Galway drivers, worst in Ireland?

kayos

churchview wrote: »

I'm applying defensive driving techniques all the time i.e. presume everyone else on or near the road is out to get you.

Reminds me of Keeping up appearances

Mind the sheep Richard
What sheep?
The one in the field!

Honestly they should start giving free stress balls to people who pay their road tax in Galway.

galwayguy22

The amount of people I've seen over the last few days entering a roundabout in the right hand lane indicating right, then as they pass the first exit they indicate left and go straight out the second exit is scary.

How could someone possibly have such a poor comprehension of how a roundabout works.

There should be a mandatory resit of the theory test every 5 years. And a proper test not the mickey mouse one we did to get the provisional license.

Some people say there should be a resit of the actual driving test but in all honesty the test is a load of bollocks.

?Cee?view

galwayguy22 wrote: »

The amount of people I've seen over the last few days entering a roundabout in the right hand lane indicating right, then as they pass the first exit they indicate left and go straight out the second exit is scary.

How could someone possibly have such a poor comprehension of how a roundabout works.

There should be a mandatory resit of the theory test every 5 years. And a proper test not the mickey mouse one we did to get the provisional license.

Some people say there should be a resit of the actual driving test but in all honesty the test is a load of bollocks.

Couldn't agree more.

But I also love the "Galway Roundabout Manouevre" - enter roundabout in right lane and take first left. I drive regularly all over Ireland and it's only in Galway where you consistently see this madness.

paulhannon

CYCLISTS: BUY SOME ****ING LIGHTS & REFLECTIVE GEAR YOU STUPID C**TS! OH AND BY THE WAY, TRAFFIC LIGHTS AND ONE WAY STREETS APPLY TO YOU TOO!!!

ASSES!

kayos

To be honest they should bring in Drivers Ed to the second level schools with the aid of the sim2learn type setup (not connected to them in any way). Even as an extra subject run in association with the school in the evening.

When you look at the likes of transition year and the load of billix they do in that Drivers Ed would be a worth while change/addition. Start them young, learning the proper way to drive and remove the Daddy as teacher as they have their own bad habbits (lets be honest we all have some bad habbits even if its resting an arm on the gear stick/armrest).

But at the end of the day people learn all this (or are at least ment to) to get their driving licence. But sadly once they have that all sense goes out the window. Maybe if when caught for a motoring offense people should have to resit their test?

galah

do they not have 'psychological assessements' here to reduce your points once they hit a certian number?

They have that in Germany, you can go to driver seminars (pretty much resit driving school, and reduce your points that way once you've collected, I think, 12) - and they MAKE you go if you have drink driving convictions).

Bunch of muppets here, though. It's either the overcautious drivers, doing 30 km/h on the Tuam Road outbound past the city limits, holding everyone up, or the crazy morons tailgaiting and performing crazy maneuvres in roundabouts

(I've started to avoid the roundabout of doom recently and go through town, just for fear of getting killed by a muppet running a red light or 'merging' lanes - saw a guy the other day on the right hand lane from Terryland towards Tesco, merging across 3 lanes to the left, running two red lights, and then deciding he was wrong and merge 3 lanes to the right again. Just to then cut me off on the exit to the bridge, cause he was in the wrong lane again.)

People like that should be shot.

paulhannon

I would happily lend you my finger prints should you decide to shoot these people! (and to also take the glory).

ZorbaTehZ

paulhannon wrote: »

Oh and have you ever driven in NUIG? Everyone there happily walks out in front of the cars never once looking around them to see if its safe, but as soon as they come to one of the two zebra crossings they stop and look at it all confused! (Now in fairness I've seen quite a few cars not even see the zebra crossing and go straight through them)

Lmao this is so true and its very fkin strange tbh - worst is the morons who dont even bother with the paths just walk out in the middle of the roads.

ZorbaTehZ

galwayguy22 wrote: »

The amount of people I've seen over the last few days entering a roundabout in the right hand lane indicating right, then as they pass the first exit they indicate left and go straight out the second exit is scary.

EVERYONE in galway does this... its total madness tbh :pac:

Mrs OBumble

ZorbaTehZ wrote: »

EVERYONE in galway does this... its total madness tbh :pac:

I blame it on the lead in the water, it slowly causes people to go mad.

Honestly .. between the crypto, the lead, now the pork .. I'm beginning to wonder what kind of banana republic this country is!

KevR

ZorbaTehZ wrote: »

Lmao this is so true and its very fkin strange tbh - worst is the morons who dont even bother with the paths just walk out in the middle of the roads.

I nearly ran a fella over in the NUIG campus one night. He was walking in the middle of the road, not crossing - walking. He was wearing dark clothes in a poorly lit area of the campus. I nearly wiped him out..

KevR

galah wrote: »

.....(I've started to avoid the roundabout of doom recently and go through town.....

Can't wait for the day that they bulldoze that roundabout. They're supposed to be removing it when the Galway Shopping Centre is being refurbished. They're closing the entrance to the shopping centre from the RAB and upgrading the rest of the junction to a major signal controlled junction. Only time will tell how good it turns out to be but surely, in terms of traffic flow and idiots not knowing how to use it, it can't be worse than what's there now!?

JohnCleary

KevR wrote: »

I nearly ran a fella over in the NUIG campus one night. He was walking in the middle of the road, not crossing - walking. He was wearing dark clothes in a poorly lit area of the campus. I nearly wiped him out..

Drunk student?

oddone

galwayguy22 wrote: »

The amount of people I've seen over the last few days entering a roundabout in the right hand lane indicating right, then as they pass the first exit they indicate left and go straight out the second exit is scary.

How could someone possibly have such a poor comprehension of how a roundabout works.

There should be a mandatory resit of the theory test every 5 years. And a proper test not the mickey mouse one we did to get the provisional license.

Some people say there should be a resit of the actual driving test but in all honesty the test is a load of bollocks.

Or using the right hand lane to take the second exit.
Approaching the dublin roundabout (leaving galway) at oranmore
heading towards limerick is always fun. Here is a roundabout where two approaching lanes lead on to one single lane when going straight on /through.
The amount of times I've (rightly) kept in the left hand lane and taken the second exit for limerick only to be cut up by some ar**hole flying around on my outside doesn't bear thinking about. While I see at times given the amount of traffic using the left lane to bear left for dublin why it might be seen as the sensible thing to do to go straight on by staying right and avoiding joining the queue turning left in the inside lane, it still doesn't give anyone the right to cut someone up who is using the roundabout properly.

Knobbly

RandomAccess wrote: »

I don't trust indicators on a roundabout.
In the animation you supplied I winced when I saw the yellow car moving off as the red car signals.. watch it yourself and see why.

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

You should never proceed on the strength of another's indicator!

Knobbly wrote: »

I agree, a flashing indicator simple means it works, and until the car turns, it means nothing else.

.

SalthillGuy

Imagine at 4:00am, boy racers and nobody around....
The fun you could have on the round abouts in Galway.
That is why a car gets stranded every now and again on the actual green area in the centre.

JohnCleary

SalthillGuy wrote: »

Imagine at 4:00am, boy racers and nobody around....
The fun you could have on the round abouts in Galway.
That is why a car gets stranded every now and again on the actual green area in the centre.

Meh, car park ftw

DeadSkin

Instead of starting a new thread, I thought I'd ask in this thread, so;

Has anyone rang Garda 'Traffic Watch' after seeing some muppet making crazy ass moves on the roads?
I rang a few months back to report some dangerous driving[tailgating & overtaking on a dangerous bend], they asked where & when, the reg & make of the car. They asked would I be willing to make an official statement, I said yes. Not surprised I've heard sweet feck all from them, but has anyone here reported anything similiar to 'Traffic Watch'?

Better still has, anyone been contacted by the Gardai with such a complaint issued against them via 'Traffic Watch'?
Would like to know does it work, has it worked?
I'd assume if a few complaints were reported about a single incident/driver, I'd like to think something would be done about it.

snubbleste

DeadSkin wrote: »

Has anyone rang Garda 'Traffic Watch' after seeing some muppet making crazy ass moves on the roads?
I rang a few months back to report some dangerous driving[tailgating & overtaking on a dangerous bend], they asked where & when, the reg & make of the car. They asked would I be willing to make an official statement, I said yes. Not surprised I've heard sweet feck all from them, but has anyone here reported anything similiar to 'Traffic Watch'?

Yes i did a long time ago, then 3 and a half months later out of the blue when I'd forgotten about it, the local Garda rang and asked me if i was willing to make a statement about something I'd a vague recollection of at the time - I said No partly because it's taken so long to get a response.
So yes, it is followed up upon.

If you do a search on 'trafficwatch', you'll find others' experience.

KevR

Was out in Athenry today and had to drive to Tuam. Anyone who has driven from Athenry to Tuam will know that the road is very narrow, has many tight/dangerous bends and is poorly surfaced. The speed limit was 50kmh for stretches (very rightly so IMO), and 80kmh for other stretches. Anyhow....I drove at a sensible speed and was overtaken on several occasions by people in mucky 4x4s who were doing crazy speeds (would guess about 110kmh). Madness! :mad:

VanhireBoys

I have fitted my Focus with a bumper cam and an in car cam which uses 2 cameras and saves 2 hrs on to an SD card. Its an amazing bit of kit. I am trying it out as an experiment for the bro's rally car. Its amazing what happens on the roads....:D

I have enough evidence gathered over this last week to secure at least 10 convictions for dangerous driving - jumping lights - cutting people up - bad roundabout behaviour...Peace and good will.. b***ocs.. but unless you really p**s me off I'll let it slide......;)

Big bro is watching you from his focus van :eek:

cL0h

paulhannon wrote: »

CYCLISTS: BUY SOME ****ING LIGHTS & REFLECTIVE GEAR YOU STUPID C**TS! OH AND BY THE WAY, TRAFFIC LIGHTS AND ONE WAY STREETS APPLY TO YOU TOO!!!

ASSES!

Is your insult directed at cyclists or those cyclists who don't have lights/reflective gear etc.

Here's one for you:

Motorists stop overtaking at high speed and then screeching to a halt at the lights/roundabout and then doing it all over again for the next set of lights.
Oh and to answer your question it's to the left of the A key.

paulhannon

It's to the cyclists that put themselves at risk of losing their life by not realising how difficult it is to see them at night if the have no reflective gear, lights etc. It's also to the ones that don't seem to think that the rules of the road apply to them. All road users have to follow road signs and traffic lights!

If a motorist knocks down one of these morons because they can't be seen it's the motorist that gets punished, when really we all know the motorist concerned should receive a medal and cash prize for giving the rest of us one less dickhead to worry about hitting!

Cyclists that wobble about on the road also need to wake up to the potential carnage they can cause due to not being able to even balance on a bike and causing cars to over take wide and cross in to oncoming lanes.

I'm not anti-bike, far from it and if we had the weather I'd happily cycle to town or wherever. I am however anti-morons on the road!

Merry Christmas.

Das Kitty

2 muppet cyclists this morning on the top of the rahoon road. I was on top of them before I saw them, luckily there was nothing coming the other way. A tiny flashing red light is not visible from afar.

I'm firmly of the belief that if you're cycling at all or walking where there is no path or streetlights at night that you have to wear a high visibility jacket, even the little strip isn't enough really (but admittedly better than nothing)

cL0h

paulhannon wrote: »

If a motorist knocks down one of these morons because they can't be seen it's the motorist that gets punished.

Actually in real terms it's the cyclist who gets punished more every time but perhaps you could present a case where a motorist got charged for knocking down a cyclist who had no lights at night.

paulhannon wrote: »

Cyclists that wobble about on the road also need to wake up to the potential carnage

Wow! Wobbly cyclists are causing the carnage on the road and not, as was previously suspected, speeding and dangerous overtaking!

paulhannon wrote: »

if we had the weather I'd happily cycle to town or wherever.

Doubt it you'd just find a different excuse.


Oh and here's a shocking piece of information
The speed limit inside the city limits is 30 miles (50 km) per hour.

thecivvie

I both cycle and drive in Galway and either way I am scared by the poor standards of driving and cycling in Galway. cL0h I have been seriously cut up by cyclists when driving and also hit several times when walking, yes cyclists using footpaths

Zapho

kinetic wrote: »

Indicators are a luxury must not use item

That may be so in Galway, but its also the case EVERYWHERE in the country. I've never been on a road in Ireland where I could trust another car's use of indicators. Either the person doesn't indicate at all, or indicates left going onto a roundabout when they're actually taking the 2nd or last exit.

Your comment on the red light bit is spot on though, but this can also be blamed on poor traffic light setup. Also for some reason, major junctions in Galway often have a sensor traffic light set up whereby the filter light won't turn on unless you're inside the box. I wish people would realise that.......

But on saying that, the "delayed" red light bit is also noticable all over the country too, especially on the N11.

But what really irritates me in Galway is delivery trucks/vans thinking its ok to stop in the middle of the road right before a bend on lower salthill to drop off supplies to shops. That goes for taxis waiting for customers outside the pubs down there too. That really annoys me!

charlie_says

The roundabout in Salthill is mad! It also induces a temporary kind of madness for all drivers of motor vehicles when the enter it.

cL0h

thecivvie wrote: »

I both cycle and drive in Galway and either way I am scared by the poor standards of driving and cycling in Galway. cL0h I have been seriously cut up by cyclists when driving and also hit several times when walking, yes cyclists using footpaths

Look I'm not excusing the actions of bad cyclists. What I'm saying is that it is widely acknowledged that there are bad drivers and good drivers but when it comes to cyclists they all get tarred with the same brush and the attitude is that they are interrupting the free movement of cars on the road and somehow causing motorists to behave in a way that is dangerous to themselves and others.
I drive and cycle too. I tell cyclists to get off footpaths. I even shout out the window at cyclists with no lights. But what I shout is "You've no lights" or "I can't see you" not "ASSES" or "dickheads" as paulhannon said.
You should know "thecivvie" that on the road you yield to cyclists with a good head of steam going because it's a pain in the arse to have to screech to a halt cos you got cut off only to have to build momentum again a second later. Of course in the same situation a motorist just depresses their foot slightly on a pedal to get the same effect.

Das Kitty

cL0h wrote: »

when it comes to cyclists they all get tarred with the same brush

No one here did that. We're just having a go at the stupid ones.

Far more stories of idiot drivers here but no suggestion that all drivers are idiots.