delgirl said:
Perhaps signs in Polish and Russian, which would cover all the Balkan states, would be a lot more useful than the 'Links Fahren' etc. aimed at a few tourists.
Let's get a few things straight here. Since when were Poland and Russia in the 'Balkan states'? When I went to school, the Balkans were confined to southern Europe, in particular Bulgarian regions - I assume you mean Baltic states - if so then both Poland and Russia are not in the Baltics. The Baltics consist of Latvia , Lithuania and Estonia. They have their own individual language, culture and attitudes quite distinct from each other and Russia and Poland.
My Polish friends will admit that the Latvians in particular do have a gung-ho attitude when it comes to driving in Ireland - back home they have an excellent road testing system and are probably better trained at driving than people in Ireland.
The problem arises when they come here to Ireland - the drivers are predominantly male and have aggressive attitudes because - they regard Ireland as a 'holiday experience ' with no Guards on the roads unlike their own country.They tend to think that they have a free reign when it comes to driving at speed, and why not? no cops,no licence,no road tax, no insurance, no ncts no nothing.
What would young Irish males be like if they found some island where they could drive around virtually unrestricted?
Does anyone think that they would slow down even if they understood (and they do )the road signs.
We don't even slow down ourselves, granted we do not all drive at 125kph, so why should they.
All the time we hear of the Victoria experience and the New Zealand experience on the radio and ministers going out their to study restraints but yet the bodies still pile up. Smart lawyers can get anybody off a speeding rap in our clumsy court systems. Gardai can refuse to operate speed equipment and hand written tickets can go astray in an antiquated recording system!
For all our economic advancement in Ireland we fail miserably when it comes to building, maintaining and running safe transport systems.