Are terrible driving habits on the rise?

ianobrien wrote: »

I drove from Cork to Killarney today and I saw one car do the following, incorrect merge at the end of a Dual Carriageway (barge his way through ignoring the zip merge), dangerous overtake and then slow down the car he just overtook, hog the overtaking lane, arbitrarily stop on a main road to let a car merge and then get thick (blowing the horn) when the car didn't move (the other lane of traffic was still barrelling along at approx 90kph, the merger had cop on not to get creamed). Thankfully I lost him on the County Bounds. If you asked the driver, s/he probably didn't know what they did wrong......

Oh, he also ran an amber light in Macroom when there was PLENTY of time to stop (traffic was so heavy

Thought I would bring this thread to life again by mentioning something which appears to be a recent enough occurrence on the roads, from what I can see.

It's the apparent disregard of the tried and trusted 'right of way' system that has worked for decades. I see it every day, without fail and it's getting worse.

I could give endless examples but it mostly consists of drivers slowing down in mid-traffic to allow other motorists to pull out of a side road/entrance to a housing estate/garage forecourt etc. I've even seen this shocking practice on roundabouts of all places.

You could argue that it's a good example of human kindness and consideration to others but to me it seems more like a re-writing the rules of the road by irresponsible drivers, without much thought for the possible consequences.

In my experience its probably a little better than before with less boy racer lunatics on the road. 15 years ago you would come across hardshoulder racing or lads acting the maggot on back roads once every few weeks but I havent seen this in a good while now.

For every other driver its not much different.

We live on a rural road. The other day we met a young girl come around a blind bend on two wheels and then hurled abuse at us because she had to reverse to let us into a gate.

She lives about 1km away so a neighbour of sorts. We called to the house and it took her a few minutes to face us. We explained that there was no need to abuse anyone, that the road is to be shared and that she drives too fast. She denied all, said I don't have to listen to this and closed the door. These people are mouthy until you're standing in front of them. As we drove off a sister of about 18 came running out to give us the V sign.

Now if I had to describe the place it would be Onslow's garden from keeping up appearances but half an acre of scrap cars and junk lying everywhere and from what we seen its cleaner outside than inside.

How do you reason with people who believe they own the road in their banger? I told my wife on the way in there's no talking to some parts of society.

What camp do you fit more naturally into?

Thanks for clearing that up.

It wouldnt be a very interesting motors forum if only people who couldn't give a shite about driving contributed. A bit like saying those on the IT forum couldn't switch on a computer to save their life

Must look back on my post and check where I suggested that “ only those who don’t give a sh#%e about driving should post.

My point if you’d care to read it is that everyone thinks that they are a “ great driver “ and it’s all those “ other people “ who are bad drivers.

Although we don’t want to admit it the standard of driving here is woeful by all of us.

My original comment was made to call into question the habits of certain types of drivers on our roads, who's number appears to be on the increase.

If being able to identify bad driving by others makes me a good driver, then so be it.

Who said only those interested in driving 'should' post on a Motors Forum?

Tbf coming on here and slagging off posters who have the temerity to call out poor driving habbits is unlikely to get a universally positive response.

Is it your position that everybody on here is by default a poor driver or maybe its just the case that you think a few annonomous posters might be exaggerating their ability? In any case do you disagree that the examples of poor driving highlighted on this thread actually exist out there and it would be better for all road users if they were tackled?