Bank holiday motorway driving

Bazzy

I had reason to go from Galway to Dublin and back again today

The way up was all fairly civil

Sweet Jesus the way back was terrible we left Dublin at 16.00ish

Stopped at enfield services

I put the cruise control on at 120kph , The amount of traffic that over took me was inhumane

People with young children in cars passing me as if I was stopped. I had 3 teenagers with me and they even commented on it.

Will people ever learn , it has been widely communicated that this is the worst weekend statistics wise for driving I couldnt believe what I experienced

On the way up we went through a checkpoint Garda & RSA they we're checking lorries and trucks , The garda in question checked everything tyres , seat belts of all occupants and the discs it was great to see

What will it take to stop the race to the bottom

wonski

Speed kills.

We got it.

Has your car been checked, or just trucks and lorries?

bop1977

On the M1 today I witnessed two trucks overtaking two other trucks, then out of nowhere this northern registered car shoots up the hard shoulder to undertake all 4 trucks at the same time.

biko

People think it won't happen to them.

Bazzy

wonski wrote: »

Speed kills.

We got it.

Has your car been checked, or just trucks and lorries?

My car was checked also, so far as tyres and seat belts which i was glad to see

i cant believe how flippant your post is about "Speed Kills" as a country we've had a high number of people die this week a lot of them young directly related to speed

I hope our paths dont cross on the road

Bazzy

bop1977 wrote: »

On the M1 today I witnessed two trucks overtaking two other trucks, then out of nowhere this northern registered car shoots up the hard shoulder to undertake all 4 trucks at the same time.

in the grand scheme of things this would add a minute to your journey when the trucks pass your back on your way.

Its madness

Bazzy

biko wrote: »

People think it won't happen to them.

What can we do to fix that ?

I think average speed cameras would help

shietpilot

120 km/h on cruise control is only about 110 km/h in real currency though.

Bazzy

shietpilot wrote: »

120 km/h on cruise control is only about 110 km/h in real currency though.

And if everyone got home alive at 110kph would that be worth it ?

My speedo showed 120 so that was enough for me

shietpilot

Bazzy wrote: »

And if everyone got home alive at 110kph would that be worth it ?

My speedo showed 120 so that was enough for me

It's perfectly safe and legal to drive at the speed limit.

Atlantic Dawn

Bazzy wrote: »

And if everyone got home alive at 110kph would that be worth it ?

My speedo showed 120 so that was enough for me

The deaths during the week were not on motorways, one of the roads had no road markings on it whatsoever yet was facilitating two way traffic, it was borderline whether it was fit to let anything beyond cattle on it, bloody disgrace.

bop1977

Bazzy wrote: »

in the grand scheme of things this would add a minute to your journey when the trucks pass your back on your way.

Its madness

Seeing as it was a motorway they shouldn't have been on the overtaking lane in the first place and these were not the only trucks over taking. Also that northies driving was some of the craziest driving I've seen in a while.

MarkAnthony

I'd be very interested to know the number of deaths on motorways. If you drive with the conditions of the road, use proper lane discipline and maintain your distance - something people are terrible at as a result of idiots in the overtaking lanes and of course their own stupidity - there is no reason even speeds above 120KPH can't be safe. The French and Germans manage it just fine.

Allinall

MarkAnthony wrote: »

I'd be very interested to know the number of deaths on motorways. If you drive with the conditions of the road, use proper lane discipline and maintain your distance - something people are terrible at as a result of idiots in the overtaking lanes and of course their own stupidity - there is no reason even speeds above 120KPH can't be safe. The French and Germans manage it just fine.

You could say the same about any road in the country.

Why do you think we have speed limits?

MarkAnthony

Allinall wrote: »

You could say the same about any road in the country.

Why do you think we have speed limits?

No you couldn't. On every other type of road in the country there are hazards that shouldn't be present on the motorway. The way motorways are configured (generally straight with excellent visability) is also a factor.

We have speed limits due to people being incredibly stupid and not being able to make drive with the prevalent conditions. Granted they're needed in towns due to the amount of traffic but pretty much anywhere else they're meaningless. There are plenty of roads with 100KPH limits where you'd be mad to be doing 100KPH.

Returning to the 120KPH limit, it's completely arbitrary with no, to my knowledge, research done to back it up. It's merely a hangover from the old 70MPH limit in the UK which was put there due to scaremongering and IIRC about 60 years ago. Times have moved on.

hullaballoo

Motorways in Ireland are very safe, on a par with other laudable European counterparts. They can be a bit bendy but once you know that you should slow down before a bend, it should be ok.

Other roads here are terrible and that's where truly awful driving becomes apparent. I learned to drive on the back roads of Wicklow and even though they are back roads, they are busy ones and you regularly met cars/lorries etc. oncoming. You see some ridiculous driving there but nothing will teach an L driver about reaction times better than an articulated truck coming at you at speed around a blind corner when your Micra has at least one dubious tyre on it!

CiniO

shietpilot wrote: »

It's perfectly safe and legal to drive at the speed limit.

Speed limit and safety, very often don't have anything to do with each other.

I've often driven way below speed limit to be safe, and I've very often drive way above speed limit and was still safe.

CiniO

Bazzy wrote: »

My car was checked also, so far as tyres and seat belts which i was glad to see

i cant believe how flippant your post is about "Speed Kills" as a country we've had a high number of people die this week a lot of them young directly related to speed

I hope our paths dont cross on the road

Bazzy wrote: »

And if everyone got home alive at 110kph would that be worth it ?

My speedo showed 120 so that was enough for me

You seem to use very deceptive logic, where those within speed limit are safe, and those who are above are danger.

That kind of thinking unfortunately very often leads to accident.
How many times we heard from someone who crashed - "I don't know how it happened - I was below speed limit - car just suddenly skidded"...
That's unaware driver's point of view.
Real description of such situation would be that driver due to driving too fast (but still within speed limit) caused a skid which he didn't manage to control and crashed.


I can assure you, that your 110km/h or 120km/h (whatever it is) speed on motorway, can kill you to the same extent as someone elses 160km/h speed in the same place.

Keeping to the speed limit doesn't guarantee safety.
Exceeding speed limit doesn't guarantee danger.

marno21

At least the drivers on the M6 were able to drive at the speed limit, able to overtake safely and weren't held up by dawdlers or slow vehicles.

It's better than the ridiculously dangerous maneuveres undertaken by people regularly on high traffic single carraigeway roads countrywide.

Buck Turgidson

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The deaths during the week were not on motorways, one of the roads had no road markings on it whatsoever yet was facilitating two way traffic, it was borderline whether it was fit to let anything beyond cattle on it, bloody disgrace.

Which road are you talking about?

marno21

Buck Turgidson wrote: »

Which road are you talking about?

I presume the local road near Letterkenny where the head on collision took place yesterday morning.

dr.fuzzenstein

CiniO wrote: »

You seem to use very deceptive logic, where those within speed limit are safe, and those who are above are danger.

That kind of thinking unfortunately very often leads to accident.
How many times we heard from someone who crashed - "I don't know how it happened - I was below speed limit - car just suddenly skidded"...
That's unaware driver's point of view.
Real description of such situation would be that driver due to driving too fast (but still within speed limit) caused a skid which he didn't manage to control and crashed.


I can assure you, that your 110km/h or 120km/h (whatever it is) speed on motorway, can kill you to the same extent as someone elses 160km/h speed in the same place.

Keeping to the speed limit doesn't guarantee safety.
Exceeding speed limit doesn't guarantee danger.

The RSA has realised that a lot of Irish drivers simply will not obey any traffic laws except speed. So the decision was to slow everyone down to the point where it will be like bumper cars on Irish roads, but with nobody going fast enough to actually get killed. I think the RSA wet dream would be that everyone goes 60 km/h.
All that's missing is a sparkler attached to the antenna.

allthedoyles

marno21 wrote: »

I presume the local road near Letterkenny where the head on collision took place yesterday morning.

not only no road markings , but no ditches either

hju6

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

The RSA has realised that a lot of Irish drivers simply will not obey any traffic laws except speed. So the decision was to slow everyone down to the point where it will be like bumper cars on Irish roads, but with nobody going fast enough to actually get killed. I think the RSA wet dream would be that everyone goes 60 km/h.
All that's missing is a sparkler attached to the antenna.

If only people learnt how to drive properly

Then we would be able to move around quickly and safely

Atlantic Dawn

Buck Turgidson wrote: »

Which road are you talking about?

This one, I thought road markings were a legal minimum...












http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0728/805349-donegal-car-crash/

Buck Turgidson

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

This one, I thought road markings were a legal minimum...

Ok not a road I am familiar with.
Desperately sad happening, don't see how a center line would have helped though.

Esel

shietpilot wrote: »

It's perfectly safe and legal to drive at the speed limit.

If conditions permit...

jcd5971

Bazzy wrote:

And if everyone got home alive at 110kph would that be worth it ?

To be brutally honest no,more often than not it's the people going slow that cause everyone else to have to overtake.

I and many others simply don't have time to join you on your leisurely stroll pace on a motorway of all places.

ironclaw

I'm not one to hang around, but I do respect a limit when I see one. Its a bank holiday here in Ontario this weekend and I just came out of Toronto. There's not a single road here with a limit about 100km/h, most are between 70 and 80km/h, and the three lane+ highways are all 100km/h. I can't say for sure but from talking to locals, there is no such limit of 120km/h like we have. I was being passed like I was standing still and the average speed is far closer to 130km/h. I've done about 2.5k km in the past week here, extremely remote and city driving, and everywhere has either signs e.g. Check Your Blindspots, Lane Discipline or a cop under an overpass either checking speed or monitoring traffic.

A few bad eggs but on the whole it's been incredibly easy to drive and the roads are in far better condition than ours.

Speed limits have nothing to do with road deaths, its simply awareness and basic discipline something that is completely lacking in Ireland. Slow down all your want but if JOhn and Mary from down the country think it's fine to do 60km/h in the middle lane of the M50 or overtake with no acceleration, thats when you have problems, not the person hooing at 140km/h but actually have their head screwed on.

FortySeven

Bazzy wrote: »

What can we do to fix that ?

I think average speed cameras would help

Burn your car. Just go out and throw petrol on it and don't ever drive again.

Average speed cameras.

What you are talking about is years of my life extra in a car so the few numpties who cannot drive feel a bit safer? People die on roads. Get over it.

Del2005

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

The RSA has realised that a lot of Irish drivers simply will not obey any traffic laws except speed. So the decision was to slow everyone down to the point where it will be like bumper cars on Irish roads, but with nobody going fast enough to actually get killed. I think the RSA wet dream would be that everyone goes 60 km/h.
All that's missing is a sparkler attached to the antenna.

Listening to someone from the RSA on Newstslk yesterday and they said that most fatalities were 4 times over the DUI limit, also a large percentage of the fatalities this week weren't wearing their seat belts. But yeah speed was the only thing that killed the unsecured people in a car with an impaired driver..

The roads most of the fatalities where on had 80km/h limits, even if they were driving st the limit they were driving way to fast.

Idbatterim

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The deaths during the week were not on motorways, one of the roads had no road markings on it whatsoever yet was facilitating two way traffic, it was borderline whether it was fit to let anything beyond cattle on it, bloody disgrace.

Yeah and as locals they would have known that... I get your point about the road, but is it that surprising that it was young kids rather than a group in their 50's?

maximum12

MarkAnthony wrote: »

there is no reason even speeds above 120KPH can't be safe. The French and Germans manage it just fine.

Not sure I'd be holding the French up as an example after doing several thousand k's in French motorways recently.

Yes they are very disciplined about lanes but are terrible for keeping a safe distance. I met several motorway accidents over there and only rarely see them here.

Brian Scan

CiniO wrote: »

You seem to use very deceptive logic, where those within speed limit are safe, and those who are above are danger.

That kind of thinking unfortunately very often leads to accident.
How many times we heard from someone who crashed - "I don't know how it happened - I was below speed limit - car just suddenly skidded"...
That's unaware driver's point of view.
Real description of such situation would be that driver due to driving too fast (but still within speed limit) caused a skid which he didn't manage to control and crashed.


I can assure you, that your 110km/h or 120km/h (whatever it is) speed on motorway, can kill you to the same extent as someone elses 160km/h speed in the same place.

Keeping to the speed limit doesn't guarantee safety.
Exceeding speed limit doesn't guarantee danger.

Never

doolox

One of the biggest sins I see everyday on the M50 .M4 etc is people joining the motorway at too slow a speed causing people in the left lane to move out into faster traffic without speeding up and slowing everybody down.

This is why slow drivers stay in the middle lane making the left hand lane deserted between junctions and reducing the capacity of the motorway.

Many times I have come across vehicles doing 60 kph on the M50 causing rolling roadblocks and slowdowns in all lanes only to find the driver on the phone or an old person with obvious eyesight problems trying to "find their way".

I have had to upgrade my car in order to survive on motorways because of the habit of drivers racing up from behind to overtake the slow drivers and all the cars stuck behind them. Its no good being in a small car stuck behind a slow driver entering a motorway, all the fast cars will zoom up behind you and block all attempts to overtake, in spite of indicators etc and all it says in the rules of the road about courtesy or letting people overtake, it doesn't happen in practice.

A good deal of forward planning and thinking ahead is also needed...I have seen people undertake me at high speed and then have to brake hard when faced with a slow car in their chosen lane, they are not looking or planning or thinking far enough ahead or they would have observed the slow car in good time to remain in the correct lane to overtake it.

I have seen several people going slower in the outer lane than traffic in other lanes slowing everybody down because it is illegal to undertake in Ireland.

Some three or four cars undertake the slow car until he gets the message and moves in allowing the horde of held up cars to move on. Either people are heedless and don't look in their mirrors, or worse still, they do not have the skill or ability or confidence to move into a more suitable lane and are mortally afraid to go over the speed limit even briefly in order to get a suitable space to pull in.

There is a huge need to allow learners onto motorways under trained and official instructors so that they can be tested on their ability to drive on a motorway. The current test does not cover motorways.

Plopli

doolox wrote: »

There is a huge need to allow learners onto motorways under trained and official instructors so that they can be tested on their ability to drive on a motorway. The current test does not cover motorways.

There is a huge need to move to self driving cars.

As much as I love driving and I fear the time it will happen(as insurance premium increase will probably price out anyone that want to drive himself), I'm pretty sure it's the surest way to decrease death toll on the road.
It could even increase the top and average speed on roads like motorway.

90% of drivers, be it in Ireland or anywhere else, just do not like driving and are not willing to invest anything in it. They are afraid and not paying attention. They just want to be somewhere else.
And of the 10 remaining %, I would say that 9 think they can drive (I'm probably part of these) and drive at an inappropriate speed/complain about all the other.

_Kaiser_

Methinks the OP is a little too reliant on speed limit signs and RSA advertising to guide their driving habits, as opposed to driving in a manner suitable for the conditions - the road, the weather, volume of traffic, visibility levels etc...

OP you were doing by your own admission about 110 on a motorway, and given how many people can't even drive at that speed, I'd wager that you were frequently driving slower than that, or overtaking at a snails pace. No wonder then that other cars seemed to be "flying" past you at times.

I do just under 200km a day of mostly motorway driving and I can tell you that 120, or even higher is perfectly safe when the conditions allow for it. Statistically motorways are the safest type of roads to drive on as well. You're confusing "speed" with INAPPROPRIATE speed I think. Doing 130/140 on a open motorway is VERY different to doing even the posted 80 on some of our secondary roads. Drive appropriate to the conditions, not just whatever it says on the sign.

MarkAnthony

maximum12 wrote: »

Not sure I'd be holding the French up as an example after doing several thousand k's in French motorways recently.

Yes they are very disciplined about lanes but are terrible for keeping a safe distance. I met several motorway accidents over there and only rarely see them here.

Many countries have issues with keeping a safe distance and it causes accidents. That said it wouldn't matter if they were doing 75Kph or 150, if you fail to keep your distance things are going to happen. Looking at our limit, if you come screaming out of fog at 110 you're still dead if you hit a pile up you didn't see.

As others have indicated I'd rather be on a road with everyone doing in excess of 120 and paying attention than people bimbling along with cruise control on texting on their mobiles (not directed at the OP at all I'm sure he's a fine driver).

nice_guy80

Bazzy wrote: »

I had reason to go from Galway to Dublin and back again today

The way up was all fairly civil

Sweet Jesus the way back was terrible we left Dublin at 16.00ish

Stopped at enfield services

I put the cruise control on at 120kph , The amount of traffic that over took me was inhumane

People with young children in cars passing me as if I was stopped. I had 3 teenagers with me and they even commented on it.

Will people ever learn , it has been widely communicated that this is the worst weekend statistics wise for driving I couldnt believe what I experienced

On the way up we went through a checkpoint Garda & RSA they we're checking lorries and trucks , The garda in question checked everything tyres , seat belts of all occupants and the discs it was great to see

What will it take to stop the race to the bottom

Great to see
Where was the checkpoint?

nice_guy80

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

This one, I thought road markings were a legal minimum...












http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0728/805349-donegal-car-crash/

some of those roads up over hills in Donegal are shortcuts to avoid going through towns and people use them to avoid traffic, and garda checkpoints

RustyNut

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Great to see
Where was the checkpoint?

I was waved through a checkpoint at 4 am on thursday on the galway ring road thingy. They were breath testing a car driver going the other way at the time.

Owryan

On the motorway from Kilkenny to Dublin yesterday, was one of a dozen or so cars that undertook a car idling along in the overtaking lane, the car was probably doing 80kph, if that.

There's going under the speed limit and being a bloody danger

MarkAnthony

Owryan wrote: »

On the motorway from Kilkenny to Dublin yesterday, was one of a dozen or so cars that undertook a car idling along in the overtaking lane, the car was probably doing 80kph, if that.

There's going under the speed limit and being a bloody danger

I've never understood why that brigade can find a nice HGV to follow and just sit there. If you're wanting to bimble at 80, what does it matter if you're bimbling at 78? Why do you feel the need to overtake at 82 for 5 minutes, holding everyone up.

kona

Bazzy wrote: »

And if everyone got home alive at 110kph would that be worth it ?

My speedo showed 120 so that was enough for me

It's a limit not a target.

_Kaiser_

kona wrote: »

It's a limit not a target.

If someone isn't capable of driving at 120 km/h on a motorway when the conditions (as defined above) allow, then they shouldn't be on the road TBH.

At the VERY least they shouldn't hold up or cause a potential hazard to those who can - this especially includes those driving so slowly that even 40 foot trucks have to overtake them. To be blunt, they should really be trading the license in for a bus ticket.

RustyNut

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

If someone isn't capable of driving at 120 km/h on a motorway when the conditions (as defined above) allow, then they shouldn't be on the road TBH.

At the VERY least they shouldn't hold up or cause a potential hazard to those who can - this especially includes those driving so slowly that even 40 foot trucks have to overtake them. To be blunt, they should really be trading the license in for a bus ticket.

If they are not speeding they are obviously safe.


Or so the rsa would have you think.

bpmurray

I wonder about the reality of this "speed kills". Yes, of course, it makes things worse when it all goes wrong, but I remember a couple of years ago going through the RSA report in detail and discovered some interesting stuff: if you look at all accidents involving injuries (death being at the extreme end of this), the primary cause of accidents is not speed, but dangerous overtaking, causing more accidents than everything else put together.

So maybe these speed vans should use some high-tech cameras to identify dangerous overtaking as well - it certainly wouldn't hurt. If you eliminate dangerous overtaking, you probably wipe out a lot of road deaths and injuries too.

BTW, before reading the report I had also assumed that weekend nights would have been the worst, but it looked like midweek afternoons were the real danger times according to the report.

_Kaiser_

bpmurray wrote: »

BTW, before reading the report I had also assumed that weekend nights would have been the worst, but it looked like midweek afternoons were the real danger times according to the report.

The stats are also somewhat skewed by the "single occupant into a tree at 3am" crashes.

As tragic as it is, I doubt that these are all accidents

Dr Turk Turkelton

kona wrote: »

It's a limit not a target.

I chortled as heartily at this as the time my bank manager tried to talk to me about my credit card "limit".

ba_barabus

Having driven all around Italy for nearly 3 weeks Irish roads are a place of serenity and peace.

Mind you I actually got to like their take no **** approach to driving. Irish drivers could learn a thing or two, for instance dawdle if you want but don't force others to do it too. And if others are overtaking dont try and block them.

kirving

I don't think the op has much of an issue with people doing 130-140 by the sounds of it.

I do a decent bit of motorway driving, and there are quite a number of cars who do pass as if you were stopped. On a number of occasions I've had a look over dash cam footage and estimated them to be doing 160-170+ plenty of times. Fine if everyone is doing it, but braking distance from 160 to 120 is far different from 40 to 0, which people don't realise.