New drivers to display novice ‘N’ plates from next month

V.W.L 11 wrote: »

kmh:eek: you'd be quicker on a moped:pac:

Yup, was a pain in a hole. A " noobs mark" it was called. When you get that off your car it's like a second birthday and worth throwing a party for!

I don't really have an issue with restricting those on learner permits, except for the fact that it could be very difficult to learn if there are 2X 2.0L cars in the family, meaning that the only option for the learner to get experience would be at €30+ per hour, which is counter-intuitive to getting people up to standard ASAP.

The fact is though, applying an arbitrary time period in which novice drivers have to display plates is a complete joke. It serves to do absolutely nothing but to encourage others to act aggressively towards novices, as people currently do to learners.

Only an anecdote, but last week I saw a Taxi driver (read: experienced driver) lean on the horn when a girl on a driving lesson cut out at a set of lights in a quiet suburb on a Saturday afternoon. Ten seconds later she was moving away, but was in tears, with his horn still going. That kind of sh1t isn't on when she's trying to play by the rules. There's an awful attitude towards learners and this will get worse with N plates.

The real solution to this, which the government won't do since it costs money, and the RSA won't do because it might involve some actual cop-on coupled with some hard work, is to introduce a far more stringent series of tests, over a period of time, to ensure that everyone is up to standard. I'd have absolutely no problem doing a test every 5 years or so.

If you want to see the standard of driving in Dublin for example, go down to Liffey Valley, and just have a look at the roundabout that exits towards the prison.

What you will see is people coming from the shopping centre in the left lane, stay in the left lane, that's clearly marked for straight only, use it to turn right around the roundabout and leave at the second exit.

I think I'm one of the few people I see who is in the correct lane, clearly marked to turn right, but then I always end up having to STOP on a roundabout, to try catch a break in traffic from arseholes belting around incorrectly.

I notice the RSA are now finally running a radio campaign about motorway use. Their campaigns normally tackle the most obvious rubbish habbits and tendencies of the quarter, and how Irish drivers operate on motorways is shocking. Cruising in the middle lane, no indication, driving up each others holes, taking risks shifting lanes. It's actually mental.

There is a lot to be said to have learners permitted on the motorways. In theory it should be the safest type of road to drive on, but here it can be one of the most dangerous as drivers are not being taught correctly how to use a motorway via lessons, and not tested on it.

In the States for example, part of your teaching is on the highways, and your test brings you onto the highway(depending on the state).

I'd say on a daily basis I probably witness about 3-4 near hits on the M50, and it's atleast once a week traffic gets blocked by an incident. At this point I'm of the opinion if you cause a crash on the M50 due to poor/dangerous driving, your license should be removed. There is really no excuse.

TheDoc wrote: »

What you will see is people coming from the shopping centre in the left lane, stay in the left lane, that's clearly marked for straight only, use it to turn right around the roundabout and leave at the second exit.

Exit 2 on the roundabout is straight ahead no? With Exit 1 being a left turn?

HurtLocker wrote: »

...The only rule they have that makes sense is the right on red. We need a rule like this!

There was talk of it back on February from Leo The Rad-Cap:

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/minister-considering-move-to-allow-cars-break-red-light-621856.html

jimgoose wrote: »

If the exit is beyond "12 o'clock" the conventional wisdom these days is to approach in the right-hand lane regardless of what number exit it is. Of course, local road-markings always supersede:

Can definitely get on board with that to a certain extent, but the example junction from Liffey Valley would have a second exit that's clearly straight on and a third exit that's clearly a right turn, so in that specific case I would be in the left hand lane approaching it.

Just wanted to see if I was wrong in doing that.