English driving culture could teach us a few things

OMcGovern

I'm from Dublin, and just back from 5 days of driving around England / Wales.
I have to say, the difference in politeness of drivers in England would put us to shame.

They'ld always let you out to change lanes.
If there were an end of lane warning sign, then everyone immediately filters into the other lane upon seeing the sign, even if it's 400 yards away. As opposed to here, where people try overtaking as many cars as possible, then filter in when they are about to collide with the cones at the end of the lane. That leads everyone in the correct lane to try stopping them filtering in.

I accidently drove down a one way street in England, and the two cars approaching didn't react. Although, they probably should've signaled me in some way, just so I knew ! I did, and was just about to turn around when they passed.

The lane discipline on the 3 lane motorways was perfect.
Admittedly, they have a much better road system, and ring roads around all major cities and towns.

Even grannies, cars pulling caravans and juggernauts were all doing at least 70mph on the motorways. Although they did always drive up your ass if they wanted to get by in the 3rd lane.

I drove off the ferry at Dun Laoghaire, and 3 lanes of us were filtering towards the public road. I signal to change lanes left, and one car passes.... then another car driven by a menopausal middle aged Irish woman passes me by without letting me out. I was so used to the English politeness...
That's the first impression of the Irish on the roads.

It was like a driving holiday over there, but now I'm back to Irish "selfish driving".

Apologies for this rant, but the bottom line is that if each of us does drive with politeness, then it does catch on.... drivers will mimic the dominant driving style / culture. Here endth the lesson.

regards,
Owen

mondeoman

I have drivin twice in England & i totally agree with the OP.i drove from Dun Laoghaire to Nottingham & back & not once did some F*****R drive on my rear bumper & they always keep a safe distance between cars.was well impressed:) .unlike the driving over here:eek:

Silvera

One thing I learned years ago from UK driving culture .......at the first sign of rain/overcast weather conditions, they turn on their dipped lights.


If people here just copped on and thought about it. Whats the first thing people usually say after an accident "Oh, I didn't see you coming"
Well, if people turned on their dipped lights then they would reduce their chances of being in an accident by 36% (Advanced Driving Course Figure)!

Alun

It is better, I agree, but there are assholes over there as well, believe me. I think the difference is that the general, overall level of driving skill, and knowledge of the rules of the road is higher. In fact, because of this the occasional dickhead you do come across just appears more obvious.

I was over in Scotland and England for two weeks recently, and only had two cases where I felt in any way in any danger, both tailgating incidents, one of which was quite shocking. If I'd covered the same distance driving through Ireland though (over 1300 miles), I'm pretty certain I'd have many, many more tales to tell.

Wishbone Ash

OMcGovern wrote:

cars pulling caravans and juggernauts were all doing at least 70mph on the motorways

Then they were breaking the law. Cars towing caravans and trucks over 7500kg are not permitted to travel at more than 60mph on UK motorways.

crosstownk

I couldn't agree more. I'm just back from a week driving in Scotland and the difference is amazing. No sooner did I cross the border (I used the Belfast - Stranraer ferry) and sure enough, there was the usual muppets hogging the overtaking lane on the M1, poor indicating and the 'selfishness' that the OP refers to.

I've driven in most EU countries and, tbh, the hap-hazardry driving in Ireland is so obvious and painful. Whenever will we learn....................

OMcGovern

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Then they were breaking the law. Cars towing caravans and trucks over 7500kg are not permitted to travel at more than 60mph on UK motorways.

True... I did suspect that alright. They are very fast drivers over there... even grannies will overtake you when you're doing 70mph !
My timing belt was due to be replaced, and I was happy driving around 65mph in the left lane.... but juggernauts did overtake me. Okay, the cars towing caravans didn't overtake me, but did do around 65mph on average.

Sure cars in the 3rd lane, must've been doing 90mph at times, leaving me well behind, when I was doing 70 mph in the second lane.

I was doing 50mph in a country road, and a decent sized (empty) mercedes minibus overtook me, and looked like it barely kept control of the vehicle on the next bend in the road.

The 3 lane motorways were sweet to drive on.... if only the M50 and other motorways here were like that. Little or not hogging of the lanes.
Poor drivers here automatically convert our motorways to dual carriageways instead.

Capt'n Midnight

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Then they were breaking the law. Cars towing caravans and trucks over 7500kg are not permitted to travel at more than 60mph on UK motorways.

In my limited experiance on UK motorways the inside lane of three had all the slow movers at 50mph , passing them was difficult as you had to merge into the middle lane doing 70mph,

and yes they actually use the "mirror, signal, manoveur" approach, where if someone was indicating, that meant they were going in to your lane NOW because they reckoned there was room, and almost everyone knows and follows the rules so there is very little confusion even though the gaps were tight by irish standards compared to the irish system used by many of "indicate , hesitate, (mirror optional) "

PS. over here it's 80Kph for a trailer, though SUV's and artics would appear to have an exemption judging by how rare it is to see them do less than 80kph on the M50 if conditions allow a faster speed.

According to actuarial stats released this week the death rate on Irish roads SINCE penalty points is TWICE that on UK roads.

Over here we use urban link lanes twice as wide as a car to allow a car to drive two feet to the left of the centre of the road. Over there whey would split it in two and put up a sign telling trucks , buses and wide vehicles to use both lanes, and that way they get nearly twice as much traffic on the road without widening it. Here we also have hard shoulders. So not only are the UK drivers twice as safe as we are, in many cases use only need half as much tarmac as ours do.

If irish drivers behaved the way UK ones did traffic would flow better here, and not just because we could just paint more lanes on existing roads instead of widening them. in the UK they know how to use roundabouts. Here we have to put yellow boxes AND traffic lights AND traffic cops on roundabouts. I would nearly suggest 4 points for anyone who doesn't indicate correctly on a roundabout or who enters a junction when they can't clear it. I'm so miffed at having to stop at a roundabout because someone who lied about understanding the rules of the road on their license application turns left. I'm even more miffed at having to slow down to a crawl at roundabouts because I've seen people indicate left and go right (and visa versa !). Here you can't EVER believe indicators until you see the car slow down and/or change direction.

Wishbone Ash

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

over here it's 80Kph for a trailer

Goods vehicles, whether drawing a trailer or not are subject to a 80kph limit if they weight in excess of 3,500kgs. The speed limiter, which should be fitted to trucks over 3,500kgs, restricts their speed to 85kph. A lot of truck drivers wrongly think that this is their legally permitted speed limit.

byte

Just back from a long weekend in Scotland, and indeed driving manners is much higher. It was particularly noticeble on the motorways through Glasgow where certain motorways merged etc, with drivers flashing to let you merge etc.
Though, for the likes of roundabouts, a fair percentage of drivers I noticed forget about using indicators.

Sandwich

Agree generally on the superiority of manners mainly and to a lesser extent compliance with the rules there. But am always shocked at the endemic speeding on the motorways especially the 3 lane sections. It seems 90 is the norm. I guess since its so prevalent its semi sanctioned and they are not really stopped for it. Also probably why there are so many speeding cars on the M1 here - their normal habbit rather than thinking they will not be fined.

Capt'n Midnight

see also http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=52134700 for Irish attitudes to road safety

http://wwa.rte.ie/news/2006/0927/roads_roadsafety.html

A new analysis of road deaths has concluded that if the reduction in fatalities following the introduction of penalty points had been maintained, 255 fewer people would have been killed on Irish roads.

The report from the Society of Actuaries in Ireland also found that if Ireland had been able to achieve UK safety levels, the number of lives saved would have been 560

Victor

Sandwich wrote:

Agree generally on the superiority of manners mainly and to a lesser extent compliance with the rules there. But am always shocked at the endemic speeding on the motorways especially the 3 lane sections.

The police in the UK prefer people to maintain speed with the rest of traffic. They will however do people (a) moving substantially faster than the rest of traffic (a) moving substantially slower than the rest of traffic (a) doing more than about 90mph, do more than 100 and it usually means serious trouble.