New Driving regulations and ideas

ordinary_story

southie wrote: »

totally agree with you and make it mandatory for anyone that gets a driving ban to resit their driving test again. Bring them back to learner status again. dont know why this isnt done already. would definately be a deterrent

Why is it that simple things like this were never implemented?

Davidth88

Great post I have observed similar things having learnt to drive in England , I agree with everything apart from the 0 alcohol thing ... the limit is about right but it needs to be enforced ( both by the Garda AND the courts )

The thing here ( I have lived in Ireland for 8 yrs ) is the blatant disregard for driving laws by all sections of the community. The stupid situation over learner drivers ( permits or whatver you call them ) where basically overnight all the L plates disappeared because it because unlawful to drive alone is an example of this .

Walk around a car park , you will find 50% of cars that should be displaying NCTs are either not or they are out of date. If you have a rule enforce it for gods sake !

I would put the amber back on the green cycle of the lights , not having this slows traffic down, and come down HARD on people who break the lights.

Bring in ANPR , if a car isn't insured , impound it instantly

Police the motorways , I see parked/stopped cars EVERY day on my short motorway journey , these can't all be emergencies .

slimjimmc

Enda Caldwell wrote: »

That is indeed the posting of the year so far. And no, not too harsh, just right. I have lived here in Luxembourg for the last two years and let me tell you that they have many rules and regulations here just like the ones proposed in this posting. Firthermore Luxembourgish radio news bulletins on Sunday mornings are not reporting "an group of teenagers were killed last night on their way home from a night out" That is what Irish news is always filled with on the radio every Sunday/ Weekend.

All "modifications" have to be approved and you pay a levy for things like bigger exhausts and lowering and "tuning" as they call it here. My mother is a driving instructor back home and my father runs a garage business and there are many unnecessary accident repairs he has had to make over the years due to people's carelessness towards other road users. The Irish licensing thing is also a big issue. The test is not detailed enough at all for the modern day world.

Agreed 100%

Enda Caldwell wrote: »

I never had any problems whilst driving in the UK and extensively all around London and Northern Ireland. It is only while in Ireland I clocked up "points". What a good job I have a UK licence that is as clean as the day it was laminated.

Why would you get points here if you didn't break our traffic law? It is possible you took a few chances because you knew your UK license would remain clean if you got caught?

Enda Caldwell wrote: »

The most ridiculous and useless situation exists in Ireland with Gardai stopping me in my own car in a UK reg coming off the ferry and radio-ing to see if it was stolen - A nice welcome back to the country in 04 eh? Keystone Cops.

Ever consider your car may have matched the description of a UK car that was stolen and possibly being shipped abroad? Imo, you could just have easily be pulled in other EU countries for the same reason, would they be keystone cops too?

slimjimmc

Davidth88 wrote: »

Great post I have observed similar things having learnt to drive in England , I agree with everything apart from the 0 alcohol thing ... the limit is about right but it needs to be enforced ( both by the Garda AND the courts )

The thing here ( I have lived in Ireland for 8 yrs ) is the blatant disregard for driving laws by all sections of the community. The stupid situation over learner drivers ( permits or whatver you call them ) where basically overnight all the L plates disappeared because it because unlawful to drive alone is an example of this .

Walk around a car park , you will find 50% of cars that should be displaying NCTs are either not or they are out of date. If you have a rule enforce it for gods sake !

I would put the amber back on the green cycle of the lights , not having this slows traffic down, and come down HARD on people who break the lights.

Bring in ANPR , if a car isn't insured , impound it instantly

Police the motorways , I see parked/stopped cars EVERY day on my short motorway journey , these can't all be emergencies .

Well said.

I don't think the amber before green will have any significant benefit. Irish drivers are generally well used to watching the lights and getting in gear when they see amber->red on the other side. It might even cause problems with drivers thinking they can drive on through. Many people consider the risk of getting caught very low so heavy penalties don't work for them.

ninty9er

Thread underway already....maybe a merger??

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055429774&highlight=rules+road

congo_90

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

In response to young drivers

Night-time curfew. drivers under 19 years of age.
This is used in Oz and USA, you are exempt driving to or from work, it seems to work fine in those countries.

I'm 18 driving on a full licence. another poster pointed out what if i was 30 and only starting? also what happens if i have to collect somebody from say the airport?

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

A compulsary re-test every 10 years for everybody is greatly needed.

roads

I agree with that and most of what you said

Savman

Rabble rabble. Sorry but that's all I'm reading here.

The problems related to motoring, in my humble opinion, are so deep seated into Irish consciousness that it will take a really brave individual to admit we as a nation could be considered a write off and start focusing on the next generation. I stayed in school up until Leaving Cert, at no stage did anybody so much as mention anything to do with road safety, bar the obligatory trip to the 'traffic school' in Clontarf when you were about 6yrs old :rolleyes:

Education, education, education. If we can force feed "conas ata tu" into 4m people begrudgingly, drilling some basic skills into their head for their driving life should be a walk in the park. Most people can add, subtract, multiply, we do it every day looking for flights or concert tickets or whatever, so it's inexcusable that so many people don't have basic common road sense.

As for this idea of "oh that's how they do it in Germany/England/insert random nation" well good for them, but this is Ireland and we need some Irish solutions for Irish problems. As a quick example,
M50 motorway during roadworks = 60km limit
Tiny country road with not enough room for 2 vehicles = 80km limit
Truly mind boggling.

It just seems like every month there's a brief RTE news clip on some new hollow RSA scheme designed to grab headlines rather than do anything worthwhile. Take the Prov License/Learner Permit issue, they truly made a balls of that. Thinking they could just bring it in next week then changing their minds and giving a 6 month window. I mean ffs, did they not think that thru before announcing these drastic new measures all over the media? Morons.

If you wanna talk about UK being such a shining example, there's the speed camera issue. There has been endless stories about rogue Councils over there exploiting the Gatso, much worse than we've seen on this island. It's an absolute money racket, a smokescreen, if you will, to simply generate revenue.

I guess my point, even I even have one, is that it's all well and good puttinig a squad car outside a school, but that does little or nothing for the bigger picture. You'll have a bunch of Mammies in court and the eejits drivers will just do their dirty deeds elsewhere, hardly gonna solve anything. Nothing is foolproof to a fool.

Anyway, I dunno...just rambling really. Rabble rabble.

fricatus

Davidth88 wrote: »

Police the motorways , I see parked/stopped cars EVERY day on my short motorway journey , these can't all be emergencies .

Absolutely true, and I've NEVER seen the Guards talking to anyone who's stopped on the motorway.

I know sometimes people have to take a phone call or let the children out for a p1ss, but how hard is it to drive to the next exit to do it? Hopefully the NRA and the councils will hurry up and put the service areas on the motorways too.

Despite having never seen anyone pulled by the way, a mate of mine did get fined for stopping on the M1 to use the phone. He was given a parking ticket... I suppose it's a "no parking" zone if you want to look at it that way, but surely it's a much more dangerous offence and needs its own category?

slimjimmc

If we have to model our system on any other then i propose we copy some things from the nordic countries. I vaguely remember reading something on other threads about it taking 2 yrs of formal lessons (not on public roads) before you even sit your driving test; traffic fines are proportional to your income so the pain is the same no matter how rich you are; and vehicle and road standards are higher.

ahmed89

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

Night-time curfew. drivers under 19 years of age.

so i cant drive at night even though i have full licence just like everyone else
sounds abit unfair

LoveDucati2

ahmed89 wrote: »

so i cant drive at night even though i have full licence just like everyone else
sounds abit unfair

We are talking about countries that have curfew already and how it could be introduced here to save lives

Its not directed at you personally

Its directed at your age group which is statistically the most dangerous

We were all your age once

SV

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

Its directed at your age group which is statistically the most dangerous

We were all your age once

That's a ridiculous thing to suggest though, not the statistic, I'm sure that's true..but to ban them off the road at night because they're a certain age group, why not ban people from accident black spot roads at night?

makes about as much sense.

Mrmoe

I don't know if this is technically possible but why can't all cars be fitted with speed limiters? Why do we need cars that can go 100+ miles/hr when the speed limits are so much lower. It is the same as if we allowed people to own submachine guns , giving them bullets but making it illegal to fire a gun. The only answer is to take away the threat completely. Make a cars maximum speed the same as the maximum speed limit in the country. This maybe expensive initially but I would be sure that it would pay for itself due to reduction in road traffic accidents and their associated costs as well as the need for supervision by the Gardai.

Do Garda unmarked traffic cars actually exist? If they did and from my own experience if they drove on any road in the country they would see countless driving offenses being committed. This would add an additional element of safety as people would have to adhere to the rules of the road continuously. I know no one who has received penalty points for failing to indicate, tail gating, overtaking in appropriately yet I bet the majority of people who commit these offenses commit more serious ones which ultimately lead to accidents.

The majority of people are idiots so the roads should be made idiot proof.

SV

Mrmoe wrote: »

Do Garda unmarked traffic cars actually exist? If they did and from my own experience if they drove on any road in the country they would see countless driving offenses being committed. This would add an additional element of safety as people would have to adhere to the rules of the road continuously. I know no one who has received penalty points for failing to indicate, tail gating, overtaking in appropriately yet I bet the majority of people who commit these offenses commit more serious ones which ultimately lead to accidents.

The majority of people are idiots so the roads should be made idiot proof.

they exist but they're ridiculously easy to spot
that's the problem..

S.I.R

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

First of all, Ireland has a terrible standard of driving. I did my test in the UK and conditions and training and testing are far superior to here.

Our roads are deplorable, and must be responsible for a huge percentage of accidents and deaths which is a shame for a country that has wasted its BILLIONS of EEC and "celtic tiger" money. Our government should be prosecuted for this appaling mess.

The fact that every morning every day at 11am about 1,000 Gardai are on overtime sitting in some court around Dublin wasting their training and our tax payers money, when they could be doing their jobs, we do not need more Gardai, we need them to be deployed in a better way. The courts service duplicate all the admin work the gardai do already.

I stood on the side of a busy road during the week and 1 out of every 3 cars was breaking some law, with no GARDA attention anywhere, driver on phone, driver eating, kids walking around car, lights broken, driver not looking, driver putting on makeup, reading newspaper, filing, what the F*ck is wrong with people.

In response to young drivers

Night-time curfew. drivers under 19 years of age.
This is used in Oz and USA, you are exempt driving to or from work, it seems to work fine in those countries.

Alcohol
A total ban. Zero reading. No excuses.

Drugs
Proper drugs tests. Not sure what system they will implement here, the Oz lollipop that changes colour, or bloods at the side of the road.

Driving Lessons
The German method, 50 hours of driver lessons before getting a provisional

A compulsary re-test every 10 years for everybody is greatly needed.

All Tesco stores and garages in association with the AA and RAC could participate in a new scheme whereby everytime you filled up in a garage a quick check was given of all your lights, the RAC or AA would be on hand to change and fit on the spot for a minimal charge,

It should be a mandatory legal requirement for your tyre pressures to be checked once a month.

All motorway slip roads should be fenced off to stop stop lunatics swerving accross the solid white lines into the fast lane, the M5 in the UK has the inside 2 lanes separate from the fast lane at busy junstions to stop this, spend 5 minutes on the M50 around the N7 junction to see what I mean.

Please let me know what else we can do to stop the madness on our roads

night curfew i agree with but tbh, i cant live without my license, i have to be able to drive to jobs.... if they take my prov... im out of a job more or less.

and thats just scummy, grantted i know 70%+ of irish drivers Shouldn't have their license, i believe ive earned mine.

SV

S.I.R wrote: »

night curfew i agree with but tbh, i cant live without my license, i have to be able to drive to jobs.... if they take my prov... im out of a job more or less.

and thats just scummy, grantted i know 70%+ of irish drivers Shouldn't have their license, i believe ive earned mine.

Stop it. just stop it.

S.I.R

ClioV6 wrote: »

Stop it. just stop it.

why, ive worked , hard, played by the rules, now they want to take the little i have left to enjoy in my life ( apart from poorly modded cars, they Always make me Rolfmao... mutant subs... raptor exhaust... wolfrace wheels... LMAO )

and tbh, you cant exactly take a bus to a broken down car, and im not employing some muppet to drive me banger all day...


they can stay on the dole for all i care.

SV

S.I.R wrote: »

why, ive worked , hard, played by the rules, now they want to take the little i have left to enjoy in my life ( apart from poorly modded cars, they Always make me Rolfmao... mutant subs... raptor exhaust... wolfrace wheels... LMAO )

and tbh, you cant exactly take a bus to a broken down car, and im not employing some muppet to drive me banger all day...


they can stay on the dole for all i care.

You say you're on a provisional so no you're not playing by the rules.
Unless you have that full licensed driver beside you that's had the license for 2 years.


and I'm telling you to stop it because from the comments you make about cars and a lot of other things I highly doubt you even drive a car, let alone work as a mechanic.

Tony Broke

S.I.R wrote: »

why, ive worked , hard, played by the rules, now they want to take the little i have left to enjoy in my life ( apart from poorly modded cars, they Always make me Rolfmao... mutant subs... raptor exhaust... wolfrace wheels... LMAO )

and tbh, you cant exactly take a bus to a broken down car, and im not employing some muppet to drive me banger all day...


they can stay on the dole for all i care.

If you passed the driving test I would feel for you, as I think its bad form if they put a probation on the guys that passed the test over the last few months.

They have proven themselves to be competent and should have the same rights as more experienced full licensed drivers.It should be the same rules for everyone not just the noobs imo, but you haven't passed the test so you just have to put up with it.

Typewriter

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

A compulsary re-test every 10 years for everybody is greatly needed.

I hear ya. Sure Gay Burn never did a driving test (for a car) in his life.

Don't for get that situation in the 1980's when everybody that was on a second provisional was automatically give a full license because of the long waiting times for a test.

I'm sure we've all come across 'Mary O' Fianna Fáil' driving at 80kph in the overtaking lane with no lights on. Not to mention that every Irish male over 40 doesn't indicate on roundabouts.

L1011

S.I.R wrote: »

night curfew i agree with but tbh, i cant live without my license, i have to be able to drive to jobs.... if they take my prov... im out of a job more or less.

and thats just scummy, grantted i know 70%+ of irish drivers Shouldn't have their license, i believe ive earned mine.

"earned" a provisional how? Doing a test most decent drivers could pass while drunk and throwing a few quid at the council?

LoveDucati2

ClioV6 wrote: »

That's a ridiculous thing to suggest though, not the statistic, I'm sure that's true..but to ban them off the road at night because they're a certain age group, why not ban people from accident black spot roads at night?

makes about as much sense.

This is a new Government idea, do you read the papers at all?

Mrmoe wrote: »

I don't know if this is technically possible but why can't all cars be fitted with speed limiters?

This is a great idea, anyone with GPS knows that it updates speed limits, linking it to the ECU should be simple in the future

Mrmoe wrote: »

Do Garda unmarked traffic cars actually exist?

Very few, most Garda are wasting time sitting in court

Mrmoe wrote: »

The majority of people are idiots so the roads should be made idiot proof.

Agree, if people cannot drive with respect and safety in mind, then they should not be driving (if we really want to stop DEATH and MISERY)

SV

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

This is a new Government idea, do you read the papers at all?

I do indeed and I think it's as ridiculous idea as the total ban on alcohol for learner drivers only as well.


Very stupid ideas.

AugustusMaximus

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

This is a great idea, anyone with GPS knows that it updates speed limits, linking it to the ECU should be simple in the future

A great idea for all fans of 1984. :eek: This is the sort of thing the Labour Party in the UK would just love to bring in. Micro manage the lives of every single person in the country.

This was brought up in the UK last week. Practically all motoring groups including Quentin Wilson said it could be potentially dangerous and cost lives.

For a start you wouldn't be allowed to go over the limit to complete overtaking manouvers which would be very very dangerous.

Savman

It's just as well we've such a wonderful Public Transport network. Oh wait, Dublin Bus are cutting back services :rolleyes:
You cannot get around this place without a car, cos the infrastructure isn't there. Probably too busy building Spires and buying vital ePolling machines I guess.

LoveDucati2

Savman wrote: »

It's just as well we've such a wonderful Public Transport network. Oh wait, Dublin Bus are cutting back services :rolleyes:

Agree completely

Savman wrote: »

You cannot get around this place without a car, cos the infrastructure isn't there. Probably too busy building Spires and buying vital ePolling machines I guess.

You are totally right on this, I would love an updated government spending spreadsheet on where 200 billion has gone in the last 10 years.

slimjimmc

Mrmoe wrote: »

I don't know if this is technically possible but why can't all cars be fitted with speed limiters? Why do we need cars that can go 100+ miles/hr when the speed limits are so much lower. It is the same as if we allowed people to own submachine guns , giving them bullets but making it illegal to fire a gun. The only answer is to take away the threat completely. Make a cars maximum speed the same as the maximum speed limit in the country. This maybe expensive initially but I would be sure that it would pay for itself due to reduction in road traffic accidents and their associated costs as well as the need for supervision by the Gardai.

Do Garda unmarked traffic cars actually exist? If they did and from my own experience if they drove on any road in the country they would see countless driving offenses being committed. This would add an additional element of safety as people would have to adhere to the rules of the road continuously. I know no one who has received penalty points for failing to indicate, tail gating, overtaking in appropriately yet I bet the majority of people who commit these offenses commit more serious ones which ultimately lead to accidents.

The majority of people are idiots so the roads should be made idiot proof.

Speed limiters would not prevent many accidents which are caused by bad driving as you point out yourself in your second paragraph. It won't prevent a driver hitting a sharp bend at 100kph when it should be taken at 30kph, nor it won't stop them taking their eyes off the road while fiddling with the radio, iPod, etc.

There are definitely unmarked Gardaí cars about but usually only on the main routes, rarely seen on back roads. I've occasionally seen them pull cars over. They're not much of a deterrent yet because there's so few of them on the road and not every offence is acted on.

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

For a start you wouldn't be allowed to go over the limit to complete overtaking manouvers which would be very very dangerous.

Errrr, it's already not allowed to exceed the speed limit even to overtake, always has. You are only allowed to overtake if you can complete the manouvre safely within the confines of the speed limit and road conditions. If you can't then you don't try it. Of course, it doesn't work like that in practice because people generally don't have patience.

Not high horse stuff, just common sense and survival.

SV

slimjimmc wrote: »

Errrr, it's already not allowed to exceed the speed limit even to overtake, always has. You are only allowed to overtake if you can complete the manouvre safely within the confines of the speed limit and road conditions. If you can't then you don't try it. Of course, it doesn't work like that in practice because people generally don't have patience.

Not high horse stuff, just common sense and survival.

No, common sense and survival in most cases is to exceed the speed limit to overtake.

ahmed89

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

Its not directed at you personally

Its directed at your age group which is statistically the most dangerous

We were all your age once

i never said it was directed at me personaly

im just saying its not fair for me and for other 19s who have thier full licence to have a night curfew while there are people in there 30s and 40s who still dont have a full licence and allowed to drive any time they want

slimjimmc

ClioV6 wrote: »

No, common sense and survival in most cases is to exceed the speed limit to overtake.

Only if you put yourself in a vulnerable situation. Please read my post again, especially the bit about not attempting to overtake unless safe to do within the speed limit. If you feel it necessary to exceed the limit in order to get back in before that bend or oncoming traffic then the manouvre wasn't safe in the first place but you still chose to take the risk.

This still comes back to driver training and attitude. People tend to forget that driving is probably the riskiest thing they do and don't give it the respect it deserves. The learning and testing system here doesn't drive home (excuse the pun) any sense of defensive driving, it's all about getting through the test.