Near Misses Volume 2 (So close you can feel it)

I think in Ireland we generally need to speak up more. Whether that is calling someone out for littering, bad behaviour on public transport or the examples in previous posts.

As a society we are way too meek and prefer to mind our own business. The new phenomenon of being labelled a "karen" also hinders people speaking up.

If you do not speak up then no one will. The Gardaí won't do it neither will the councils. I would like to think that someone who you had a go at would think about their actions later which might change what they do in future if for no other reason than having someone have a go at them again.

I understand people not getting involved but I think it shirks your responsibility as a citizen.

In Germany it is normal to pull people up on bad behaviour. You even see it if you don't wait for the green man at pedestrian light. "Es ist röt!!!". It normalises good behaviour whereas saying nothing normalises bad behaviour.

maybe I am just naïve

See where you're coming from but its difficult because at the end of the day, lots of things are subjective. Everyone has their own view of what happened, what should have happened, what's right, what's acceptable etc. If anything we're becoming too policing of each other's behaviour. And it most definitely should be for government/ local government to implement policies and legislation and for the Gardai to police unlawful behaviour. The fact that they don't or that there's been massive under resourcing/ neglect of the Gardai is another issue for another discussion.

I'd love if people could just become a little bit more tolerant of each other, accepting of the fact that we all share public spaces (how you/ I want to see them used isn't necessarily how others do), and yes, certainly, considerate of others when we're in public.

I'm married to a German and spend plenty of time over there. German culture has its good points, but god they'd also try your patience and some days the place just seems full of cranks. I don't mind because its a novelty and I'm only there for short periods, but my wife often can't wait to get out of the place.

Even objectively speaking there are blurred lines between what is unlawful/ dangerous and what is simply ignorant/ selfish.

Then you have to factor in the issue of subjective perception. Scientific studies have shown that even people who witness the same event will have different recollections of it even a short time after the event. How much of that is down to memory and how much of it is down to perceptive bias I don't know - driving too fast, driving too close, pulled in/ out too early/ late… we'll all have slightly different tolerances in the absence of real time data.

Then you have the issue of what is considered 'reasonable' or 'polite' confrontation. Will a female driver perceive my dialogue through a closed window to be threatening or aggressive simply because of our genders, whereas a male driver would view it differently.

Few of us (in my experience anyway) are masters of language and communication skills. So the further away from plain dangerous/ illegal and the closer to 'inconsiderate' driving we go, the muddier the waters and the more difficult it is to objectively determine fault and degrees of fault etc.

Beyond an exasperated look and throwing of hands to the sky, 9 times out of 10 I just couldn't be bothered taking inconsiderate drivers/ cyclists/ pedestrians to task.

I firmly believe that people's behaviour will only change when something becomes socially unacceptable, and generally things only become socially unacceptable when the authorities take action to confirm that to be the case, whether through legislation or advertising campaigns. Drink driving, seat belts, plastic bags, smoking, discrimination in the workplace etc etc. Attitudes have changed hugely in those areas in my lifetime. Unfortunately in other areas (fly tipping/ littering, general road safety) the government has shown no real interest in fixing issues, and so they persist. So while I'll appreciate efforts by individuals to try and educate other road users as to how to be less of a d!ck, I'd much prefer the government to take a long overdue proactive role.

Don't see what's particularly Irish about it at all to be honest.

It wasn't a definition, it's a concept. The fact that social apparently means people not authorities has no relevance on what is deemed socially acceptable or not. If the authorities bring in a law aimed at changing people's behaviour for the general good of society, and that law gets public buy-in (see further - plastic bag levy, smoking ban, compulsory seat belt wearing), then it becomes socially unacceptable to be seen to be, for example, using plastic bags like they're confetti, smoking in a selfish manner in non-designated semi-enclosed public spaces, driving without a seatbelt etc.

He's the exact opposite of a vigilante. There's quite a few people doing the same thing in Ireland.

I might not entirely agree with his modus operandi, but there's no 'enforcement' in anything he does to be fair. Enforcement is arrest/ detention/ fining/ charging/ prosecuting/ sentencing. Private citizens are perfectly entitled to present evidence of law-breaking to the appropriate authorities where it affects them.

Did that just happen? WTF

I didn't need to watch the clip to know that it was either a BMW or an Audi with fancy wheels and blacked out windows.

Appalling stuff. We had one yesterday where the big BMW SUV driver decided to overtake on a solid white line and a bend. He had to jump on the brakes, stop dead on the other side of the road, because sure enough a car came around the corner towards us. He got a good blast of the horn for his troubles. Pure brainless stuff.

Definitely. That's too much of a disregard for so many rules of the road, not to mention criminal reckless driving offence, to let it go. Hopefully he has a few other notes on his record and the powers that be might actually crack down on him at some point.

Bandit country. Thought I recognised the road. Once you pass the Carrick roundabout on the N2 heading north, all bets are off on the driving you'll see.

Question about close passes and cycle lanes. If I am cycling in a cycle lane with dashed white lines (I think it's officially called a cycle track?) and a car is driving past, do they still have to give 1.5m distance from me legally speaking? I'm not sure if it's considered overtaking as they are technically in a different lane, but the risk is still the same.

It happens all the time where people see the dashed line and then drive tight to it.

Crossing a narrow bridge(on foot!) yesterday evening, the SUV coming from behind just couldn't wait for me to make it the less than 50m to the other side and just had to squeeze me into the stone wall to avoid the oncoming van that had stopped(due to the narrow bridge). All in a 50km/h zone.

He then happening to be driving back out of my estate when I got there a few minutes later so I flagged him down and tried to have the polite conversation with him.

"You should try to leave a bit more space when overtaking pedestrians."

"I do loads of cycling and I thought I gave loads of space, I consider myself a very good driver."

"I could have put my hand out and touched the car as you passed."

"You know, I'm actually a cop..."

"Then you should have even more awareness around more vulnerable road users."

He drove off then, obviously had been expecting me to apologise for daring to question a "cop"...

I know I was jogging and not cycling, but there's no equivalent thread and it's the same basic issue anyway, a lack of care towards anyone not in a car. It's a narrow bridge I have to cross if I want to run from home without driving to start somewhere. There's no footpath on the bridge, but it's only wide enough for one modern car at a time anyway so traffic generally waits at either side to give way and that leaves enough space for pedestrians/cyclists. The footpath is only on one side of the road either side of the bridge so you have to go on the same side of the road in both directions.

I'm still undecided on whether I'll bother to report it, he didn't seem like the type to accept there's a better way to behave around pedestrians/cyclists.