8 New Mobile Speed Cameras in Crackdown

TheNog

TJJP wrote: »

OT, but just out of interest, driving while intoxicated in Japan which has a zero mg/l limit will get you the following:

The Driver and a person who provided the Driver with a vehicle shall be subject to:
Imprisonment with mandatory labour not exceeding five years or a fine not exceeding 1,000,000yen (€8,000)
A person who provided the Driver with alcohol and a person who was riding as a passenger in a vehicle operated by the Driver shall be subject to:
Imprisonment with mandatory labour not exceeding three years or a fine not exceeding 500,000yen (€4,000)

http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/foreign/traffic/nodriving.html

bloody hell now thats severe

TJJP

Yup, but I was never, ever, tempted to drink and drive there that's for sure!

You also loose your licence for two years and if you are a government or public worker you are pretty sure to get fired...

Good way to work though, I just adjusted to it. If I'm going out for pints now I just plan to not need a car.

Omcd

Joker wrote: »

.....You may use it for a short period (provided it is safe to do so) to allow another vehicle to overtake you on a single carriageway.....

In reality the problem with this is once you do that, even travelling at the limit + 10%, everyone behind the first passing car sees it getting past so they speed up to barge past behind that first car, followed by the next car, and the next car and so on, so you eventually run out of hard shoulder with a high speed train of idiots coming up who are determined to bulldoze their way come what may through that peice of road that you need to move back out onto or failing that they are determined to force oncoming traffic out of way in absolute lunatic fashion as you move out to avoid that wall, parked lorry, or whatever, because they havnt the common decency or brains to let you back in and wait for the next opportunty to present itself to overtake.

Some of the most horrendous driving I've seen on a single carraigeway national route always seem to start with someone moving into the hard shoulder to let traffic behind by, I've seen this in one case building up to at least 7 or 8 cars and vans overtaking three abreast at high speed in the face of two abreast oncoming traffic!! Kind of like when theres a panic and a lot of people try to leave a building through a doorway by everyone trying to force their way through it all at the same time - if you open a doorway to following traffic, many a time you create a situation that escalates dangerously where everyone tries to rush through before that door closes, and when it comes to having to close that door, you may not be able to. This is the reality of Irish driving. No patience, no courtesy, but a lot of want to be brain dead lemmings.

I'd have no problem with the moving into hard shoulder thing if the majority of other drivers treated such a gesture with some courtesy and common sense, but the majority of other drivers dont. And I've no problem in moving over if there's only one or two cars following. And before people jump on this and make out I'm saying you should not let people past if you're crawling along, I should make it clear my comments are made in the context of keeping up at least with the limit - if someone is obstructing traffic by driving under the limit unreasonably that is a totally different matter.

patrickc

i came across 7/8 checkpoints in dublin city on Tuesday night, everyone was just for tax/insurance etc no breath testing at all.

revenue effort so towards the end of the month

eringobragh

patrickc wrote: »

i came across 7/8 checkpoints in dublin city on Tuesday night, everyone was just for tax/insurance etc no breath testing at all.

revenue effort so towards the end of the month

BH Weekend Speed Van Location predictions

Might do an accumulator in Paddy Power!!!

VAN1: M1 (80k zone Northbound) :rolleyes:
VAN2: M1 (80K city centre inbound)
VAN3: N2
VAN4: N7/M7
VAN5: M6
VAN6: M4
VAN7: N8 (Motorway reclassified section, or more than likely a few kms after the 120k ends :rolleyes:)
VAN8: N9 (Motorway reclassified section, or more than likely a few kms after the 120k ends :rolleyes:)


........................for the good of the nation:pac:

TheNog

patrickc wrote: »

i came across 7/8 checkpoints in dublin city on Tuesday night, everyone was just for tax/insurance etc no breath testing at all.

revenue effort so towards the end of the month

There is no such thing as a tax/insurance checkpoint only. While they will be checked, guards will also be checking for drink driving, criminals and other things. Believe or not we do know who the criminals are and their faces

Lumen

Omcd wrote: »

In reality the problem with this is once you do that, even travelling at the limit + 10%, everyone behind the first passing car sees it getting past so they speed up to barge past behind that first car, followed by the next car, and the next car and so on, so you eventually run out of hard shoulder with a high speed train of idiots coming up who are determined to bulldoze their way come what may through that peice of road that you need to move back out onto

It depends how assertive you are. The overtaking drivers probably can't see (or are not looking for) the end of the hard shoulder. By keeping left you're giving them a signal to overtake. If you indicate right in good time and re-take your position on the main carriageway, they're not going to drive into the back of you.

Omcd

A lot of drivers nowadays seem to think indicators are only decorations.

Berty

I agree completely with more speed checks and check points being operated on the bank holidays.

There are more vehicles on the roads giving rise to the possibility of more accidents.

The Irish population has an issue with alcohol abuse at special holidays whereby everybody seems to think they must drink at least once over the weekends. This means there will be more people prone to getting behind the wheel and driving home. It will also give rise to people who go drinking on a Sunday evening but do not have the bank holiday monday off work. They will drive on the Monday morning.

At more than one occassion I have been approached by the Garda to the drivers window at a check point. They ask different questions but it is usually to smell you or hear the slur in your voice. It usually refers to your name and where you are from to reciting your registration number.

I can agree that these check points are not just to catch people with......................sorry I say this as a guy with a failure cert from a driving centre just drove off(badly) in his micra on his own.....someone throw a check point his way........

Sorry again, anyway, check points should be used for a number of functions which I agree they are being. Cathcing motor tax evaders, Insurance evaders, NCT evaders. They should also concentrate on broken headlights and tail lights. There should be a mandatory fine for this fault in your vehicle and you should be able to avoid the fine if you carry a spare bulb kit in the boot.

There will be more cars this weekend on the roads giving rise to increase issues that happen on a regular weekend. A better presence is always required at busier times to control the situation.

Still, these Gatso locations will be in the wrong locations as usual. They will be out to catch people speeding and not people speeding in dangerous locations.

*Applauds the Gardai* for when they catch and prosecute drink drivers

Type 17

While I agree that many people drive at excessive speed for the conditions at hand, many roads have speed limits that are too low.

While this an issue to be solved by local authorities (yeah, right...), I have found that law-enforcement takes place on these roads a lot more often than it does on roads where the speed limit is more appropriate.

Although the statistical sample is only three, my father (aged 78), my brother (47) and myself (39) were chatting and realised that we all have 2 points for speeding, and all offences occurred on different dual carriageways with speeds limits of 60 km/h...

Berty

Type 17 wrote: »

While I agree that many people drive at excessive speed for the conditions at hand, many roads have speed limits that are too low.

While this an issue to be solved by local authorities (yeah, right...), I have found that law-enforcement takes place on these roads a lot more often than it does on roads where the speed limit is more appropriate.

Although the statistical sample is only three, my father (aged 78), my brother (47) and myself (39) were chatting and realised that we all have 2 points for speeding, and all offences occurred on different dual carriageways with speeds limits of 60 km/h...

Look at the length of the dual carraigeway from Limerick to the other side of Ennis. Its longer than the M50 but its only 100kph

Seth Brundle

Joker wrote: »

Let's not descend into a garda bashing thread if possible. This is the sole work of the Asst Comm and that bunch of grannies in the RSA.



Talkin sh*te with the best of them!

In their defence, more has been done to improve road safety since the introduction of the RSA thn in all time before its existence!

.Longshanks.

Seen one of these in action this morning. It was parked in the grass between the intersection of the M1 northbound and the airport/belfast exit of the M50 (about 500m short of the increase from 80kmph to 120kmph). Appeared to be aimed at the M1 drivers rather than the M50 exit i was using.

eringobragh

Longshanks100 wrote: »

Seen one of these in action this morning. It was parked in the grass between the intersection of the M1 northbound and the airport/belfast exit of the M50 (about 500m short of the increase from 80kmph to 120kmph). Appeared to be aimed at the M1 drivers rather than the M50 exit i was using.

As predictions go: 1 Down 7 to go.

Well this is just pure ****e, It would be better aimed at cars coming from the 80 into the 60 on the other side of the M1 towards city centre.

That Van does wonders for safety. :mad: :mad: Same spot as 3 weeks ago as well.

Was it parked behind the big road works sign again?? :mad:

V ---- 3 weeks ago :

Berty

Is it legal to park where that van is parked without any hazard markings?

If I parked my car there to have my lunch I would be very quickly told It was illegal to stop there.

Type 17

quirke_folder wrote: »

Is it legal to park where that van is parked without any hazard markings?

If I parked my car there to have my lunch I would be very quickly told It was illegal to stop there.

The rules apply differently to Gardai "in the performance of their duties".

Berty

Type 17 wrote: »

The rules apply differently to Gardai "in the performance of their duties".

Thats the Talivan though.

They are not the Gardai AFAIK. Outsourced company.

Type 17

quirke_folder wrote: »

Thats the Talivan though.

They are not the Gardai AFAIK. Outsourced company.

Even if they aren't Gardai, do you think that their parking habits will make any difference to whether the points go on your licence or not?

PS: I do agree that it's not a great place to park, and that these stealth vans are a joke - marked vans would look less like revenue-generation and more like proper policing, by making people think.

Unmarked Vans: Fleecing, Not Policing.

Berty

Had nothing good to say so edited

Seth Brundle

quirke_folder wrote: »

Thats the Talivan though.

They are not the Gardai AFAIK. Outsourced company.

No its not outsourced - its the Garda Traffic Corps that operate those vans.
The privatised shower aren't being introduced for about a year.

Steve

It's a good point though, they're going to have to change the legislation to allow them to park on motorways or the 'Garda only' ramps as currently the only exemptions are for ES vehicles.

Seth Brundle

AFAIK the legislation has been passed to allow them to carry out the speed detection duties normally carried out by the gardai. I presume items such as parking on motorways has been fully thought out.

Wait, hang on... with our civil servants... it probably hasn't been sorted out!

Steve

Sorted???

Probably hasn't even been thought of..:rolleyes:

A few days into the rollout they'll cop it and there'll be a tribunal or something followed by seriously flawed 'emergency' legislation and hopefully the whole thing will fall on it's tit.

Oh yeah, and we'll have to pay for the cock-up through some new tax.

galwaytt

Type 17 wrote: »

The rules apply differently to Gardai "in the performance of their duties".

maybe, but if parking in a location likely to cause an accident, by impeding the sight lines of merging traffic from the slip road............I'd love to see a solr take them to the cleaners for that one...........a squad car is one thing - it has glass, but a high-sided van...?

dingding

TheNog wrote: »

There is one solution that is being used right now but not enough people are doing it. That is for a person to report a case of bad driving and go all the way with it to court. The guards cannot be everywhere but the public certainly can and are.
.

To do this the phone lines need to be resourced properly. I rang the number advertised on the road after a near head on collision with a Northern 4X4 driver in a border area. I had to come to a full stop on the road to avoid him as he was overtaking. When I got through to the number a Voice recognition system asked me to say what county I was in. I did not know, could have been Cavan or Leitrim. The system did not understand what I was saying and I gave up.

He could have been stopped going through Manorhamilton 10 Minutes later if this system was efficient.

The call centre needs to be properly resourced.

By the time I would have hung up, got directory enquiries to get Manaohamilton station he would have been long gone.

knuth

Eringobragh: Aren't they obstructing the view of merging traffic? Where is the 'safety' in this?

Road Death Toll banter:

When I started driving (5 years ago) I paid €4,500 for my 97D 1Litre to be insured. I lived in the city centre. In that time, there was not as many cars on the road as there is now. Small examples:

Crumlin: Nearly EVERYHOUSE has a car
Ballybough: Every street littered with cars
Stoneybatter: Oxmantown road etc, ALL full of cars
Phibsboro: Shandon Park / Iona / Drumconrda, streets full of cars

I'm keeping this short and sweet: My point is, 5 years ago there was not half as many cars on the Dublin roads as there is now. Every street you go onto is guaranteed to be littered with cars. Having more drivers = having more cars.

Next, the death toll on the roads hasn't really peaked above 500 over the last several years has it? (Guesstimates)

So.. if we had *500,000 drivers in Ireland in 2002 with a death toll of 300 and *1,000,000 drivers in Ireland in 2008 with a death toll of 500, surely this is progression?

*Figures above are not fact on the actual numbers of drivers but I believe that every one will put their hand up and agree that every joe soap drives a car in Ireland now.

Dublin, how many deaths have actually happened on the Dublin's roads? The county with the highest population.. The county with, I reckon, a high percentage of Irish Drivers.

Please, do the math and let me know

knuth

It's also worth pointing out that my idea of speeding etc could easily be altered if some one close to me was involved in a car accident. Hopefully this never happens to anyone.

eringobragh

lordlame wrote: »

Eringobragh: Aren't they obstructing the view of merging traffic? Where is the 'safety' in this?

Probably will no doubt but an again no more than the misplaced camoflage roadwork sign.

That M1 speed check ain't gonna stop the 5+ deaths this weekend it makes no sense where it is, typical money making ****e at it finest.

Its a wonder people don't floor it on the crap roads and kepe PSL on the Motorways afterall the odds are against you, WHat a Joke :mad:

I.S.T.

Lordlame, you are correct. Relatively speaking the roads are getting a lot safer. Accident rate has stayed much the same or dropped and there are many more cars on the road. Why they fudge these figures I cannot be sure. Perhaps a lot of people in the RSA would be out of a job????

These two graph illustrates exactly what you are talking about:

http://meas.ie/page.php?intPageID=229

http://meas.ie/page.php?intPageID=228

cyclopath2001

IrishSpeedTraps wrote: »

Lordlame, you are correct. Relatively speaking the roads are getting a lot safer. Accident rate has stayed much the same or dropped and there are many more cars on the road. Why they fudge these figures I cannot be sure. Perhaps a lot of people in the RSA would be out of a job????

More cars equals more congestion equals lower average speeds equals less serious accidents?