So many slow dawdlers on the roads

BrianD3

Jesus! Was driving today on wide open national primary routes and got stuck behind an unbelieveable number of morons hogging the white line at 40-45 mph merrily plodding along while a big queue built up behind. Just as bad as these plodders are the drivers who drive up the arse of the plodder but either aren't bothered or are too sh1t scared to overtake (even when perfect opportunities present themselves). Very quickly a queue builds up and people get frustrated and multiple overtakes/leapfrogging become necessary to make progress.

It's not as if i'm some sort of speed freak or anything I drive at the speed limit if conditions allow. And I have gotten 110k miles out of my current set of front brakepads so that show that i'm not particularly aggressive. I just cannot stand it when some slow eejit is making unreasonably slow progress and making everyone else wait.

Also have witnessed some strange behavior. Eg I was about 5th in a queue of vehciles doing about 45 mph. Up ahead was a plodder and directly behind him was some guy in a Kangoo who would not overtake despite numerous clear opportunities. I saw an opportunity to take all the vehicles ahead in one go so got by them safely. In my mirror I see that a BMW has had a similar idea and is also now overtaking the queue. But just as he's overtaking Kangoo man decides now would be a good time to overtake the plodder. So the Kangoo cuts across the BMW and gets a blast of the headlights. Both vehicles then get by the plodder. Now Kangoo man who 1 minute earlier was happy crawling along at 40 mph decides he wants to drive at about 80 mph and zooms right up behidn me and sits on my tail. But makes no attempt to overtake. WTF?

Irish drivers :rolleyes:

mike65

Kangoo man had proberly got too close to the plodder and felt he/she could'nt see enough road ahead, then having spotted cars behind pulling wide reckoned it must be safe to do likewise and now free of the slow coach at the front he blasts off into the distance having left the hard work to others!

Mike.

colm_mcm

Kangoo man probably put the foot to the floor a minute before the incident happened. 0-60 on one of those is measured in hours rather than seconds!

junkyard

Tbh, I think the standard of driving has deteriorated since the penalty points have been implemented. Driving on Irish roads is just tedious with annoying drivers at every turn.:(

mike65

There are so many more drivers and as the tuition standards are so poor its no suprise there are so many dopes piloting a tonne of metal.

Mike.

BrianD3

One thing that amazes foreigners about this country is how SLOWWWWWLY many people drive on good roads. Our road deaths are above the EU average yet a good proportion of the drivers never go above 40 mph.

mike65

So its true then speed does'nt kill.

Mike.

leeroybrown

I don't really have a huge problem with someone who doesn't feel comfortable at 60mph doing a lower speed but I'm always irritated by the fact that very few of these crawlers attempt to make life easier for those behind them. If I don't want to speed up I'll make it easy for the cars behind to overtake if they look like they want to make progress.

I recently made a round trip from Galway to Dublin. On the way up I spent 20 minutes doing 40mph because one driver wouldn't see what was behind and pull in and the driver behind didn't feel like overtaking. The fastest the driver went was 45mph on a bend. On the way back I spent bout 10 minutes behind a truck at 50mph because another driver was just over a car length from it's rear bumper and wouldn't overtake despite having a powerful car, ample overtaking opportunities and the truck driver having the courtesy of pulling in to allow them to pass with about five times the clear road they needed to do it. They had been doing over 60 and pulling away from me prior to us reaching the truck.

It's that kind of inconsiderate driving that annoys me not the slow speeds.

colm_mcm

I don't get it. I subconciously check my mirror every few seconds. If there was someone who needed to overtake me (usually isn't!) I'll know they're there straight away. It seems that drivers don't use mirrors

Robbo

The "45 mph everywhere" brigade are the best argument I've seen for allowing bonnet mounted missiles to be deployed on our roads. Somewhere in the back of their minds, they think they're performing a public service...

fletch

Last week coming back from Mullingar the back roads, I came across a train of cars following a 4*4 with a horsebox....must have been doin about 30mph max....nobody making an effort to overtake....lots of opportunities with huge long straights of road....basically forced me to overtake the whole lot at once. I'm could literally hear the people tuttin in their cars as I went by. I just couldn't understand why nobody was trying to pass as I feel it's a lot more dangerous travelling in a train like that cause if the lead car is involved in an accident, its more than likely that other cars in the train will not be able to react quickly enough and pile into each other.

unkel

BrianD3 wrote:

One thing that amazes foreigners about this country is how SLOWWWWWLY many people drive on good roads

In particular, how SLOWWWWWLY many people drive on motorways. I reckon the median speed of cars in the driving lane on a quiet (but not quite 3AM quiet) M50 is about 60-65km/h. Do this in most other countries and you'll get a driving ban and rightly so...

mike65 wrote:

there are so many dopes piloting a tonne of metal

A tonne, or these days even two or three

leeroybrown

The problem with these multiple car overtaking manouvre is that whenever I see an opportunity to do it I know that there is a moderate chance that someone is thinking the same two cars ahead and doesn't know what rear view mirrors and blind spots are.

fletch

leeroybrown wrote:

The problem with these multiple car overtaking manouvre is that whenever I see an opportunity to do it I know that there is a moderate chance that someone is thinking the same two cars ahead and doesn't know what rear view mirrors and blind spots are.

Yeh I'm always worried about that too...especially if they are concentratin a lot on watching for a gap they may just forget to have a quick glance before they make the manoeuvre. Suppose just try make it known that you intend overtaking, happened me before overtaking on a back road and had to stand up on the breaks...got the fright of my life....suppose indicate well in advance and move out to make your intentions clear.....what more can ya do

unkel

leeroybrown wrote:

The problem with these multiple car overtaking manouvre is that whenever I see an opportunity to do it I know that there is a moderate chance that someone is thinking the same two cars ahead and doesn't know what rear view mirrors and blind spots are.

Yes, I'm always wary of that. The one time I overtook about 20 cars in one go was on a dead straight stretch of dry national road with perfect visibility and I wouldn't have done it without:

1. No uncoming cars in sight for at least a mile
2. If above happens, there's a hard shoulder available on the other side of the road to overtake an ignorant driver not spotting me and moving into my path
3. A powerful V8 petrol engine - and yes, I did break the speed limit by some margin while overtaking. In my book, if you have to overtake, do it as safely as possible, regardless of the speed you are doing

leeroybrown

Your mention of the 'hard shoulder' reminds me of something quite strange that happened to someone I know a few months ago:

He was driving on a single carriageway with hard shoulders doing ~60mph behind another driver on his side. Coming in the other direction was a line of traffic stuck behind a slow driver. One particular guy in a van decides that there is space to overtake and pulls out. The guy I know saw him pull out and could see him getting closer and was thinking to himself 'he should pull in now'. The van driver continued to back himself until he realised he would never make it. Instead of braking and trying to pull in he keeps going and starts flashing his headlights. He then pulls right and passes the two cars coming towards him on their hard shoulder a without slowing. To compound matters the driver in front has a delayed reaction and does a full emergency stop after the van is past both cars. Thankfully the guy I know had 1) started slowing earlier and 2) not pulled towards the hard shoulder.

NeMiSiS

I have.. on ocassion.. wanted to follow these people home.. and burst all the tyres on their car.. and more. It's my _Number 1_ without exception worst and most inconsiderate thing to do on the roads (next to brake first..then indicate).

I honestly think some people are under the assumption it has actully become illegal to over take, I can not think of any other reason they would want to crawl along in a train of traffic doing 45 MPH, and what's worse still is they all tend to tailgate each other... I saw a train of cars yesterday on the N81 about eight of them.. and there must have been no more than a ft and a half between some of the cars. It's not only lethal, it also leave no room for anyone to overtake this convoy **** that goes on.

They also tend to hover around 40/MPH, and then when the road becomes reasonably clear they go up to about 50/MPH, making it more difficult to overtake. I think 80% or so of the driving population have basically become 'Sunday Drivers'. Other crap I have seen .. on the way to Castledermot recently, was a truck pulling in to let people over take, and the car behind the truck.. basically driving in parralel.. so anyone that wanted to over take.. had to over take both truck and car.. like a three lane road...

The national speed limit might as well be 55/MPH because you rarely see the other side of it, even on Motorways (with exceptions). Mind you. I saw something today that made me smile.. these 45 - 50/MPH drivers genrally keep to that speed regardless of the limit posted on the road they are on.. I overtook one leaving blessington, and came up by Bothernabreena. Say her being done for speeding, on the straight before you come into to Firhouse, in my mirror. Happy days.


TK

Savman

I think one thing is clear from this thread, we're all speed freaks :rolleyes:

NeMiSiS

Would just rather not be stuck in a line of traffic with the people in front braking erratically.. and the poeple behind tailgating..
TK

prospect

I am of the opinion that:

If you are not able to drive at the posted limits, then you shouldn't be driving at all.

I can understand that learners may drive slow for a time, and that some people may be carry ing goods and may have to drive slow. But, I know of one person, who is driving over 10 years, and she will always drive at about 45mph. I asked her why once, and she said she didn't feel comfortable driving any faster.

Now, if she cannot drive at 60mph, then it is fair to assume that she would not be able to react quickly in an emergency situation.

MTC.

SouperComputer

Mind you. I saw something today that made me smile.. these 45 - 50/MPH drivers genrally keep to that speed regardless of the limit posted on the road they are on.. I overtook one leaving blessington, and came up by Bothernabreena. Say her being done for speeding, on the straight before you come into to Firhouse, in my mirror. Happy days.

Yup, these are the ones that I dont get. They stick at 40\45Mph on the main road in excellent conditions, holding up traffic, but then continue to drive at the same speed through villages!

unkel

leeroybrown wrote:

He then pulls right and passes the two cars coming towards him on their hard shoulder a without slowing

:eek: !!

Why didn't your friend move onto the hard shoulder earlier? Staying in the driving lane sounds a bit confrontational to me. Best to let the lunatic in the van have his way without it getting more dangerous

leeroybrown

unkel wrote:

Why didn't your friend move onto the hard shoulder earlier? Staying in the driving lane sounds a bit confrontational to me. Best to let the lunatic in the van have his way without it getting more dangerous

There was a car in front of him in his lane so he wasn't in a position to definitively make that decision. If he was the lead car I'm sure he would have pulled to the hard shoulder as most of us would but if he did pull to the hard shoulder theres always a chance that the fool in front wouldn't which is what happened. I think he did the right thing in backing off and letting the car in front decide. I would probably have moved quite far left in my lane but from behind you're not really in a strong position to influence the behaviour of the driver in front.

It's a complicated story so I probably should have made it clearer that he was behind someone.

faigs

Robbo wrote:

The "45 mph everywhere" brigade are the best argument I've seen for allowing bonnet mounted missiles to be deployed on our roads.

I'm all for it!:D It's the one thing I think about when I'm stuck behind these idiots.

unkel

leeroybrown wrote:

There was a car in front of him in his lane

Ah yes, you did clearly state that before. I missed it

Mexicola

NeMiSiS wrote:

I honestly think some people are under the assumption it has actully become illegal to over take, I can not think of any other reason they would want to crawl along in a train of traffic doing 45 MPH

I wonder if the reasoning behind this is that if they overtake, then they could possibly exceed the speed limit and get nabbed by the fuzz.

Funxy

Its amazing how bad driving has become in the past year. Every single tim ei now go on a long journey i know i will be caught in these queues of people who will not try and progress past these dawdlers. And also the terrible manners of them of sitting out on the white lne and not making anything easier for those behind by moving over slightly.

What i also find happens alot is someones sitting behind a truck/micra on their ass and so you have to pass out both. So you give the person in front a few chances that they obviously dont take, then you yourself make the intention clear of overtaking, stick on the indicator, start pulling out and then they decide now is the perfect time and get mad at you. Like i said i mean after they've had pleanty of straights and oppertunities before

SouperComputer

TBH I try and do all my long journeys late in the evening, like 10PM. Much less stressfull and despite the darkness, safer to boot IMO.

peasant

Every other weekend I'm out on the road with my camper. Now, by design, this is not the fastest vehicle on the road and especially on narrow, twisty roads I just have to take that bit more slowly. Whereas on the main National roads (those that usually come with a hard shoulder) I have no problem keeping up the speed to 100 km/h.

On bad roads I make it my point to watch the mirrors and the road ahead and to indicate (just let the indicator flash once or twice) and pull over as far as possible, whenever there is a chance for the car behind me to overtake safely.

You'd be surprised at the amount of drivers that choose not to avail of this opportunity (even if presented several times in a row) and rather choose to pass on double white lines, before bends or humps or straight into oncoming traffic ...hair-raising stuff sometimes.

And then there are the dawdlers. I can live with them on a bad road, as they are still doing their 60 km/h bit and I couldn't really go that much faster. I just leave a sufficient gap for anyone to pass who wants to. But on good main arteries it's a differnt story. My camper is no GTI ...I need a good long clear stretch to even contemplate overtaking. But every single f*cking one of these idiots is speeding up from 60 km/h to 80 km/h as soon as the road gets that bit better ...making it extremely hard for me to overtake.

In those cases I have to admit to getting fits of road rage. In one particular case after having been stuck behind one of these idiots for more than half an hour I confess that I attched my camper right to his back bumper, stuck on the lights and gave him a good blast of the horn. This finally made him speed up to about 90 km/h and I backed off a bit.
I know it was a stupid and very dangerous thing to do ...but i was so mad by this stage, had he stopped somewhere I probably would have beaten him up

NeMiSiS

Peasant that's what I meant by the car driving parralel to the truck, they would not overtake.. so people had to go round the truck and car. They are utterly cluless ****ing idiots. I'd put 50 quid on the fact that yer man that you blasted with the horn was blissfully unaware that you were even there until you did so.

TK

cargrouch

peasant wrote:

On bad roads I make it my point to watch the mirrors and the road ahead and to indicate (just let the indicator flash once or twice) and pull over as far as possible, whenever there is a chance for the car behind me to overtake safely.

You'd be surprised at the amount of drivers that choose not to avail of this opportunity (even if presented several times in a row) and rather choose to pass on double white lines, before bends or humps or straight into oncoming traffic ...hair-raising stuff sometimes.

I saw one of these epic battles last weekend near the Cork/Kerry county bounds. Caravan in climbing lane, dawdler in a Golf in the outside lane. When the climbing lane ended, the considerate caravan towing driver stayed pulled over in the hard shoulder to allow the Golf to pass. The Golf speeded up enough to poke its front bumper past the back of the caravan. And stayed there for hundreds of metres until the caravan gradually gained enough speed again and pulled out.

I imagine the guy with the caravan was absolutely livid.