Bad road markings in Dublin and terrible driving everywhere

Saruman

Little mini rant before i go to bed

We need proper driving education in this country.. like the US where they learn to drive in school!!

Some people might be under the misconception they cant drive over there... nothing can be further from the truth... They mostly drive automatics so no crazy speeding.. their speed limits are lower but people mostly obey them except on highways where as long as you are not driving too much faster than the rest of the traffic you will be fine.
Oh and they obey stop signs!! Fancy that!! Hell they have these 4 way stops. Pretty much first person to stop has right of way and with the exception of the odd idiot most people obey it perfectly.

Would be great fun here where people cant even obey yield signs. For example.. Sandyford industrial estate. When you come in from leapordstown past woodies the road comes to a T where right turning traffic has right of way as it curves around so they can get into the other lane to turn almost immediatly left. You are warned beforehand of the yield signs.. and then you have 2 on each side at the junction and still i have gone through, even indicating to let oncoming traffic know im definatly going into that lane to turn and some woman comes flying through without slowing and almost rear ends me and then actually has the gaul to beep her horn at me??

Another example is.. well not sure of the street but you know behind the Guiness brewery if you are trying to get on to Thomas street you come to a Stop sign where you give way to traffic coming from the north quays across a bridge heading to Thomas street. Well on the right hand side there is a junction just before where traffic comes down to turn right to get on the quays. Anyway i had a Taxi driver one day come down from there, i was stopped at the stop sign and as soon as i went to pull out he pulls out from the right, drives on what is essentially the wrong side of the road to cut me off, points at the stop sign and beeping at me... as if i have to yield to him? I was so tempted to get out of the car, walk over to him and ask him what the hell he thinks the 2 Yield signs on his side meant?? Asshole

Another example of terrible, or in this case non existant road markings is.. well another place i dont know the name of.. but if you head past St Patricks coming from High street and turn left you come to what is marked as 3 lanes (i think Ocras is on the right hand side). The far right hand lane is fine, it shows you have to turn right. The middle lane is obviously for going straighe ahead (albeight sort of to the right also). As far as im concerned the left hand lane is or should be ONLY to turn left. The reason is if cars are in all 3 lanes, there is not enough room for both left and middle to go straight and get past the cars going right.. it should be clearly marked. Same goes for a lot of places... i mean how hard is it to mark the roads in the city centre????
Yet they have no problem re-surfacing the N4 at palmerstown for no obvious reason and re-marking that.. exactly the same as before.....
Right im going to bed

Alun

Saruman wrote:

Would be great fun here where people cant even obey yield signs. For example.. Sandyford industrial estate. When you come in from leapordstown past woodies the road comes to a T where right turning traffic has right of way as it curves around so they can get into the other lane to turn almost immediatly left. You are warned beforehand of the yield signs.. and then you have 2 on each side at the junction and still i have gone through, even indicating to let oncoming traffic know im definatly going into that lane to turn and some woman comes flying through without slowing and almost rear ends me and then actually has the gaul to beep her horn at me??

Yep, both me and the missus have almost been creamed at that junction on more than one occasion. Part of the problem, I think, is that there are also traffic lights on the road that comes in from the left, so when they go green everyone thinks that they have priority, totally ignore the yield signs and just plough through.

Saruman

Thing is though.. they DON'T go green for the people who have to Yield!! Thats another tell tale sign they have to give way... they are flashing amber straight ahead arrows.. so combined with 2 flashing amber lights, 2 yield signs AND a warning yield sign a hundred mtrs or so before junction.. people are still so completely stupid to ignore all this and keep going!!

Another one which is not so bad is heading past the national concert hall where the road comes to identical junction.. Left goes to N11 right goes past Iveagh court, harcourt building and on to South circular.. Anyway the traffic heading towards south circular coming from N11 direction have to yield.. Actually mostly they do... BUT one day i was heading left to N11 and i guess another car was going right.. And 2 cars were coming from N11 direction to the yield junction.. The first car did in fact yield and slowed down... the car behind not paying attention rammed into him!!! Its so stupid... most people in Dublin use these routes every day... apart from not paying attention that one time.. that guy probably never even noticed there was ever a yield sign there so did not expect the guy in front to stop and yield!!

Alun

Saruman wrote:

Thing is though.. they DON'T go green for the people who have to Yield!! Thats another tell tale sign they have to give way... they are flashing amber straight ahead arrows.. so combined with 2 flashing amber lights, 2 yield signs AND a warning yield sign a hundred mtrs or so before junction.. people are still so completely stupid to ignore all this and keep going!!

OK ... I've never driven from that direction, just noticed when coming up to the T-junction from the other direction that there are traffic lights there, and just assumed that they were 'normal' lights that went to green. Mind you, most Irish drivers have probably never come across flashing amber lights before, so haven't a clue what they mean anyway.

Just talked to the missus who swears that they at least used to be normal green lights ... have they maybe been recently changed in light of all the near misses there?

Hagar

http://www.driveandstayalive.com/info%20section/statistics/stats-usa_indiv-states_per-capita_2003.htm#table-2

I'll let the figures speak for themselves.

NUTLEY BOY

Signage on poles and painted on the roads, demarcation lines on the roads, road layouts and junctions suffer from a common complaint namely that of "engineered in defects and dangers" .

My favourite is the left turn only lane with filter arrow that requires cyclists going straight ahead to mix it with traffic in lane 2.

I am seriously convinced that Irish road layouts are designed by anal retentives who live in a lightless dungeon and whose only mode of transport is a bicycle with no saddle.....:)

Hagar

NUTLEY BOY wrote:

I am seriously convinced that Irish road layouts are designed by anal retentives who live in a lightless dungeon and whose only mode of transport is a bicycle with no saddle.....:)

Yes, that would indeed lead to anal dysfunction.

johnnyrotten

People not using roundabouts properly and not signalling properly on them. Saw a woman stopping on a busy roundabout last week to give way to traffic entering the roundabout.

Also something that has creeped in :

When you are turning right at a junction you ARE permitted to enter the yellow box. Recently people are sitting behind the white line waiting...and waiting .. and waiting for the filter arrow even though theres no oncoming traffic.

Most annoying of all is the lack of courtesy on the roads now

jd

johnnyrotten wrote:

When you are turning right at a junction you ARE permitted to enter the yellow box. Recently people are sitting behind the white line waiting...and waiting .. and waiting for the filter arrow even though theres no oncoming traffic.

Only if it is a full green, though! (not a green for straight ahead)

johnnyrotten

jd wrote:

Only if it is a full green, though! (not a green for straight ahead)

Thats what I meant
These Idiots sitting at a full green and still waiting for an arrow:mad:

Squirrel

What was dangerous was Friday evening, about half 9, on the M50 Southbound before the Naas Road exit was some trucks in the hard shoulder with right lane closed sign, you know the type

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So my dad slows down from the over-taking lane to merge with traffic, comes over the brow of the slight rise there, and the lane is perfectly clear. That's just incredibly supid I think

Saruman

Alun wrote:

Just talked to the missus who swears that they at least used to be normal green lights ... have they maybe been recently changed in light of all the near misses there?

Not recently.. been like that since 2003 which is the first time i was ever in the estate so unless it was different back then...

Anyway even if the lights were green its no excuse to break 2 yield signs and a warning sign!

Yes i have noticed idiots not entering yellow boxes.. it is probably since the luas came out. They are afraid to enter any yellow box... some day we may even have idiots completely afraid to drive across a yellow box and will have a nervous breakdown

Saruman

Just noticed today that the following example i gave has been marked!

Another example of terrible, or in this case non existant road markings is.. well another place i dont know the name of.. but if you head past St Patricks coming from High street and turn left you come to what is marked as 3 lanes (i think Ocras is on the right hand side). The far right hand lane is fine, it shows you have to turn right. The middle lane is obviously for going straighe ahead (albeight sort of to the right also). As far as im concerned the left hand lane is or should be ONLY to turn left. The reason is if cars are in all 3 lanes, there is not enough room for both left and middle to go straight and get past the cars going right.. it should be clearly marked.

This is actually Kevin street. It has the 3 lanes marked but for some stupid reason they marked the far left lane to be left turn as well as straight ahead when there is clearly no room if all 3 lanes have cars in them!!

Ronan Raver77

Anyone drive through Castledermot just before Carlow the road is in bits.So uneven and one or two huge potholes.Me thinks its dangerous.

blastman

That's becasue they're digging up the entire village, from what I can gather!

Fingal CoCo seem to be installing potholes in the Balbriggan-Naul road just before you come into the Naul itself :mad:

dts

They are not potholes they are speed holes, much like speed bumps!

Hagar

Hagar wrote:

http://www.driveandstayalive.com/info%20section/statistics/stats-usa_indiv-states_per-capita_2003.htm#table-2

I'll let the figures speak for themselves.

We are 12th best?

dts

Now thats something to be proud off!:cool: