Gardaí

gaeilgegrinds

Check-points, came across two yesterday. Checked licences. One coming in to Knocknacarra (just off the roundabout at Friars Hill) and the other coming in to Newcastle. Just to warn ye, know they said there was no crack-down but they were really out in force yesterday evening.

galah

You gotta love the mixed messages - on national news, they said they'll enforce it, yet in the Advertiser last week they said they aren't...Great to have such a consistent, uniform front...
:rolleyes:

Wompa1

Probably getting up the quota now so they have it up before the 'look the other way' week at the end of the month....harsh?

Sherifu

galah wrote: »

You gotta love the mixed messages - on national news, they said they'll enforce it, yet in the Advertiser last week they said they aren't...Great to have such a consistent, uniform front...
:rolleyes:

lol.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Good to see them enforcing the law...

Bass Cadet

saw a speed trap on the dual carriageway beside the galway clinic there a 9am this morning. Probably the safest, straight section of road in the county - way to go Chips! yer really saving lives there

PopeBuckfastXVI

Bass Cadet wrote: »

way to go Chips!

I lol'd...

gaeilgegrinds

It caused havoc yesterday here they were pulling cos it was just off the roundabout & backed that up. Thankfully I heard they moved it up a bit after. Just a warning to the no-L platers out there, they fined a neighbour of mine for that. Never thought they would after what I'd read. There were 3 female Garda there & they gave her an awful time of it. That said, it's the law.

PopeBuckfastXVI

gaeilgegrinds wrote: »

Just a warning to the no-L platers out there, they fined a neighbour of mine for that. Never thought they would after what I'd read. There were 3 female Garda there & they gave her an awful time of it. That said, it's the law.

Yep... they should have stated they would be doing this allright... prevention is better than cure and all that...

gaeilgegrinds

If I were her I'd have had my L-plates up though. As for those saying they'll target those, that's a load of nonsense. They'll either have check-points or they won't.

snubbleste

They are enforcing the laws, there has been a serious lack of checkpoints/speedchecks in Galway in recent years compared to other parts of the country. Here's hoping for more of them. It is a privilige to have the right to drive on the road.

Bass Cadet

snubbleste wrote: »

They are enforcing the laws, there has been a serious lack of checkpoints/speedchecks in Galway in recent years compared to other parts of the country. Here's hoping for more of them. It is a privilige to have the right to drive on the road.

where they put these speed traps is the thing though. Traffic accidents happen on poor roads where people are speeding. Traffic accidents caused by speed do not happen on well designed dual carriageways. Cops in Galway seem to conveniently set up speed traps on straight sections of dual carriageway which have never had one accident.

They would be better advised to go out to the likes of Carnmore and set up something on the N17 or sections of the N6 where accidents/near misses regularly happen due to idiots thinking they can overtake coming into a dangerous bend of section of old single carriageway road

DRakE

Speed traps?! :eek:

snubbleste

People who speed on dual carriageways are also likely to speed on poor local roads. The speed limit is exactly that, the maximum permitted limit. The Garda are not out to try and catch traffic accidents as they happen.

you can submit the locations of where you think speed checks should operate to the superintendent :pac:

workaccount

gaeilgegrinds wrote: »

It caused havoc yesterday here they were pulling cos it was just off the roundabout & backed that up. Thankfully I heard they moved it up a bit after. Just a warning to the no-L platers out there, they fined a neighbour of mine for that. Never thought they would after what I'd read. There were 3 female Garda there & they gave her an awful time of it. That said, it's the law.

Glad to hear she got fined. Provisionals - they haven't a clue, then again either do most with a full licence.

snubbleste wrote: »

People who speed on dual carriageways are also likely to speed on poor local roads. The speed limit is exactly that, the maximum permitted limit. The Garda are not out to try and catch traffic accidents as they happen.

you can submit the locations of where you think speed checks should operate to the superintendent :pac:

So they will speed on the bad roads and not the dual carraigeways then....

We could all submit locations for the guards to go but I'd be against that. In alot of places the speed limit is far too slow. I say increase the limits in some places.
60 on those dual carraigeways..... pfffffh. It's perfectly safe for a good driver to do 70-75 on loads of roads around and that's not including dual carraigeways.

One of the biggest problems is incompetent drivers....There absolutely everywhere breaking every rule except the limit and then they think there great because they "don't break the limit".

ronnie3585

snubbleste wrote: »

People who speed on dual carriageways are also likely to speed on poor local roads.

That's a pretty sweeping generalisation. The majority of people will regulate their speed according to road conditions. If I'm driving on an empty dual carrageway on a dry day with good visibility and a good road surface then I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I would drive faster than the permitted speed limit. However, if I am driving on 'poor local roads' possibly in poor weather and light then there is no way that I would speed.

chris_oc

DRakE wrote: »

Speed traps?! :eek:

"That's a pretty sweeping generalisation."

Well yes and no... understand what you mean BUT, people who tend to speed somewhere such as a dual carriage way tend to have a heavy foot anyways, and would then in turn most likely speed on any other roads too. do you not think?? think a good point was made there. Possibly the only good point for putting a speed chack there though :P

galah

ronnie3585 wrote: »

That's a pretty sweeping generalisation. The majority of people will regulate their speed according to road conditions. If I'm driving on an empty dual carrageway on a dry day with good visibility and a good road surface then I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I would drive faster than the permitted speed limit. However, if I am driving on 'poor local roads' possibly in poor weather and light then there is no way that I would speed.

+ 1.

it really depends on the road conditions. I don't see why I should do 'only' 100 on an empty dual carriageway on a sunny day - but then again, I wouldn't do 100 on a bendy country road in pouring rain...

I still don't get why the government can't put up 'risk assessed' speed limits like other countries have - so when it says, for example, 80, you know that's the 'safe' limit. Anything above that would be stupid. Or when it says 120, that's the 'safe' limit. Instead, they increased the number of totally stupid speed signs - like the 100 sign approaching the Ballybrit roundabout from the carriageway. Or the classic, the small laneway near Padraicins in Furbo...where it says 80 as a limit, but here's hardly space for a car on the unpaved borreen.

Idiots. The lot of them.

workaccount

galah wrote: »

Anything above that would be stupid

Yeah for all the rubbish drivers who can't drive. What about competent aware drivers....what you say is very valid though. It's just the two need to go together. ie. Proper test to get a driving licence and retest required regularily with idiots off the road where they belong. Awww I swear I have so many stories to tell of the driving I see in Galway. I'll f8cking murder someone soon. The biggest change I would like to see would be people starting to have a little respect for other road users. It means so much when I see this and makes everything so much easier. I have no respect for people that don't and am considering ramming someone in my car one of these days seeing as theres nothing paricualirily special about it (the car). That would give me so much pleasure. And don't start moaning because if I was to do that the person would really deserve it. For example I might do this to someone on the dual carraigeway where they are driving at 50mph in the overtaking lane.

Another place that I nearly exploded at last Friday was when I went down to Supermacs beside tesco and was coming down towards the mini roundabout where you have to take a left and go around the roundabout to join the two lanes to get back onto the magic roundabout. I did this and then two f*ckfaces came straight out across from supermacs in front of me and the car in front let them in. I was in real hurry. Then when I was nearly back at work I had the priviledge of two "buoys" in the right lane completely blocking my view by deciding to stop their car halfway onto the roundabout rather than at the actual line. I would have rammed that c*nt. I mean these ****in' people......at tescos....how would you react if someone skipped the Q when you were waiting in line at the checkout in tescos?

I'm not going to drive like I'm behind a funeral just because it's the standard set for all the other idiots galah.


edit: the whole ramming thing is a joke (maybe!)/ vent for frustration but if I had the opportunity to get out of may car and give you a piece of my mind I would so watch out.
It's not my fault btw...I have anger issues but you can't say that my reasons are not without good reason.

Webbs

galah wrote: »

+ 1.

it really depends on the road conditions. I don't see why I should do 'only' 100 on an empty dual carriageway on a sunny day - but then again, I wouldn't do 100 on a bendy country road in pouring rain...

I still don't get why the government can't put up 'risk assessed' speed limits like other countries have - so when it says, for example, 80, you know that's the 'safe' limit. Anything above that would be stupid. Or when it says 120, that's the 'safe' limit. Instead, they increased the number of totally stupid speed signs - like the 100 sign approaching the Ballybrit roundabout from the carriageway. Or the classic, the small laneway near Padraicins in Furbo...where it says 80 as a limit, but here's hardly space for a car on the unpaved borreen.

Idiots. The lot of them.

While I do agree with you I would also put the devils advocate point of view that they are speed limits not speed targets

ronnie3585

workaccount wrote: »

I have anger issues.

Really! You'd never know:P

Seriously though I can empathise with you to some extent. The standard of driving is generally piss poor. Blame it on poor driver education, lax testing standards, no license proficiency checks/renewals from when you get the license until you let it expire or die, bad roads, poor/no lighting, little to no sinage, roundabouts,ambiguous road traffic laws (provisional debacle - case in point), uneven non transparant and in some instances no applicaiton of the road traffic laws that are on the books...to name but a few.

gaeilgegrinds

I think the bottom line here is that better driver education is necessary. And as for letting provisional drivers drive, it's crazy. They're not qualified to drive, therefore should not be.

galah

Webbs wrote: »

While I do agree with you I would also put the devils advocate point of view that they are speed limits not speed targets

And I am fully aware of that - however, as I said, in other countries, the speed signs would indicate the maximum 'safe' speed on that particular stretch of road - whereas here, it's just indicating a limit for the type of road as classified by someone who's probably never even been to the part of the country before...

So while I appreciate that it's up to the driver to make ur their own mind regarding their speed within the limits, it's not necessarily safe or appropriate - because there are too many idiots out there who haven't learned how to drive properly - as in, being in touch with their own abilities, their car's ability and all other influences (weather, road surface, etcetc).

Still amazed that that stuff is not really taught here - up until recently, people were taught how to pass the test, but not how to drive...

Bass Cadet

chris_oc wrote: »

"That's a pretty sweeping generalisation."

Well yes and no... understand what you mean BUT, people who tend to speed somewhere such as a dual carriage way tend to have a heavy foot anyways, and would then in turn most likely speed on any other roads too. do you not think?? think a good point was made there. Possibly the only good point for putting a speed chack there though :P

I think people are missing the point, Gardaí are putting in speed traps on roads like the Ennis Bypass, Galway dual carriageways, etc because it's easier for them to catch people breaking a speed limit and they get their quota for the day. They do this instead of pin pointing road black spots where people have been killed due to these 3 factors and in order: Poor roads, excessive speed for the road conditions and poor overall driving education.

I get so p1ssed off when I see these lazy feckers out with a speed gun (usually still sitting in their f*ckin car talkin sh!te to the other cop beside them!) trying to catch drivers going 5km/hr over the speed limit on one of the safest roads in the country, whereas they could potentially be SAVING LIVES by setting up regular speed traps on some of the vast amounts of lethal stretches in the Galway road network...it actually beggars belief.

The UK has some of the best road networks in the world, which in turn gives them one of the safest road networks in the world. I have driven extensively through out the UK and have never seen one speed checkpoint on a motorway/dual carriageway with a cop and a speed gun out trying to catch motorists, if anything its a road hazard as it makes people slam on brakes. Instead they have unmarked squad cars patroling motorways penalising people speeding excessively. I have seen numerous speed traps on A and B class roads however where the road conditions have demand for them.

po0k

Engineering
Education
Enforcement

We're fecked on the first two counts.

spurscormac

po0k wrote: »

Engineering
Education
Enforcement

We're fecked on the first two counts.

Specifically on the first one.
Take a local example - the slip road off the bridge to the Headford Road.
Nothing more needs to be said on that, I bet the engineer who designed it isn't out of a job either.

And a national example - the Athlone bypass. Next time you're on it, notice the difference west of the shannon.
Westmeath CC built it, huge big on and off ramps on their side, but they put in slips with 90 degree bends after 100 yards on the Roscommon side.
Talk about ridiculous carry on.

Hairdo

You know I read online somewhere that they are trying in some places in the States to classify road rage as an actual mental disorder. I find this quite interesting for 2 opposite reasons:

1) If you can claim in court it is a mental dissorder then you can get off scott free and get some councelling for a few weeks, and still be a p*ick on the roads.

2) It does stand to reason that people that engage in the whole road rage thing are more aggressive people anyway!

Mrs OBumble

ronnie3585 wrote: »

....
Seriously though I can empathise with you to some extent. The standard of driving is generally piss poor. Blame it on poor driver education, lax testing standards, no license proficiency checks/renewals from when you get the license until you let it expire or die, bad roads, poor/no lighting, little to no sinage, roundabouts,ambiguous road traffic laws (provisional debacle - case in point), uneven non transparant and in some instances no applicaiton of the road traffic laws that are on the books...to name but a few.[/SIZE][/FONT][/FONT]

You can blame it on many things, but I do not think roundabouts is a fair call. The roundabouts here are no different to those in many other countries. Drivers in, and from, other countries, cope perfectly well with the, it's just the Irish who have a problem.

Personally I blame a lot of it on the poor general education, and on fetal-alcohol-syndrome.

Mrs OBumble

galah wrote: »

it really depends on the road conditions. I don't see why I should do 'only' 100 on an empty dual carriageway on a sunny day

Firstly, because driving faster is less economical: it will cost you more, and use up the world's dwindling oil supplies faster. If I were you, I'd expect to see the limit on motorways come down to 100km/h (if not lower) sometime soon.

Secondly, because of what happens when something goes wrong. You can be the best driver in the world, but if a tyre bursts or an animal runs onto the road then at 120 km/h you're in a lot of trouble. Some facts to ponder:

Reaction distance at 100km/h = 33 metres, at 120 km/h = 50 metres
Total stopping distance at 100 km/h = 70 metres, at 120 km/h = 120 metres
Relative force of impact at 100km/h = 100, at 120 km/h = 225
(source: http://www.police.govt.nz/service/road/facingthefacts.pdf. Yes, there are some assumptions about mass here, but the basic fact that E = mc^2 holds)