Irish drivers.

Having driven in the US, France, Italy, Spain, and others I'd say Irish drivers observe the rules of the road as well, if not better than, most countries. Patience and courtesy are certainly more prevalent here. New York, Rome and Naples, for example, resound with the constant honking of horns.

Lane discipline? You can not put these two words in one sentence.
N4 every evening: left lane empty as far as you can see and yet people sit in middle lane doing below speed limit. But what’s worse right lane is the same some times!

I do find you have to watch yourself around Dublin City - especially as a pedestrian or cyclist. The speeds cars travel at around Dublin city centre is crazy.

The media and government sensationalize the road deaths here and make it sound like it's the armageddon out there. There was a slight rise last year (no mention of the population increasing 15 times faster than the EU average and the roads falling apart) and they are talking about reducing the speed limit around Dublin to 30kmh. I have driven in lots of different countries, in Asia, Europe etc. and it is mostly fine here and statistically our road deaths are similar to places like Switzerland with some of the most draconian road policing/fines etc. in the whole world, and public transport and roads that are light years ahead of ours.

What we do have here is a lot of frustrated drivers due to the traffic grinding to a standstill and terrible traffic light sequences where you get maybe 2 cars through out of a queue of 15, which I have never seen this anywhere else. Motorway lane discipline is shocking too and we have seem to have a lot of overtaking lane hoggers than will sit there because they are doing the speed limit and you shouldn't be going faster (you'd be lifted in basically any other country for this, even Japan where they are the most sensible drivers ever). There are a lot of deaths on rural roads and late at night, but there is absolutely zero focus on this - they just lob speed cameras on large national roads and motorways trying to catch people speeding on those.

In the 70s approximately 700-800 killed every year with about 25% of the vehicles currently on the roads.But roads atrocious then,no so much now.Give any quango or private interest group a leg and they will rant and rave as nauseum.

You can't get road deaths to zero, it's impossible unless you live in a micro state. At some point you have to accept that, unless you want to just stop people travelling around. Sure you can take measures to reduce it - but covering all motorways and national roads with speed cameras definitely isn't going to achieve it.

There are very few countries in the world with less road deaths per capita - yet our media makes it sound like we are one of the worst places on earth, so yes that is sensationalism.

Would you rather live here or in an Asian dictatorship Singapore ?

I'd say Irish drivers observe the rules of the road as well, if not better than, most countries.

I’m not so sure. I drive in several EU countries every year, and that hasn't been my experience. I wouldn't say Irish drivers are worse. It is just a different style. In general, they’re much more courteous and forgiving, but that comes with a price.

My main issue, though, is the lack of awareness of some drivers. I see more drivers here who seem unsure of where they’re going until the last second. I’ve lost count of how many people I’ve seen stop dead in the middle lane of a roundabout to wait for someone to let them take their exit, rather than just going around again (lane discipline again). Because Irish drivers are so polite, people know someone will eventually stop for them, which actually creates these bad habits.

Traffic lights in Irish cities is another problem. it’s common to see a few cars going through just after the light turned red. You don’t see that as much elsewhere, maybe because there are so few Gardaí and almost no red-light cameras.

Yeah, we have our issues for sure, but the roads are relatively safe. And I’d say the majority of road users are decent and courteous.

Go to New York and there’s so many beeping horns that you end up blocking it out and not even hearing them anymore

Cars in 70-80s tinfoil?Were seat elts required then?