Are terrible driving habits on the rise?

Fan of Netflix

I feel an element of cyclists are also engaging in more dangerous behavior. Skipping red lights. Being quite aggressive. Thing is they are the ones risking themselves.

Motorcyclists, well the stats speak for themselves. A more dangerous hobby in Ireland I've yet to see.

Tchaikovsky

Fan of Netflix wrote: »

I agree totally with the women thing. Most women won't let you out. If you let them out they are rude and refuse to thank/wave. The worst offenders being women in their 30s/40s/50s who drive in jeeps or oversized expensive cars. Many times with kids on board. Stuck up ones, usually the type who berate retail staff because they can. Those who worked in retail will know the type.

Forever looking to speak to someone's manager.

dsmythy

Fan of Netflix wrote: »

I feel an element of cyclists are also engaging in more dangerous behavior. Skipping red lights. Being quite aggressive. Thing is they are the ones risking themselves.

Deliveroo and friends in particular. Have to be extra careful around them. Their cycling behaviour is driven by fairly strict working conditions.

Cordell

Looking down presumably at their phone and putting on makeup and drinking coffee, this is what I see every single day multiple times in the morning. Usually women drivers, and you can tell even when driving behind one when you can't see her face in the mirror.

micks_address

Haven't read the thread. Was driving on some country smaller roads back home over the weekend and drivers seem to have forgotten there's a side of the road to drive on.. everyone I met was driving straight down the middle of the road at high speed..

Bigbagofcans

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Every week I see cars flying over pedestrian crossings with someone already crossing, its like drivers don't even recognise them for what they are, merely an inconvenience.

I was crossing a pedestrian crossing recently and a taxi driver flew through it and beeped at me. I got such a fright and am now a bit anxious at pedestrian crossings.

So many bad taxi drivers out there who seem to not use indicators and glide along lanes. And they rarely thank me if I let them out in front of me.

Panthro

At least 2 or 3 cars drive through as the orange light goes to red at every single set of traffic lights up and down the country

CrankyHaus

Bigbagofcans wrote: »

I was crossing a pedestrian crossing recently and a taxi driver flew through it and beeped at me. I got such a fright and am now a bit anxious at pedestrian crossings.

So many bad taxi drivers out there who seem to not use indicators and glide along lanes. And they rarely thank me if I let them out in front of me.

Sadly in Ireland "professional" as a prefix to "driver" generally means : "of a worse standard than normal".


It's mad, you wouldn't get away with it in any other game. Imagine professional athletes were worse at kicking a ball around than some local teenagers or if a doctor was a dodgy choice for medical attention compared to some random aul lad in the boozer.


That said, Taxi Driver, Truck Drivers etc do have a hard job so I try to let them off in traffic. It's safer in the long run because many are liable to fly out into your path anyway.

Tchaikovsky

Has anyone noticed the lack of proper indication when drivers are exiting at the third exit on a roundabout? The majority of drivers will either never indicate, or indicate right coming up to the roundabout and leave it on as they're turning into the exit. I'd say 5% of drivers will indicate right until after Exit 2, whereby they indicate left.

micks_address

Y

Tchaikovsky wrote: »

Has anyone noticed the lack of proper indication when drivers are exiting at the third exit on a roundabout? The majority of drivers will either never indicate, or indicate right coming up to the roundabout and leave it on as they're turning into the exit. I'd say 5% of drivers will indicate right until after Exit 2, whereby they indicate left.

Yes pretty regular occurrence.. they don't indicate when taking second exit or leave indicator on when taking 3rd

Cordell

I've seen so much misuse of indicators in the roundabouts so I wouldn't trust them either way for the rest of my life.

chooseusername

Cordell wrote: »

I've seen so much misuse of indicators in the roundabouts so I wouldn't trust them either way for the rest of my life.

A flashing indicator means only one thing;
that the bulb is working!

Cordell

That is true!
Also, a car indicating left doesn't mean that it will go right, they can keep on straight

K.Flyer

chooseusername wrote: »

A flashing indicator means only one thing;
that the bulb is working!

This a million times.
Especially if they are on a main road indicating to turn into the road you are exiting from.
I now wait until they are physically turning into the road before pulling out because you just cannot trust them anymore.

I do take care myself not to but one thing I will say is that loads of roundabouts in ireland are very badly designed and don't make it easy to enter the roundabout at leftest point. I feel like I've to turn aggressively to the left on entering many smaller roundabouts.

Its not an excuse but it certainly doesn't help the problem, I always stay a little bit back on the tighter ones when turning right as you always get people encroaching in your space

run_Forrest_run

whiterebel wrote: »

The East Cork Parkway

is this a thing now?

Brussels Sprout

K.Flyer wrote: »

This a million times.
Especially if they are on a main road indicating to turn into the road you are exiting from.
I now wait until they are physically turning into the road before pulling out because you just cannot trust them anymore.

Same. In my case I learned this lesson the hard way, at a time when I had only been driving a year. A lady was indicating left and I was waiting at that junction. As she started to slow down, I pulled out and promptly struck her car as she drove past the junction, not turning left at all. It turned out that she was indicating to pull into a house situated on the left-hand side of the road beyond the junction. The police commiserated with me but told me, correctly, that I was to blame since indicators basically mean nothing. Cost me €600 in damage to her bodywork. Lesson learned.

FishOnABike

Deleted User wrote: »

I do take care myself not to but one thing I will say is that loads of roundabouts in ireland are very badly designed and don't make it easy to enter the roundabout at leftest point. I feel like I've to turn aggressively to the left on entering many smaller roundabouts.

Its not an excuse but it certainly doesn't help the problem, I always stay a little bit back on the tighter ones when turning right as you always get people encroaching in your space

There's a significant number of roundabouts which have two lane approaches where the roads and roundabout are too small to comfortabley accommodate a two lane approach and two lanes around the roundabout. These reoundabouts also frequently lack any lane marking on the roundabout itself.



It would be far more sensible (and safer) if any of these roundabouts that are too small / narrow for an articulated lorry to drive around without having to straddle lanes (marked or unmarked) to be make into single lane roundabouts on both the approaches and on the roundabout itself.


there's a certain amount of bad driving but there's also an amount of bad road design.

twin_beacon

I fully agree with the OP. as a commuter to Dublin I see most of these things on a daily basis, and of course even more so in the last 2 weeks since the schools are back. Most of these issues are caused by congestion and drivers getting frustrated. I'll add 2 more to the list:

Ignoring Solid White lines. They are solid for a reason! I had someone follow the red line this morning, to skip the queue. I was doing the speed limit, and they just merged in front of me. Its regular occurrence there



Indicating as you change lane. A driver wants to enter your lane, and they just indicate as they turn the steering wheel

Tchaikovsky

twin_beacon wrote: »

I fully agree with the OP. as a commuter to Dublin I see most of these things on a daily basis, and of course even more so in the last 2 weeks since the schools are back. Most of these issues are caused by congestion and drivers getting frustrated. I'll add 2 more to the list:

Ignoring Solid White lines. They are solid for a reason! I had someone follow the red line this morning, to skip the queue. I was doing the speed limit, and they just merged in front of me. Its regular occurrence there

They've had to put orange poles up along those lines in certain stretches of road due to the fact that drivers don't know what they're for/choose to ignore them.

ednwireland

fryup wrote: »

its those damn entertainment screens that are causing bad driving imo...there too much of a distraction....fiddling around changing apps etc

terrible things, had a C1 as a hire car, there is a knob on the dash but just to rotate through the menu items.

to turn up the fan whilst driving you had to find the right option then move the slider on the screen absolute joke so your eyes are off the road at that point

Tazzimus

twin_beacon wrote: »

I fully agree with the OP. as a commuter to Dublin I see most of these things on a daily basis, and of course even more so in the last 2 weeks since the schools are back. Most of these issues are caused by congestion and drivers getting frustrated. I'll add 2 more to the list:

Ignoring Solid White lines. They are solid for a reason! I had someone follow the red line this morning, to skip the queue. I was doing the speed limit, and they just merged in front of me. Its regular occurrence there



Indicating as you change lane. A driver wants to enter your lane, and they just indicate as they turn the steering wheel

I've had the opposite happen at J9 heading Northbound almost daily.
As we're feeding onto the M50, people are cutting into the feeder lanes to get ahead of traffic, usually in front of someone trying to merge. Complete dip****s.

fullstop

Tchaikovsky wrote: »

They've had to put orange poles up along those lines in certain stretches of road due to the fact that drivers don't know what they're for/choose to ignore them.

They should put them in all hatched areas IMO. The one in the picture looks like M50/N7 junction southbound and I see it a lot there. Another hatched area that seems to be a free for all is the dundrum bypass at the bottom of the hill, I regularly meet people driving down the wrong side of the road in the mornings because for some reason it’s their divine right not to have to queue like everyone else. Then when they get to the bottom, they use the right turn only lane to go straight.

Doodah7

To the driver of the minibus in Citywest at lunchtime, yes I blared you out of it for two reasons: a) you pulled out straight in front of me without looking right so you had no idea I was driving along and b) the stop sign and white line on the ground on the side road meant that you actually had to STOP before turning. You might bear these points in mind rather than looking so enraged at my audacity of reminding you of my existence.

whiterebel

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

is this a thing now?

It has been since it opened.

run_Forrest_run

whiterebel wrote: »

It has been since it opened.

a parkway? really? news to me. I actually didn't think we used that term in Ireland.

FishOnABike

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

a parkway? really? news to me. I actually didn't think we used that term in Ireland.

Considering the speed at which traffic moves (or doesn't) on most of our major intra urban routes at peak times maybe we should adopt the parkway term.

run_Forrest_run

FishOnABike wrote: »

Considering the speed at which traffic moves (or doesn't) on most of our major intra urban routes at peak times maybe we should adopt the parkway term.

frankythefish

https://news.sky.com/story/man-headbutted-to-the-ground-by-cyclist-who-ran-red-light-in-london-11806155#spark_wn=1

What an ahole

degsie

I have NEVER witnessed a driver properly rejoin a motorway after being stopped on the hard shoulder

bullpost

I dont think it has anything to do with the rules or lack of enforcement in Ireland. That has been the same for many years, though drink-driving has obviously been clamped down on.

Something has fundamentally changed in our driving culture in the last five years. A respect for other road users has disappeared largely. Breaking the red light is the norm now - it never was before etc. Pedestrians are seen as an easy target by a lot of motorists as they drive through the pedestrian lights in their droves and encroach on the pedestrian zones at the lights.

I saw a near catastrophic collision on the very busy junction at Butt Bridge in Dublin recently as a driver tried to get onto the bridge from Townsend street and the traffic had already resumed against him. He must have broken the red by a number of seconds easily.

CrankyHaus

bullpost wrote: »

I dont think it has anything to do with the rules or lack of enforcement in Ireland. That has been the same for many years, though drink-driving has obviously been clamped down on.

Something has fundamentally changed in our driving culture in the last five years. A respect for other road users has disappeared largely. Breaking the red light is the norm now - it never was before etc. Pedestrians are seen as an easy target by a lot of motorists as they drive through the pedestrian lights in their droves and encroach on the pedestrian zones at the lights.

I saw a near catastrophic collision on the very busy junction at Butt Bridge in Dublin recently as a driver tried to get onto the bridge from Townsend street and the traffic had already resumed against him. He must have broken the red by a number of seconds easily.

Saw exactly the same in Finglas village last week where a van broke the light and played chicken with drivers crossing the junction to pull into their path.


Deliberate illegal right turns, breaking pedestrian crossing lights, blocking the junction without a care and of course breaking reds by several seconds are all rampant right in front of my gaff in the north inner city. You'd be more likely to see it than not on any given phase of the lights. Mobile phone use at the wheel is ubiquitous everywhere.



I agree that this seems to be a breakdown of basic respect for safety and other road users over the last few years. Meanwhile the RSA is still chanting catechisms from the 90s like "speed kills" and ignoring this issue. Garda enforcement is well intentioned by Roads Policing but inadequate while the rest of the service see roads traffic offences, even if committed right in front of them, as beneath their attention. The judiciary couldn't care less, even if you kill someone, a good cash cow for the profession through tort litigation seems to be their attitude.

zilog_jones

bullpost wrote: »

I dont think it has anything to do with the rules or lack of enforcement in Ireland. That has been the same for many years, though drink-driving has obviously been clamped down on.

Maybe people are starting to forget that drink driving used to be rampant in this country? When I first started driving about 15 years ago, I remember seeing obvious drunk people who could barely drive in a straight line. One night a drunk driver ploughed into a neighbour's front wall and wrote off a parked car.

antix80

I'll add a few.

Indicating while switching lanes without even checking if the lane is clear.

Slowing .. slowing.. breaking .. nearly at a stop... then indicating and turning a corner.

Not driving up to a red light... instead letting the car come to a natural stop because there's a red light 400m ahead, regardless of the fact that the people behind you may be turning at a junction or entrance before the lights.

Coming to a halt on a main road to allow someone to "filter" from a side road. Bonus points if they're making a right turn and there's traffic coming from the other direction.

Refusing to move out of the overtaking lane on the motorway because you're doing the speed limit (or 110kph) and it's fast enough.

Coming to a complete stop when going over ramps that aren't even that high.

Not accelerating to reach a motorway-safe speed in the slip lane when joining a motorway.. bonus points if you don't use the full length of the slip-lane and join traffic while driving at 80kph.

Not accelerating when moving off from a red light, taking a minute to reach 50kph.

On windy roads, driving at a snails pace around bends and breaking constantly, then accelerating to dangerous speeds to prevent people from overtaking you.

bladespin

bullpost wrote: »

Something has fundamentally changed in our driving culture in the last five years. A respect for other road users has disappeared largely. Breaking the red light is the norm now - it never was before etc. Pedestrians are seen as an easy target by a lot of motorists as they drive through the pedestrian lights in their droves and encroach on the pedestrian zones at the lights.

I was saying exactly this in the early naughties, we're booming again, everyone's busy, thinking about more important things and time costs etc etc.
It's not new, aggression's on the rise too.

mrcheez

Yep it's definitely worse than it was only a few years ago.... notice the driving through red lights more and more now, especially when I'm commuting on the bike.

I notice it more than most as I hadn't really been driving for a few years but recently got a new car and noticed how impatient other drivers have become compared to when I used to drive around, plus the number of soccer-moms on their mobile phones is mad

Bigbagofcans

mrcheez wrote: »

I notice it more than most as I hadn't really been driving for a few years but recently got a new car and noticed how impatient other drivers have become compared to when I used to drive around, plus the number of soccer-moms on their mobile phones is mad

They're checking to see how many likes the photo of their soccer child got on Facebook.

Pythagorean

micks_address wrote: »

Haven't read the thread. Was driving on some country smaller roads back home over the weekend and drivers seem to have forgotten there's a side of the road to drive on.. everyone I met was driving straight down the middle of the road at high speed..

I have nearly been wiped out numerous times on narrow twisty mountain roads, by some of these rotten drivers, on one occasion 2 tons of SUV came at me at speed as I was approaching a blind bend, dazzling led lights blinded me, as he was much higher up than me. All I could do was hit the brakes, and hope that the stupid bastard slowed down in time.:mad:

TooObvious

Haven't read the whole thread, but ultimately this comes down to the selfishness of many drivers. For instance, this morning i witnessed a bus drive through a pedestrian crossing on green. The bus had already crossed the stop line and was nudging towards the crossing as two children crossed it - the children went from walking to running to get across safely - the bus then drove on through.

Being a "nosey pr1ck" I flagged the bus driver down and remonstrated with him - He reasoned he had let the children cross before breaking the light and had no choice but to break it as a truck driver behind had beeped him! He would not accept that what he had done was wrong and sought to justify his manoeuvre! Drivers (of which i am one btw) hate to be told they did something wrong and doing so only enrages them!

mrcheez

TooObvious wrote: »

Haven't read the whole thread, but ultimately this comes down to the selfishness of many drivers. For instance, this morning i witnessed a bus drive through a pedestrian crossing on green. The bus had already crossed the stop line and was nudging towards the crossing as two children crossed it - the children went from walking to running to get across safely - the bus then drove on through.

Being a "nosey pr1ck" I flagged the bus driver down and remonstrated with him - He reasoned he had let the children cross before breaking the light and had no choice but to break it as a truck driver behind had beeped him! He would not accept that what he had done was wrong and sought to justify his manoeuvre! Drivers (of which i am one btw) hate to be told they did something wrong and doing so only enrages them!

Report the bus number and/or time, location to Dublin Bus.

bladespin

TooObvious wrote: »

He would not accept that what he had done was wrong and sought to justify his manoeuvre! Drivers (of which i am one btw) hate to be told they did something wrong and doing so only enrages them!

Oh so very this!

Tazzimus

Nearly home yesterday and sat at a set of lights.
Watched 3 cars go through the red a few seconds after it had changed, and while people were crossing the road on the green pedestrian light.
I'd say it was red a good 10 seconds by the time the 3rd car went through (and nearly hit several people)

Red lights and one way signs are somewhat of a suggestion in Maynooth it seems.

mrcheez

Maybe lack of enforcement is the issue? People have no fear about getting pulled up on it?

Seen a fair few gardai cars breaking reds even when not in pursuit mode so I guess they lead by example.

degsie

Always remember folks, there are fully licenced drivers out there who have never sat a driving test

Seth Brundle

degsie wrote: »

Always remember folks, there are fully licenced drivers out there who have never sat a driving test

There aren't that many when you consider the number of crap drivers in total!

bladespin

degsie wrote: »

Always remember folks, there are fully licenced drivers out there who have never sat a driving test

Has to be a pretty low number now.

Brussels Sprout

In a short trip to a petrol station to grab some lunch had three separate incidents:

1. When pulling into the petrol station I was blocked by someone reversing out of a car park space. I couldn't advance into the petrol station as the driver was reversing into my path. As I waited for them to finish I got absolutely blasted on the horn by a driver displaying an "L" badge behind me.
2. Parked adjacent to an empty space that was clearly marked for Motorcyles. As I walked away from my car I saw a car squeeze into it. When I came back out an entirely different car was parked in it
3. On the return journey someone absolutely flew through a round-a-bout I was about to enter. From their perspective I was waiting at the second exit. They ended up taking the third exit without using their indicators at any point, entering or leaving.

None of them major but just an accumulation of these in a very brief period of time.

creedp

degsie wrote: »

Always remember folks, there are fully licenced drivers out there who have never sat a driving test

Passing a driving test shows you know the rules and can apply them when it tickles your fancy. Absolutely no guarantee of consistent good driving in the real world

ianobrien

mrcheez wrote: »

Maybe lack of enforcement is the issue? People have no fear about getting pulled up on it?

Seen a fair few gardai cars breaking reds even when not in pursuit mode so I guess they lead by example.

I believe you're right about the lack of enforcement. As long as I drive around the speed limit and approximately keep to my side of the road, I'm fairly sure I won't get any penalty for anything else (running red lights, incorrect use of indicators, zero lane discipline, incorrect merging onto roads of higher priority, etc). It's a wild west out there.

I drove from Cork to Killarney today and I saw one car do the following, incorrect merge at the end of a Dual Carriageway (barge his way through ignoring the zip merge), dangerous overtake and then slow down the car he just overtook, hog the overtaking lane, arbitrarily stop on a main road to let a car merge and then get thick (blowing the horn) when the car didn't move (the other lane of traffic was still barrelling along at approx 90kph, the merger had cop on not to get creamed). Thankfully I lost him on the County Bounds. If you asked the driver, s/he probably didn't know what they did wrong......

Oh, he also ran an amber light in Macroom when there was PLENTY of time to stop (traffic was so heavy

Stark

But he "didn't have a single accident" along the way so therefore he's a great driver