Standard of Driving on Irish Roads

I too remember when there was no traffic lights on that roundabout - depending on where you were coming from it was a complete free for all - not to mention taking your life into your hands! There was a couple of accidents on that roundabout particularly coming from Belfast end - when truck drivers and jugernauts were travelling too quickly and they overturned. I also experienced the same coming from Airside - people from middle lane cut right accross when they decide to exit down the malahide road or the feltrim - could be potentially a very expensive lesson for these idiots to make.... or alternatively those who block the roundabout and enter the yellow box junctions. Whoever planned the entrance to the pavillion (or granted planning permission... was that one of Ray Burke's legacies???) was just a pure genius!! It's much easier to park in pennys' rather than try to get into the pav esp. if its sat or sun!

The other beauty is coming from the auburn roundabout turning left onto the Navan road heading to the M50 roundabout - and despite clear road markings on the road delineating that the right hand lane is for persons who are turning right onto the Navan road into town - you still get these not so high in the IQ queue jumpers who come up the right hand lane, and regardless of whether there are people going straight ahead down the river road these idiots indicate left (as if this gives them a right) and continue to maneouvre left cross-cutting the drivers who actually have the right of way.
 
Just read all through this thread! Agree with OP. Big issue here is lack of enforcement - if we won't pay for traffic police to ticket poor/speeding driving on the spot then let's just use speed cameras like the UK.

Other problem is the large number of single-lane roads with heavy traffic loads. All it takes is one t--- (often in a Nissan Micra) driving relatively too slowly for the conditions/too far out near the centre line to create a huge tailback. Responsible driving should mean they come up to average (but still safe) driving speed and mix properly with the rest of the traffic or else pull over when their mirrors tell them there's 15 cars behind for no good reason. The Rules say drive as far to the left as practicable - on wide single-carriageway roads this should be enough to allow others to pass without crossing a continuous white line...
 
I'm trying to resist the temptation to rant on this thread. I am generally a driver who let's things go fairly quickly when some other t..t annoys me but believe me, I've loads.

The problem is, we all do.

Lane discipline (or lack thereof), dangerous overtaking, tailgating, no lights on in poor conditions (or sidelights at the very most, worried that the battery might suddenly discharge due to 200W load on it), indicators used as optional accessories (and this is coming from a BMW driver!), unrestrained children, utter incompetents (Large population of drivers, unfortunately), slow moving traffic holding up a queue on a continuous white line; I must admit here that I was recently awarded 2 whole points for the pittance of €60, for overtaking a 20mph driver towing a boat on a stretch where I was completely safe to overtake, but still broke the law, mea culpa. My problem is that the gardai who stopped me basically had no issue with this particular driver holding up 20+ cars, just me. Ah well..

Hhmmm, resistance is futile, huh!?
 
I'm very interested in the response to this one:

Two roundabouts in quick succession. In terms of a clock face, you enter the first one at 6 (as you do) and there are only two possible exits - 9 and 12.

About 20m leading up to the roundabout the road splits into two lanes.

If I intend to exit at 12 thus taking me to the next (seemingly less ambiguous) roundabout, I stay in the outer lane - right?!

80% of the traffic seem to use the outer lane only if they are exiting at 9 and will use the inner lane for exiting at 12. There is another exit at 3 but as it is one way only, it is of no relevance to drivers approaching this roundabout.

I have always been taught that you stay in the outer lane unless your exit is past 12 o'clock. But as I seem to be very much in the minority, I'm starting to wonder.

Please someone tell me I'm right.
 
... Please someone tell me I'm right.
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I'm afraid not. I was taught to stay in the near-side lane unless I am taking the exit at 3 o'clock or using the roundabout to do a 360 back to 6 o'clock.
From the Rules of the Road (a downloadable PDF) on http://www.rsa.ie/

"Going straight ahead;
Approach in the left-hand lane but do not signal yet.
Signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want."

It also lists the exceptional cases where you may use the off-side lane to access the 12 o'clock exit.

I am now convinced I am one of only three people in the country who understands lane discipline and knows how to use a roundabout correctly (the others are my brother and my daughter both of whom I taught to drive.)
 
mathepac said:
"Going straight ahead;
Approach in the left-hand lane but do not signal yet.
Signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want."
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Maybe I explained it badly, but this is what I do!

However most other drivers use the right lane in my case.
 
Caveat said:
... If I intend to exit at 12 ... I stay in the outer lane - right?! ...
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We seem to have a terminology mismatch (or you're left-handed ).

When it comes to lanes on a multi-lane carriageway, I equate [left / inner / near-side] as one lane and [right / outer / off-side] as a different lane.
 
I agree. That's the way I was taught and the way I have always practised.

But a new roundabout that I now use has the lanes marked as follows:
Left lane - left turn only.
Right lane, straight on.
No exit at 3 o'clock.

It's a small roundabout, and can be bloody hairy as people use a combination of the rotr and the lane markings.

I hate the way the councils take it upon themselves to change the accepted practice!!
 
Pique318 said:
... It's a small roundabout, and can be bloody hairy as people use a combination of the rotr and the lane markings.

I hate the way the councils take it upon themselves to change the accepted practice!!
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The RotR booklet cops out by saying motorists must always obey the council's "road markings" at roundabouts which can be difficult when there's traffic on top of the road markings!
 
Just drive in the middle, taking up the two lanes - much safer.
 
mathepac said:
The RotR booklet cops out by saying motorists must always obey the council's "road markings" at roundabouts which can be difficult when there's traffic on top of the road markings!
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...and what about the situation where (this happens at any type of junction, not just roundabouts) you follow the arrow, e.g. arrow points directly ahead, possibly with wording too, e.g. "town centre", and then just at the junction, the arrow changes to some other direction altogether!

...sometimes I wonder about the intelligence of the people who dream up these road marking schemes!
 
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Complainer said:
Just drive in the middle, taking up the two lanes - much safer.
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Talking about driving in the middle, I've noticed of late that people are regularly going too close to the white line because they try to avoid the ramps. On certain roads where these ramps are side by side it can get quite hairy with both cars hugging the white line.

I remember some years ago travelling in a car with a colleague and he drove in the middle of the road over the white line. When I mentioned that this was quite dangerous he said it was the done thing on the advanced driving course

On holidays recently in Donegal regularly found people driving in the middle of the road which can be quite dangerous when they come around the bend heading towards you.
 
Marathon Man said:
...sometimes I wonder about the intelligence of the people who dream up these road marking schemes!
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Ah yes, "Speeling", I remember old Speeling well, damn fine chap, what, waht.

The problem is not one of intelligence or a lack thereof. It has to do with the legacy systems embedded in the road-sign creation and interpretation departments in council offices throughout the land and the inherent difficulties these create in translating arrows, signifying direction changes, from one language to another and matching them with appropriately congruent words.

Under the old Runic system this posed no challenge as a stroke was a stroke, especially among the FF'ers, but as we moved from the well-known Runic to the more modern Irish alphabet and from there to the rather less well known Roman alphabet, issues arose in the council offices.

In the years 2BC or even 1BC (BC = Before Cowen) "money", a plentiful commodity at the time, could have been thrown at the problem and it would have smothered under the sheer weight of this "money". The commodity no longer exists and we are only left with its name and the mythology of how it was used to hide problems.

Sorry, I digress, back the legacy systems still in use. One person's "Centre" or "Straight Ahead" could be interpreted as "Slightly Left of Center" (note the colonial speeling of centre caused by watching too many episodes of The Simpsons) or maybe even as "Right On Brother"if translated by a road-sign creator with Afro-American jeans (note that should be genes but we don't discuss medical issue on AAM).

So until we can create more of this mythical "money", it seems we will have to resort to either driving by the seat of our pants or handing the wheel over to a learner - they are certainly not in short supply.
 
I quoted this in this thread and was told to follow the "Rules of the Road"

09/08/09 We do know that the markings on a lot of roundabouts do not make sense, we only know which lane to go in because we do it every day, these were made by the same higher authority.

By the way: I always use the LH lane to go straight on unless the markings say otherwise.
 
I notice that every single time I go for a drive there are dozens of eejits going the wrong way - all of them flashing and honking as if they owned the road! Idiots, all of them!
 
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