Irish drivers.

batman_oh · 19-06-2026 11:24AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124562835#Comment_124562835

This is something we are great for here, people gate keeping everybody else because SPEEDING IS THE DEVILZ. I have driven around Japan (far lower road deaths than here) which is one of the most rule following places on earth and when you are outside the cities most people are going at least 10kmh above the limit, with lots doing 20-30kmh over. If you come across a person going under the limit or even at it, they will almost always move out of the way once they have chance because they don't want to hold up everybody else. Here you will happily have somebody with a line of 20 cars behind them because that's their right and you shouldn't be going any faster than them.

Of all the places I've driven (lots of Europe/UK/Japan/South Africa/America) we definitely have the most dithering idiots on the road, and generally drive slower. However it's Formula 1 crossed with Armageddon on our roads according to the news. It's our reckless speeding and nothing else that kills.

J_R · 19-06-2026 11:39AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124562894#Comment_124562894

Sorry, I do not agree that it is a risky business. I believe that a competent driver should be easily able to ascertain if the hard shoulder is safe or not to enter.

As the rule book says "

no pedestrians or cyclists are already using it and no junctions or entrances are nearby."

If they are incapable of that perhaps they should not be driving.

Also the car behind may have an emergency, sick child, wife having baby etc. etc

nobody should drive with the attitude that they can Police the road.

magicbastarder · 19-06-2026 11:41AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124562909#Comment_124562909

be careful what you wish for; if you're caught doing 30km/h or more over the limit in japan, it's an immediate licence suspension (30 days - or more if you've previous violations)

https://japan-dev.com/blog/traffic-violation-in-japan

Seth Brundle · 19-06-2026 11:50AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124562955#Comment_124562955

Sorry, I do not agree that it is a risky business.

I'm not really looking for you to agree with me here - it is risky, full stop. There isn't a debate about this point and every road safety body would agree.

I believe that a competent driver should be easily able to ascertain if the hard shoulder is safe or not to enter.

This is not being realistic. You can not always see where there are entrances. You don't know if a tractor is going to stick it's nose out of a field. You have no idea what will or won't suddenly appear and if you think you do then you'd be wrong because there is no such thing as being psychic!

As the rule book says "
no pedestrians or cyclists are already using it and no junctions or entrances are nearby."
If they are incapable of that perhaps they should not be driving.

As I said, you cannot always tell where the entrances are which makes driving in the HS risky if not dangerous.

I frequently encounter drivers who appear to be completely unable to read the road ahead of them missing clear and obvious risks. Are you seriously telling us that those same drivers can now make a safe decision that nothing will suddenly "come out of nowhere" onto the HS?

Also the car behind may have an emergency, sick child, wife having baby etc. etc

Yeah yeah there are always so many extreme examples that justify taking risks to keep impatient people happy. 🙄

nobody should drive with the attitude that they can Police the road.

I never suggested otherwise.
Not wanting to drive in the hard shoulder is not policing the road. You may feel entitled to bully someone into driving in a manner that they don't want to but that doesn't mean that they were policing the road.

alias no.9 · 19-06-2026 11:52AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124518478#Comment_124518478

It often is, you can pick them out doing 20kmh below the speed limit, randomly tapping the brakes or overcorrecting the steering, with open road in front of them and empty lanes to the left of them

magicbastarder · 19-06-2026 11:53AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124562835#Comment_124562835

uh, welcome to the world of shared public space. a driver wants to drive at the legal limit? great for them, but they've no actual expectation or entitlement that they will be able to.

if they need to drive at the limit to get to their destination on time? that's comical. their own fault. who leaves the house/work/etc with absolutely no margin for being late, and then gets to say it's the rest of the world's fault for their tardiness?

batman_oh · 19-06-2026 11:55AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124562963#Comment_124562963

Having driven there and knowing people that lived there they will rarely do anything to anybody if they are going up to 20kmh over the limit. This is well know too. In towns and cities they are more strict.

Even Google agrees:

Yes, many drivers in Japan frequently exceed posted speed limits. While technically illegal, there is an unwritten tolerance—often around 10 km/h to 20 km/h over the limit—before drivers are likely to be pulled over or ticketed. [1, 2, 3, 4]Speeding Norms & Tolerances

Highways: The statutory limit for expressways is 100 km/h (or up to 120 km/h on specifically designated sections). However, flow-of-traffic speeds often range between 110 km/h and 120 km/h. [1, 2, 3]
Local Roads: The standard limit is 60 km/h, dropping to 30 km/h to 40 km/h in residential zones and smaller streets. Locals routinely drive 10 km/h to 15 km/h faster than the posted signs. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Enforcement Threshold: According to general driving consensus and police data, tickets are overwhelmingly issued to those caught going 20 km/h or more over the limit. []

Hotblack Desiato · 19-06-2026 11:56AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124562847#Comment_124562847

Driving without due consideration is an offence.

It'll also fail you your driving test.

ROTR states that if there's an opportunity for slow traffic to allow others pass, they should use it.

Seth Brundle · 19-06-2026 11:57AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124562955#Comment_124562955

So you disagree that this is not being risky?

Terrifying footage shows 'extremely dangerous' overtaking on Irish road - Dublin's FM104

Seth Brundle · 19-06-2026 11:59AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124563015#Comment_124563015

That does not include having to take unnecessary risks to facilitate someone to overtake.
Anyhow, the poster I've been replying to did not mention anything about slow traffic but referred to allowing faster traffic to overtake.

magicbastarder · 19-06-2026 11:59AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124563012#Comment_124563012

sorry, i don't bother reading the output of the hallucination engine that is gemini.

Hotblack Desiato · 19-06-2026 12:03PM

Video won't play.

But posting a video of someone doing something wrongly isn't an argument to say that that thing can't be done correctly.

batman_oh · 19-06-2026 12:04PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124563030#Comment_124563030

So you'd rather ignore the actual experience of people who have been there (and could be confirmed in a few minutes of reading any Japanese forum/or anything to do with driving there) and just be completely ignorant and make your own mind up with zero experience or knowledge instead?

Good to know. You have a great argument there! Here's a reddit thread too talking about it. All made up lies as opposed to your fantasy arrangement I suppose?

Driving speeds in Japan : r/japan

J_R · 19-06-2026 12:04PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124563017#Comment_124563017

Hi,

you did say something a post back about extreme examples ?

Anyway above nothing to do with a nice safe detour into the hard shoulder and out again by a safe compentent driver.

magicbastarder · 19-06-2026 12:08PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124563046#Comment_124563046

So you'd rather ignore the actual experience of people who have been there

uh, no, my post was explicit about what i'm ignoring. i'm ignoring anything gemini says, it had been frequently (and hilariously) totally incorrect when i've searched.

batman_oh · 19-06-2026 12:10PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124563063#Comment_124563063

Apologies so, it just came across like the whole point was being dismissed because of that.

I don't use those things much at all so no idea how bad they are (just typed it into Google and defaulted to that).

magicbastarder · 19-06-2026 12:11PM

FWIW i do accept what you're saying, i came across the same info myself (and also FWIW i often use startpage.com for searching, which is essentially google with the AI and a lot of the ad garbage stripped out)

magicbastarder · 19-06-2026 12:16PM

regarding comparing ireland to other countries and whether we're better drivers/have safer roads than them, one comparison i've seen several times on boards is that we've a lower road fatality figure than the netherlands, which is in theory a mecca for road safety - but that advantage disappears when you take cyclist fatalities out of the stats. cycling is obviously vastly more popular there, and a huge number of their fatalities don't involve 'motoring' at all.

another way of looking at it - if someone was trying to make the argument that irish roads are safer because our fatalities are lower - and that's a simple and possibly understandable first assumption to make - what would happen tomorrow if irish people started cycling at the same level as the dutch? it'd be an absolute massacre.

and if irish roads are as safe as is claimed, why is such a large proportion of the population too scared to cycle on our roads?

MojoMaker · 19-06-2026 01:27PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124562894#Comment_124562894

No matter what your reason for travelling is, you are not more important than someone else

Well, isn't this really the nub of it all?

Ben Bailey · 19-06-2026 04:35PM

Wow, just … Wow. It seems that there's a lot of unhappy, for various reasons, folk on the roads.

Driving now for 50 years, mostly in Ireland. Vans, cars & motorbikes. I've seen worse elsewhere, but not often.

I'd suggest introducing driver training onto the earlier years of secondary school curriculum. Start with classroom lectures, then introduce VR or screen imagery. Move onto lessons from Driving Instructors in the schoolyard. Maybe have Fire Brigade staff show a few (carefully chosen) post 'accident' pics.

Don't focus on mechanical aptitude, focus on attitude & being attentive. The roads / paths / cycleways are all shared spaces & they will remain so even with autonomous vehicles.

If you're driving and you stop or slow to let someone else enter the carriageway what happens ?.

You feel good (even if they don't acknowledge you) because you've helped someone you don't know.

Being patient and courteous is GOOD FOR YOU !. (Being an aggressive c&*t is not !).

_Kaiser_ · 21-06-2026 02:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124563814#Comment_124563814

It depends... If you are slowing or stopping in heavy traffic to let someone out then fair enough. Distribution and impact is minimal.

If however, as happened to me once on the old N3 at the Dunboyne turnoff, you slow suddenly on a 100 km/h road to let someone out of a junction, causing other drivers behind you to have to respond in turn, no you're doing it wrong.

Ben Bailey · 21-06-2026 02:48PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124568184#Comment_124568184

I was thinking of the first instance rather the second. Standing on the brakes on a 100km limit road seems weird and irresponsible. Maybe they thought the car was going to pull out in front of them.

_Kaiser_ · 21-06-2026 04:45PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124568283#Comment_124568283

I don't know what they were thinking but it does happen a fair bit - maybe not as dramatic as that, but a lot of what I call "misplaced courtesy".

A bigger one in those scenarios are the certain group of drivers who almost never, ever, let you out.

Ben Bailey · 21-06-2026 05:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124568782#Comment_124568782

Yep, there are always extremes at either end of behaviour. That's mostly why I'd like to see driver training pivot from mechanical aptitude to driver attitude with a strong emphasis on maintaining alertness.

Before I started lessons with a pro my dad would bring me out driving (prob illegaly). He'd routinely ask me to tell him the colour & make of the car behind me and chide me if I glanced in my rearview when he asked me. It taught me to routinely scan my mirrors & start noticing how other people drove, which then led to being able to predict situations.

Motorbike riding gives you a completely different perspective (along with a shorter lifespan).

Irish drivers.

Comments