Galway drivers, worst in Ireland?

galwayguy22

diverdriver

I wouldn't say Galway drivers are the worst in Ireland. Tipperary drivers still hold that coveted position as far as I'm concerned. Everytime I see TN or TS. I dive for cover. However coming from Dublin I do have to say that Galway traffic is easily the worst I've seen. Worse than Dublin because in Dublin there is often another route. Galway may or may not be unique in this but I've never seen simultaneous traffic jams in both directions before.

The famous roundabouts are the biggest joke in the city. They're badly designed for a start and there's far too many. Their failings are well documented here. I too have nearly had my nose cut off by the usual moron cutting across from the wrong lane. What's worse they often hit horn as if you had done something wrong. One day at the Wellpark roundabout, I rear ended a moron in a Fiesta. My fault? Well he stopped dead in the middle of the roundabout. His excuse was that he thought someone was about to drive onto the roundabout ahead of him.

Garda presence is notable by it's absence. Where are all the Guards in this town, drinking tea in Millstreet? Right now as I sit here. I can hear the engines reving as the boy racers scream from roundabout to roundabout down towards Oranmore and back. It's friday and the kiddies are having fun with the silly Civics. Where are the police?

I'm not surprised that Galway drivers are bad, they have probably the worst laid out road system in the country and no Police enforcement.

Roadworks are also a huge problem. I cannot believe how long it's taking to sort out the road from Briarhill to the Dublin road. The great wall of China was built quicker. There is another old road there too. For months now it has cones marking where they clearly intend to widen it. But there's a little man or two working away on a mock dry stone wall, because of course this is Galway, the water may be bad and the traffic chronic but we have to make it look like Connemara. Ordinary walls won't do. The list of ridiculous road layouts is very long.

I have to say I feel a tension when driving in this town that I never felt in Dublin. I honestly don't know why the local representatives are re-elected every time. They are all incompetent.

KevR

diverdriver wrote: »

Roadworks are also a huge problem. I cannot believe how long it's taking to sort out the road from Briarhill to the Dublin road. The great wall of China was built quicker.

There is another old road there too. For months now it has cones marking where they clearly intend to widen it. But there's a little man or two working away on a mock dry stone wall, because of course this is Galway, the water may be bad and the traffic chronic but we have to make it look like Connemara. Ordinary walls won't do.

Funny because of how true it is!


Was coming in the Tom Hogan Dual Carriageway (100kmh speed limit) today and there was a Garda car driving at 80kmh in the left-hand lane. Of course everyone who was coming up behind it doing 100kmh jams on the brakes, afraid of their life to overtake a police car even though they wouldn't break the speed limit by doing so. The Garda car driving too slow caused people to brake dangerously and caused a tail back.

Anyway I wasn't afraid to overtake the Gardai and did so at 100kmh - no problems. Then of course I get stuck in the slower moving lane queueing for the next roundabout. The Garda car got ahead of me again and I was behind it on the next stretch of road. They continued to drive at 80kmh on the next stretch which had a 50kmh speed limit. To be fair, I do think the speed limit should be 80kmh on that stretch of road but it's not and the Gardai have had speed traps out on that stretch a good few times over the Christmas - I even got a ticket one night for doing 80kmh on it!

Funny stuff all round. People afraid to overtake the Gardai even though they wouldn't break any law by doing so, the Gardai causing dangerous braking and a tailback by driving too slow and the same Garda car being well over the limit on another road - a road which they give speed tickets to people who drive on it at the same speed that they do themselves.

ZzubZzub

galwayrush wrote: »

I dread seeing a MO reg car at one of the roundabouts.:rolleyes:

Mines an MO reg but Im from Galway! And yes, I am able to use a roundabout. And my indicators. Over drivers infuriate me. Not half as bad as over here though, people dont seem to care what lane they are in! One fella was in the left hand lane and went all the way around!!! Ludacris-ness!

MackDeToaster

galwayguy22 wrote: »

I don't be in town all that often these days, but twice out of maybe the four or five times I have been there in the past two months, I've seen crashes exactly from that :eek:

dloob

diverdriver wrote: »

One day at the Wellpark roundabout, I rear ended a moron in a Fiesta. My fault? Well he stopped dead in the middle of the roundabout. His excuse was that he thought someone was about to drive onto the roundabout ahead of him.

Well according to the Tribune a few weeks the Wellpark or fFrench roundabout is going to get the chop and be replaced with intellegent traffic lights.
All before the volvo ocean race comes to town too.
Will it be better or worse than the roundabout though?

KevR

dloob wrote: »

Well according to the Tribune a few weeks the Wellpark or fFrench roundabout is going to get the chop and be replaced with intellegent traffic lights.
All before the volvo ocean race comes to town too.
Will it be better or worse than the roundabout though?

I'd like to think and really hope it will be better than the roundabout in terms of improved traffic flow and in terms of less accidents caused by people cutting lanes and other bad driving habits which are rampant on our roundabouts.

The Galway Shopping Centre roundabout is also getting replaced by intelligent traffic lights. The exit for the Shopping Centre itself will be closed and replaced with a left in left out entrance/exit on the Sean Mulvoy Rd. I think this will definitely be an improvement.

In my opinion they should get rid of the Tuam Rd roundabout also. It's only a plain crossroad so traffic lights could be easily put in and would do a better job.
Also think the Menlo Park roundabout should go. Either close or only have left in left out access to the Lisbaun Industrial Estate. The Menlo Park RAB is a huge problem for West-East traffic in Galway. Traffic backs the whole way back onto the Galway SC RAB at times and causes delays in all directions when this RAB is blocked.

Get rid of as many RABs as possible IMO.

galwayguy22

KevR wrote: »

Get rid of as many RABs as possible IMO.

Racist.

Robbo

KevR wrote: »

Get rid of as many RABs as possible IMO.

Some of those roundabouts are part of the unique architectural fibre and heritage of Galway. To destroy them would be a travesty and worse than anything Hitler ever did. Even worse than Hitler playing jungle music at 2am.

Yours etc.

Dirk Hamburglar,
PRO and Gruppenfuhrer,
Galway Alliance Against Architectural Atrocities and Anything Asymmetrical Around Here (GAAAAaAAAH)

schween

Robbo wrote: »

Some of those roundabouts are part of the unique architectural fibre and heritage of Galway. To destroy them would be a travesty and worse than anything Hitler ever did. Even worse than Hitler playing jungle music at 2am.

Yours etc.

Dirk Hamburglar,
PRO and Gruppenfuhrer,
Galway Alliance Against Architectural Atrocities and Anything Asymmetrical Around Here (GAAAAaAAAH)

Priceless!

Mrs OBumble

dloob wrote: »

Well according to the Tribune a few weeks the Wellpark or fFrench roundabout is going to get the chop and be replaced with intellegent traffic lights.
All before the volvo ocean race comes to town too.
Will it be better or worse than the roundabout though?

Should be better. Roundabouts are good up to a certain volume of traffic. But over that volume, they become bad, verrrrrrry bad. Unfortunately whoever built Galway forgot to think about what would happen if the traffic volumes here ever reached that level, so built these big monsters that aren't easily converted into either lights-controlled or fly-overs.

Fingers crossed!

road_2_damascus

kinetic wrote: »

I drive over a thousand miles a week all over and can safely say Galway drivers are the most ignorant,dangerous,stupid and careless missinformed users on the roads!

I was in Dublin all day driving all around town, on the M50 and not a problem.

But as soon as i get onto the dual carriage way at Oranmore and head for Salthill,its fxxxing bedlam.They cant use roundabouts, red lights dont seem to count for the first 5 seconds of going red in Galway.Indicators are a luxury must not use item, and general bad behaviour and aggression is the norm.

I would go asfar as to say that they would not last a week in London ,New York or any other town or city.


Why are they so bad here?

try up our way on a Northern bank holiday weekend.. throw in about 100 road bikes for good measure, Donegal can be mental for speeders

Zzippy

Robbo wrote: »

Some of those roundabouts are part of the unique architectural fibre and heritage of Galway. To destroy them would be a travesty and worse than anything Hitler ever did. Even worse than Hitler playing jungle music at 2am.

Yours etc.

Dirk Hamburglar,
PRO and Gruppenfuhrer,
Galway Alliance Against Architectural Atrocities and Anything Asymmetrical Around Here (GAAAAaAAAH)

Is that you Derrick? :P

lightening

I have family in Galway, I end up going there a good bit.

The driving is atrocious, people don't know how to and don't understand merging, they will NOT let anyone out from a minor road on to a major road, even when traffic is heavy they will pull up, bumper to bumper blocking the way, everyone drives around with their fog lights on, people won't use indicators, they are clueless about roundabouts, they drive in the overtaking lane. Galway drivers seem to have no manners on the road.

There is a massive problem with drink driving, every time I go to a certain local pub I see buckled people getting in to their cars and driving home, dozens and dozens of them.

JohnCleary

lightening wrote: »

The driving is atrocious, people don't know how to and don't understand merging, they will NOT let anyone out from a minor road on to a major road, even when traffic is heavy they will pull up, bumper to bumper blocking the way, everyone drives around with their fog lights on, people won't use indicators, they are clueless about roundabouts, they drive in the overtaking lane. Galway drivers seem to have no manners on the road.

When i'm in the mini-van, people are veryyy polite and nearly always let me out of places like that, I guess they think i'm working. However when i'm in the car - forget about it!

There is a massive problem with drink driving, every time I go to a certain local pub I see buckled people getting in to their cars and driving home, dozens and dozens of them.

:eek:
Is this a rural pub? I'm guessing so? I can tell you that that's not the NORM in the city really, so you cannot say just because one pub's clients do be always drink driving that it's a massive problem in Galway as a whole - If it bothers you, without trying to sound like a rat, why don't you ring the Guards? B1tching about it on a forum won't do much :pac:

lightening

JohnCleary wrote: »

I guess they think i'm working. However when i'm in the car - forget about it!

That's mad... never came across that before.

JohnCleary wrote: »

Is this a rural pub? I'm guessing so? I can tell you that that's not the NORM in the city really, so you cannot say just because one pub's clients do be always drink driving that it's a massive problem in Galway as a whole - If it bothers you, without trying to sound like a rat, why don't you ring the Guards? B1tching about it on a forum won't do much :pac:

It was a rural pub. Not bitching, just telling you what I see on a regular basis in Galway. The local Gard was in the pub. I called them anyway, nothing was done, the Gard on the phone was more interested in my phone number, my address, what was I driving, where I was from.... I have seen it all over rural Galway, fair point on it not being the norm in the city.

Of course it bothers me.

JohnCleary

What area(s) in Galway do you see it? Pretty shocking alright, but not surprising

lightening

Tuam.

Not Galway city, I know this is the Galway city forum, I am sure it doesn't happen as much in the city....

fish fingers

I passed out a woman today on the dual carriage way , just by Windsor motors.
She was swerving a bit , so i was thinking she was on the phone.

I had a look into the car to see what she was at, lo and behold she had a book open on the steering wheel.:eek::eek:

trish23

I drive 4-500 miles per week depending on job all over Ireland, Dublin, Portlaoise, Cork, Limerick etc... What breaks my heart is that come within a radius of 30-40 miles of Galway everybody drives at 50MPH. WTF! Why?! I'm far from a speed freak but I've seen so many near accidents from this driving behaviour it's not funny. I know we now have the brand spanking hots**t road to Dublin & we're all conditioned to driving with speed but I don't see this behaviour in Cork or Portlaoise so what's with this? BTW I drive an MO car... & I have no probs in Galway city (& don't cause any)

kippy

trish23 wrote: »

I drive 4-500 miles per week depending on job all over Ireland, Dublin, Portlaoise, Cork, Limerick etc... What breaks my heart is that come within a radius of 30-40 miles of Galway everybody drives at 50MPH. WTF! Why?! I'm far from a speed freak but I've seen so many near accidents from this driving behaviour it's not funny. I know we now have the brand spanking hots**t road to Dublin & we're all conditioned to driving with speed but I don't see this behaviour in Cork or Portlaoise so what's with this? BTW I drive an MO car... & I have no probs in Galway city (& don't cause any)

EVERYBODY?
I cant say Id agree with that assertation.
30-40 miles of galwau would encompass a fair bit of the west of Ireland.

paulhannon

fish fingers wrote: »

I passed out a woman today on the dual carriage way , just by Windsor motors.
She was swerving a bit , so i was thinking she was on the phone.

I had a look into the car to see what she was at, lo and behold she had a book open on the steering wheel.:eek::eek:

you know i'm not surprised...really i'm not!
I fully expect a local bylaw allowing the blind to drive in galway to be passed soon, might as well what with the standards at present!

ZorbaTehZ

Saw a woman pulled over on the quincentenary in the direction towards Westside. Worst thing was she hadn't even pulled up onto the pavement, just moved very close to it and put on her indicator. I was in the right lane, guy in the left lane saw her late and had to veer out into my lane to avoid her. FOR FUCK SAKE WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE.

/rant

con71

kippy wrote: »

EVERYBODY?
I cant say Id agree with that assertation.
30-40 miles of galwau would encompass a fair bit of the west of Ireland.

Try driving in from Tuam at about 7 am. If you're lucky it's 50mph. Mostly it's about 40-45mph. Ok, some people aren't happy about driving at speed so I'd rather they be safe than sorry but what really gets up my nose is the 10 cars behind, nose to tail with no intention of overtaking. They are the ones making the road dangerous. They are pressuring the car ahead, leaving no room for emergency measures and making it even more dangerous for the other race of lunatics who insist on overtaking in nose to tail traffic even though they'll only make about four positions.:mad:

Das Kitty

ZorbaTehZ wrote: »

Saw a woman pulled over on the quincentenary in the direction towards Westside. Worst thing was she hadn't even pulled up onto the pavement, just moved very close to it and put on her indicator. I was in the right lane, guy in the left lane saw her late and had to veer out into my lane to avoid her. FOR FUCK SAKE WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE.

/rant

Yeah irritating but nothing wrong with what she did. It's illegal to park with your wheels on a footpath (yeah I know) and there are no yellow lines at the side of the road on the Quincentenary Bridge. Had the guy behind her kept correct braking distance / been paying attention he wouldn't have had to swerve into your lane. He's the one at fault in this.

kayos

Das Kitty wrote: »

Yeah irritating but nothing wrong with what she did. It's illegal to park with your wheels on a footpath (yeah I know) and there are no yellow lines at the side of the road on the Quincentenary Bridge. Had the guy behind her kept correct braking distance / been paying attention he wouldn't have had to swerve into your lane. He's the one at fault in this.

Ok while I see your point in terms of legality its still a stupid place to stop for any reason other than your car breaking down.

I dont want to try and count the number of times I've seen people pulled up on a road without a hardshoulder simply to answer the mobile. Fair enough they pulled up to answer but at least do so where its safe to do it. You can get a cheap handsfree for the cost of a good night out at the weekend for heavens sake.

Das Kitty

Oh I agree, it's a stupid place to pull up when traffic is flowing in non emergency situations.

tonyhiggins

con71 wrote: »

Try driving in from Tuam at about 7 am. If you're lucky it's 50mph. Mostly it's about 40-45mph. Ok, some people aren't happy about driving at speed so I'd rather they be safe than sorry but what really gets up my nose is the 10 cars behind, nose to tail with no intention of overtaking. They are the ones making the road dangerous. They are pressuring the car ahead, leaving no room for emergency measures and making it even more dangerous for the other race of lunatics who insist on overtaking in nose to tail traffic even though they'll only make about four positions.:mad:

Should the folk who isn't comfortable driving at speed do their best to let those behind overtake? It's something that annoys me because it seems to me to be dangerous not to make it easier to be overtaken when you're travelling way below the speed limit.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhsnojcwmhmh/rss2/

Ask us! Ask us!

MackDeToaster

con71 wrote: »

Try driving in from Tuam at about 7 am. If you're lucky it's 50mph. Mostly it's about 40-45mph. Ok, some people aren't happy about driving at speed so I'd rather they be safe than sorry but what really gets up my nose is the 10 cars behind, nose to tail with no intention of overtaking. They are the ones making the road dangerous. They are pressuring the car ahead, leaving no room for emergency measures and making it even more dangerous for the other race of lunatics who insist on overtaking in nose to tail traffic even though they'll only make about four positions.:mad:

+1 on the N17 and the idiots tailgating, I've done a lot of driving and this road takes the biscuit for it. However, I have little or no sympathy for those driving at 40-50mph. If conditions permit then they should be making reasonable progress, this is even marked on the test and you can fail on it.

If they are causing a tailback and impeding other drivers, when it is possible to safely and temporarily pull into the hard shoulder to let traffic pass (as per the rules of the road), then like it or not they are driving without due care and attention/consideration (which is an offence) and are a contributory factor to accidents. Simply put, they are incompetent and shouldn't be on the road.

paulhannon

i think its ridiculous that i'm not allowed to mount a machine gun on my bonnet and kill these people!