'll have Gardai jealously guarding their purview (in the same way in which they resisted and undermined the Garda reserve) arm in arm with the many, many dangerous drivers who don't want their fun to stop.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,655 ✭✭✭i57dwun4yb1pt8


    overtaken speeder uppers - DIE VERMIN !

    over the line crossers- especially on blind bends - wtf???

    motorway joiners at 30 kmh usually from the layby

    right lane policers

    womens coffee mornings at 80kmh in the right lane

    BMW small cocks ( see first point )


  • Registered Users, Subscribers, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,689 ✭✭✭✭antodeco


    Something Im seeing more and more of is people who just dont know how to merge properly. The amount of times im coming to the end of the merging lane, indicate right (or left) and all the cars speed up to block me in. If everyone merged like a zip, all traffic would move far better.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 390 ✭✭jochenstacker


    Greetings form Germany, just wanna raise a few points.
    You don't see more Police on the roads here than in Ireland. Quite the opposite, in fact. Even just driving around Ennis, you'd see a dozen cop cars doing the rounds. When I drive around Kempten (population 70000), you may see a police car every other day and if they're going somewhere, it's mostly with lights and sirens, i.e. they're actually going somewhere other than the Centra to get a roll and a choccy bar.
    Speed cameras, there are a lot (a LOT!) of fixed ones in small villages and in 30 Zones. Sometimes the cops are out with the hairdrier, but always in the same spots.
    Red light cameras, they are on exactly one set of traffic lights in Kempten, nothing on the rest of them.
    Police stops, I've been stopped once or twice since 2016, seems the same or slightly less.
    There's gantries absolutely bristling with cameras and sensors all over the motorways, but due to nonsensical data protection laws, they do absolutely nothing, except extract tolls from trucks.

    But:
    When driving around in Germany, you don't get any of the issues raised in the OP, or not nearly to the same extend. In general people are courtious and patient on the road.
    When I drive around Limerick, I'm always on the lookout, because you know people WILL cut you up, pull in front of you, overtetake you through the roundabout, hassle you when you're going the limit, well, you know what it's like.
    Driving in the Allgäu, initially I was always on the alert for people pulling stupid sh*t and after a few weeks I could relax, because they just don't.
    People are courteous, patient, don't drive up your tailpipe, don't try to cut you off to overtake you on the wrong side, in short, it is a totally different driving experience.
    So, with enforcement out of the equation, the only reasons left are education and driving culture.
    I found people in Ireland to be far more selfish, aggressive and also oblivious and ignorant on the road.
    Ireland is a safer place to drive, but that is because the RSA has been bleating "Speed Kills" like a foghorn for decades.
    The message is, you can drive any which way you want, just drive slow. The effect they're after is bumpercars. Thousands of small crashes caused by stupidity and selfishness, but no big crashes, lives saved, job done and all for minimum effort. Wish I could work for the RSA. Print a million posters with Speed Kills, finished work at 09:30, off to the pub for the day.

    To the people making the point bUt iRElaNd is sAfEr, yes, purely on deathtoll taken entirely on it's own, but is that a preclusion for a little more driver training and enforcement?
    Yes, I know, I said there's about the same, or even less enforcement in Germany, but I think to change the culture, it would take 10-20 years of strict training, even stricter driving tests, ruthless, almost fascist levels of enforcement and steep penalties for rule breakers.
    This culture of "now you've passed your test, let me show you how to really drive" has to be eradicated and replaced by "they're teaching you those rules for a reason, so you better stick by them".
    It is a difference in attitude. In Germany people believe that the rules are there for the benefit of everyone, they make sure everything runs smoothly and everyone knows where they stand and what their rights and obligations are.
    In Ireland the rules are viewed as an obstacle to be bent, broken and overcome and with that, sadly, comes a spirit of "fcuk everyone else, I want mine!".
    I don't think this will change anytime soon, even with all the enforcement in the world.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,940 ✭✭✭Tazzimus


    antodeco wrote: »
    Something Im seeing more and more of is people who just dont know how to merge properly. The amount of times im coming to the end of the merging lane, indicate right (or left) and all the cars speed up to block me in. If everyone merged like a zip, all traffic would move far better.
    On the opposite side of that, idiots who will boot it to the very end of the merging lane and then try bully their way in to get an extra two cars ahead, or keep going up the hard shoulder until they find a gap.

    Seen a great one this morning:
    Took a detour to try avoid lots of traffic in Leixlip, and ended up joining the M4 from the Celbridge side of junction 6.
    There's a lane from the Leixlip side that merges in with the slip road coming off the flyover roundabout; Two or three cars decide that they're not sitting in traffic and drive up the divider area in between the two lanes... All to end up two cars in front of me.


  • Registered Users, Subscribers, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,689 ✭✭✭✭antodeco


    Tazzimus wrote: »
    On the opposite side of that, idiots who will boot it to the very end of the merging lane and then try bully their way in to get an extra two cars ahead, or keep going up the hard shoulder until they find a gap.

    I agree with the second point 100%. However, the first part of that is, if there are 2 lanes, and a car can drive to the end of it, then there is technically nothing wrong. People just arent using the lanes correctly. I see this all the time. There are 2 lanes, and one merges. That individual lane has no cars in it, so in essence only 1 lane is being used.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,665 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    CrankyHaus wrote: »
    I agree with all of this but you have to appreciate the backlash there will be against this sort of thing.
    I agree. "Shooting fish in a barrel, joe"...

    But anything less is just pretending to care. I get the politicians running scared, I really don't get the RSA not pushing for it. Hard.


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