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Weaving in traffic?

  • 16-07-2019 12:42am
    #1
    Thingymebob
    Registered Users Posts: 115 ✭✭


    On Sunday I came off a roundabout layout, and saw a long line of traffic. There is a sports ground on the right and assumed it was right hand turning traffic I double checked the bus lane times, and indicating before I moved into the bus lane as Sunday didn’t apply. Travelling about 15 metres further up, I could now see there were cars parked in the bus lane with blue lights, so I indicated right and returned to the main traffic lane. Both movements were careful and the car behind let me back into the lane with no bother (car behind dropped back, waved me in).

    When I reached the Gardaí, a plain clothes Garda got me to lower my window and said “Don’t weave in and out of traffic. Your indicator isn’t a magic wand”. I wasn’t going to debate it, so I just replied “Ok”, and was waved on. I was a bit annoyed as I felt I wasn’t weaving but taking legitimate action to avoid an obstruction (the Gardaí parked in the bus lane, who in turn were legitimately there for the purposes of a spot check).

    Talking to my grandfather tonight, I mentioned it to him and he said it wasn’t weaving. My grandfather is a former police officer, having just retired a year ago in a jurisdiction abroad. I pulled the dashcam footage from front and back cameras and emailed it to him. He agrees that I wasn’t weaving.

    So is weaving defined differently in Ireland?


Comments

  • #2
    Infernal Racket
    Registered Users Posts: 1,418 ✭✭✭Infernal Racket


    Thingymebob wrote: »
    On Sunday I came off a roundabout layout, and saw a long line of traffic. There is a sports ground on the right and assumed it was right hand turning traffic I double checked the bus lane times, and indicating before I moved into the bus lane as Sunday didn’t apply. Travelling about 15 metres further up, I could now see there were cars parked in the bus lane with blue lights, so I indicated right and returned to the main traffic lane. Both movements were careful and the car behind let me back into the lane with no bother (car behind dropped back, waved me in).

    When I reached the Gardaí, a plain clothes Garda got me to lower my window and said “Don’t weave in and out of traffic. Your indicator isn’t a magic wand”. I wasn’t going to debate it, so I just replied “Ok”, and was waved on. I was a bit annoyed as I felt I wasn’t weaving but taking legitimate action to avoid an obstruction (the Gardaí parked in the bus lane, who in turn were legitimately there for the purposes of a spot check).

    Talking to my grandfather tonight, I mentioned it to him and he said it wasn’t weaving. My grandfather is a former police officer, having just retired a year ago in a jurisdiction abroad. I pulled the dashcam footage from front and back cameras and emailed it to him. He agrees that I wasn’t weaving.

    So is weaving defined differently in Ireland?

    There is no defined law against weaving. There is however driving without due care and attention, careless driving and dangerous driving. The first one covers a multitude


  • #3
    Irishphotodesk
    Registered Users Posts: 1,896 ✭✭✭Irishphotodesk


    Look at it from the Garda perspective, they see a vehicle jump into the bus lane (even if it’s not actively a bus lane at the time), and undertake 2/3vehicles and pull back in to traffic.

    If the bus lane was active, it would be illegal. (Driving in a bus lane, undertaking etc)

    All of the queue of traffic were technically illegal due to not driving in the left lane.

    Filtering for me occurs when the bike is between two lanes of traffic (either going with the same flow or contra flow), it isn’t filtering if you are jumping into a bus lane to undertake, it’s perfectly fine to perform the maneuver if the traffic is turning right and blocking the flow in the driving lane, but it is an undertaking procedure (in my opinion).

    Your decision to return to the traffic must have happened extremely fast after you went into the (non active) bus lane, 15m on a bike even at crawling levels of driving that’s no more than a second or two


  • #4
    Samuel T. Cogley
    Registered Users Posts: 10,684 ✭✭✭✭Samuel T. Cogley


    You did the right thing... by just letting it go.


  • #5
    bobbyss
    Registered Users Posts: 5,190 ✭✭✭bobbyss


    Samuel T. Cogley wrote:
    You did the right thing... by just letting it go.


    Would the op be wrong to challenge the Garda? When is it ok to do that?


  • #6
    D3V!L
    Registered Users Posts: 2,923 ✭✭✭D3V!L


    bobbyss wrote: »
    Would the op be wrong to challenge the Garda? When is it ok to do that?

    Sounds like some good advice. Its always good to take it when you can. Life gets easier ;)


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  • #7
    CrankyHaus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,281 ✭✭✭CrankyHaus


    bobbyss wrote: »
    Would the op be wrong to challenge the Garda? When is it ok to do that?

    When you're accused of an actual offence you didn't commit rather than given some well meaning advice (which you're free to ignore if you don't agree with).


  • #8
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users Posts: 26,050 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    What would he hope to acheive by challenging the guard? He wasn't getting any charge or ticket or penalty. The only downside to this encounter with the guard was a short delay while the conversation took place, and prolonging the conversation could only prolong the delay. And if you're a big enough dick about demanding people acknowledge that they are wrong when you think they are wrong, you will get their backs up. What possible advantage could accrue from that? Piss off the guard enough, and he may just find something he can charge you with.

    The OP would be perfectly entitled to tell the guard that he disagreed with the guard's reading of what had just happened. In that sense, he wouldn't be wrong to challenge the guard. But doing so could not possibly produce a better outcome for the OP than not doing so, and could conceivably produce a worse. In that sense, he would be wrong to challenge the guard.


  • #9
    bobbyss
    Registered Users Posts: 5,190 ✭✭✭bobbyss


    Peregrinus wrote:
    The OP would be perfectly entitled to tell the guard that he disagreed with the guard's reading of what had just happened. In that sense, he wouldn't be wrong to challenge the guard. But doing so could not possibly produce a better outcome for the OP than not doing so, and could conceivably produce a worse. In that sense, he would be wrong to challenge the guard.

    This is what I mean by challenging the Garda. I don't mean shouting etc. Just politely telling him of my point of view. But when? Pull up in the bus lane ahead of the police cars? You could then be done for what? Obstruction? Interference?

    So in the OPs scenarion when and where could you have a respectful exchange?

    You seem to suggest that it's ok for a Garda to give friendly advice but it's looking for trouble if a driver (who has been law abiding) in turn wishes to offer friendly advice to a Garda.


  • #10
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    bobbyss wrote: »
    This is what I mean by challenging the Garda. I don't mean shouting etc. Just politely telling him of my point of view. But when? Pull up in the bus lane ahead of the police cars? You could then be done for what? Obstruction? Interference?

    So in the OPs scenarion when and where could you have a respectful exchange?

    You seem to suggest that it's ok for a Garda to give friendly advice but it's looking for trouble if a driver (who has been law abiding) in turn wishes to offer friendly advice to a Garda.

    This is one of those occasions when prudence outweighs rectitude.


  • #11
    4ensic15
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,691 ✭✭✭4ensic15


    Gerry G wrote: »
    There is no defined law against weaving. There is however driving without due care and attention, careless driving and dangerous driving. The first one covers a multitude

    There is an offence of changing lanes for temporary advantage, which may be described as weaving. The o/p may also have overtaken on the inside. In any case the guards may have suspected drink driving. The best way to check is to stop the driver and accuse him of doing something wrong. If a strong smeel of drink, blurred speech and a red face manifest themselves, then it is breathlyser time. the o/p should count himself lucky and stop dwelling on giving the guards a lecture on road traffic law.


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  • #12
    GM228
    Registered Users Posts: 8,925 ✭✭✭GM228


    4ensic15 wrote: »
    There is an offence of changing lanes for temporary advantage, which may be described as weaving.

    What offence?

    There was an offence of changing lanes without good cause, but it was revoked 22 years ago.


  • #13
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users Posts: 26,050 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    bobbyss wrote: »
    This is what I mean by challenging the Garda. I don't mean shouting etc. Just politely telling him of my point of view. But when? Pull up in the bus lane ahead of the police cars? You could then be done for what? Obstruction? Interference?

    So in the OPs scenarion when and where could you have a respectful exchange?

    You seem to suggest that it's ok for a Garda to give friendly advice but it's looking for trouble if a driver (who has been law abiding) in turn wishes to offer friendly advice to a Garda.
    The guard's job includes monitoring traffic, and that extends to giving advice to motorists which may, occasionally, be based on a misreading of what has just happened. So what he did was not particularly surprising and, even if mistaken, was not harmful.

    A motorist is perfectly entitled to disagree with a guard's reading of the situation, but unless the guard's reading is causing him a problem - like a charge or a ticket - there seems to be no point in engaging with the guard about it, other than to derive some kind of satisfaction from taking up the guard's time to tell them that you disagree with them. It's perhaps going a bit far to describe that as "looking for trouble", but it does look pretty insecure, and it is the kind of behaviour that tends to get people's backs up. So, I say again, why would the motorist want to do this?


  • #14
    babi-hrse
    Registered Users Posts: 787 ✭✭✭babi-hrse


    bobbyss wrote: »
    This is what I mean by challenging the Garda. I don't mean shouting etc. Just politely telling him of my point of view. But when? Pull up in the bus lane ahead of the police cars? You could then be done for what? Obstruction? Interference?

    So in the OPs scenarion when and where could you have a respectful exchange?

    You seem to suggest that it's ok for a Garda to give friendly advice but it's looking for trouble if a driver (who has been law abiding) in turn wishes to offer friendly advice to a Garda.

    You'll get your tyres checked your tax checked a few questions all of which is the guard would be perfectly entitled to check. In short maybe just let it be. If somebody says something and doesn't actually do much why try push back when there's nothing to gain from it.


  • #15
    bobbyss
    Registered Users Posts: 5,190 ✭✭✭bobbyss


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    The guard's job includes monitoring traffic, and that extends to giving advice to motorists which may, occasionally, be based on a misreading of what has just happened. So what he did was not particularly surprising and, even if mistaken, was not harmful.

    A motorist is perfectly entitled to disagree with a guard's reading of the situation, but unless the guard's reading is causing him a problem - like a charge or a ticket - there seems to be no point in engaging with the guard about it, other than to derive some kind of satisfaction from taking up the guard's time to tell them that you disagree with them. It's perhaps going a bit far to describe that as "looking for trouble", but it does look pretty insecure, and it is the kind of behaviour that tends to get people's backs up. So, I say again, why would the motorist want to do this?

    People who have had bad experiences with the Gardai may not be that interested in listening to advice from them and may like to inform them that they are in the wrong.


  • #16
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users Posts: 26,050 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    bobbyss wrote: »
    People who have had bad experiences with the Gardai may not be that interested in listening to advice from them and may like to inform them that they are in the wrong.
    A liking for informing people when you think they are in the wrong may perhaps suggest an explanation for why someone finds that they tend to have bad experiences with people. :)


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