Are terrible driving habits on the rise?

Stark

65535 wrote: »

Yes, I know it's not being discussed, however.

If you arrive at the first traffic lights at a junction EXACTLY when they change to amber.
By the time you reach the far side of the junction the Red light will already be on
Even though you are proceeding at exactly the speed limit.

If/When that is fixed, then you can prosecute but not before because as it is now it is possible to break the law because of the timing of the amber light.

You're not breaking the law though. The lights control entering the junction, not exiting the junction.

You take advantage of this all the time when turning right. Light green, enter the junction, if you don't get a gap in oncoming traffic, wait for light to turn red, then exit the junction.

Pops_20

I could write a long list of bad driving habits I've seen, but the most infuriating for me of late is people slowing from 100 to 50 kmph to get a look at Douglas shopping centre.
There's nothing to see, so stop being a d**k and endangering other road users around you for no reason.

Cantona's Collars

Cantona's Collars wrote: »

Ah sure how else will they hear all the funny videos on Facebook otherwise.
I've seen people with massive over ear headphones on while driving,are they dj'ing while driving or something?

Nothing illegal about wearing headphones, it’s the original handsfree kit.

It’s also a non-issue. I had the loan of a car recently that had no Bluetooth and I was was doing a few 3 hour drives a a week in it so needed to listen to podcasts, Spotify etc on my headphones along with make/take calls. I used both ear buds and my noise cancelling over ear headphones and it made little difference to what you can hear compared to driving with the radio turned up as horns, sirens etc cut though to your ears much more than you would think.

Total non-issue people searching for stuff to give out about.

2Mad2BeMad

Duckjob wrote: »

The one that really grinds my gears is people not bothering to slow down sufficiently around bends and instead coming around the bend with their wheels well over the line on the opposite side of the road :mad:

Funny enough I'm forever getting beeped when turning the bend that goes into my driveway . My driveway is on a main busy road but it's just after the lights so the driver behind thinks I'm hard breaking when in fact I indicate well in advance and slow down a good bit before my turn so I don't get rear ended.
As soon as I make the turn they beep.
All impatient arseholes everyone's in a rush.

Today I had a moron undertake me in a bus lane only to be stopped at several lights ahead. Why undertake? Funny thing is he's my neighbour I only moved in a few weeks ago and he drives several cars so I didn't cop him. He undertook me to be 1 car ahead and arrive exactly 1 second home before me.

Sexual Chocolate

The lack of indicators on round-abouts is definitely the main one I've noticed in the last while. People do tend to indicate onto them but not when coming off them.

road_high

Sexual Chocolate wrote: »

The lack of indicators on round-abouts is definitely the main one I've noticed in the last while. People do tend to indicate onto them but not when coming off them.

Or indicate the wrong direction. I’m going straight through so I’ll indicate to the right! Clueless!

dsmythy

Sexual Chocolate wrote: »

The lack of indicators on round-abouts is definitely the main one I've noticed in the last while. People do tend to indicate onto them but not when coming off them.

Lazy ones who don't cancel their signal too. Entering a roundabout is like playing the odds these days on who is suddenly coming around minus indicator.

Seth Brundle

The main problem is that people in general have become quite selfish and couldn't give a toss about other road users.

JohnnyFlash

The indicator one is a pet peeve of mine. The clue as to their function is in their name. Women tend to be far worse for not using them than men I’ve noticed.

K.Flyer

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

The indicator one is a pet peeve of mine. The clue as to their function is in their name. Women tend to be far worse for not using them than men I’ve noticed.

about an hour ago, there was a twat in a white audi sitting in the middle of the junction with a Left indicator on not moving.
I gave them a beep to wake them up as the way was clear for them.
Turned out they were turning Right, but indicating left :rolleyes: .. and no, you couldn't tell from their position on the road either.

vicwatson

The annoying one for me is drivers cutting the corner on bends. Lazy bastards won’t drive the bend instead they cut the corner on blind bends. This is definitely on the rise.

bazz26

Lack of lane discipline on roundabouts. Drivers tend to take the shortest/laziest route possible through the roundabout rather than sticking to their designated lane.

Wanderer2010

Something I have noticed in 15 yrs driving myself, which isn't really a bad habit and more an observation, is that men are much more likely to leave you go if you are trying to get on to a busy road or reversing out of a shop. Women in my view more often than not just drive straight past you and don't give you a glance. Men have more nature in them!

TheAnalyst_

no.

um7y1h83ge06nx

vicwatson wrote: »

The annoying one for me is drivers cutting the corner on bends. Lazy bastards won’t drive the bend instead they cut the corner on blind bends. This is definitely on the rise.

That drives me mental. I regularly drive country roads where there is no hard shoulder, nowhere to go if these fcuking idiots don't pull in on time. Only thing you can do is brake.

Alpha_zero

h

_Kaiser_

I could rant all day...

- Dawdlers on the motorway/N-roads/R-roads holding everyone up but refusing to allow others room to overtake safely
- Lack of indicator use. Especially prevalent in Cork for whatever reason. Drives me insane!
- Tailgaters. I don't exactly drive slowly myself, but I have no tolerance for this shyte, but thankfully don't encounter it too often either
- Idiots driving around in poor conditions/darkness with no or minimal lights on
- Idiots on motorways who refuse to dip their lights for oncoming traffic. If you can see my lights, I can see yours!
- Lane-weavers who swap lanes aggressively and dangerously to get all of a car length ahead

To name just a few that I see daily. I freely admit that my patience isn't what it should be as a result. Hard not to get annoyed when you see the same crap day in and out, often by the same cars on a regular commute!

As for the reasons? A lot of drivers haven't done a test/lesson in decades and bad habits set in, or defensive driving to counter the above means less tolerance for muppetry and more stress overall.

Also (and likely to be controversial), there's a huge influx of foreign drivers in the last 10/15 years coming from countries with massively different standards. That can't help either!

Voodoomelon

Something I always noticed in Ireland, ever since I was a little chap, drivers here as a huge majority don't respect pedestrian areas, be it shared road/path space, pedestrian crossings, school areas etc. 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.

It's like cars have been the dominant force for the last 50+ years in our villages, towns and cities and no one can say otherwise. In other countries, large urbanised city life has been the mainstay for centuries and vehicles come second, people come first.

With our country lanes where the car rules and small towns/villages that almost encourage vehicles down their main thoroughfares, pedestrians are so far down the list that drivers don't even look out for crossings, let alone people. And this is coming from a car guy. Yes you get pedestrians who walk about like zombies, but at the end of the day we're all pedestrians throughout the week and drivers should be far more aware than they currently are.

sligojoek

Tailgaters. I don't hang around and never hold anybody up.

Phones. Last week a prominent county councillor was behind me for 20 minutes in traffic. Every time I looked in my mirror she was "Eyes down". At times I crept 20 feet ahead and she'd be there not realising I was gone. As soon as she'd catch up it was back to to the phone again.
That evening she was on FB announcing that a road had re-opened after a crash. Followed by hashtag #staysafe.

Today driving into Sligo I was reaching the end of an "Overtaking zone". There was a guy in the overtaking lane who was struggling to pass me so I eased off and touched the brakes twice to let him know I was slowing. Meanwhile a Mercedes minibus which was trundling along the hard shoulder decided to pull in front of me at about 50 or 60 Kph, sending my overtaker into what was now the oncoming lane. If there was anything coming against us It would have been carnage. he then drove at 60kph for the next 10 Km. When I drew up beside them at the lights later I discovered it was a load of 70+yr olds on a n outing. The driver had his chin on the steering wheel and tunnel vision.

Wanderer2010

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Something I have noticed in 15 yrs driving myself, which isn't really a bad habit and more an observation, is that men are much more likely to leave you go if you are trying to get on to a busy road or reversing out of a shop. Women in my view more often than not just drive straight past you and don't give you a glance. Men have more nature in them!

I'm surprised you've not been lynched yet for that comment, but I do actually agree with this. I rarely see a woman letting me out or doing anything nice/polite on the roads.


It also almost always seems to be women in a 'premium brand' car (no matter how old it is or what kinda state it's in) that have some kinda superiority complex/lack of driving ability. It's more often than not them I notice parked in yellow boxes, running lights, tailgating, etc. :rolleyes:




They also form a large part, in my own personal experience, of the "I'll only be a minute" brigade who just abandon their car anywhere.

the_pen_turner

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm surprised you've not been lynched yet for that comment, but I do actually agree with this. I rarely see a woman letting me out or doing anything nice/polite on the roads.


It also almost always seems to be women in a 'premium brand' car (no matter how old it is or what kinda state it's in) that have some kinda superiority complex/lack of driving ability. It's more often than not them I notice parked in yellow boxes, running lights, tailgating, etc. :rolleyes:




They also form a large part, in my own personal experience, of the "I'll only be a minute" brigade who just abandon their car anywhere.

the reason he (presumably) hasnt been lynched is that most people can clearly see that its true. i often make a note of this if im driving a lot around town . it usually plays out to be 75% + being men that let you out usually closer to 90% but never below 75% yet.
the same aplies when your walking. . female drivers raraly inconvenience themselves to let you cross the road.

Isambard

should it surprise you? How often do you hold the door open for a Lady only for her to breeze through and ignore you?

liamog

What really gets my goat is the people who don't use slip roads to accelerate to the main carriageway speeds.

They'll do 50km/h down the slip road I'll pull out around them into lane 2 as soon as the dotted line shows up, when I pull back into lane 1 after safely passing them, they almost always flash you. I like to think its a nod of appreciation for the well executed maneuver.

biko

People coming from College Road and turning right or left at Moneenageisha jump red lights like crazy. It#'s like a joke at this stage.

Zubeneschamali

Blueshoe wrote: »

Irish roads are statistically some of the safest in Europe.

And all of the above have been happening since forever.

Most are rude and annoying, but won't actually cause fatal accidents.

CrankyHaus

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm surprised you've not been lynched yet for that comment, but I do actually agree with this. I rarely see a woman letting me out or doing anything nice/polite on the roads.

I think it's more just an awareness thing than selfishness. IME a lot of women tend to drive with much less attention and awareness of everything than men. I can't help but notice it as a passenger, where they seem shocked when they encounter things I can't avoid spotting from a mile away.


So when people find a woman driver isn't letting them out it's probably because she simply isn't aware of them, or aware that she could let them out at minimal penalty to herself.

bladespin

Yes and No lol

yes; I definitely see all of the above more often.
no; more cars on the roads now - the driving standard is as bad as ie ever was (maybe even just slightly better dare I say that).

All are still a brutal wind up on a wet and miserable Monday morning.

SirChenjin

sligojoek wrote: »

Phones. Last week a prominent county councillor was behind me for 20 minutes in traffic. Every time I looked in my mirror she was "Eyes down". At times I crept 20 feet ahead and she'd be there not realising I was gone. As soon as she'd catch up it was back to to the phone again.
That evening she was on FB announcing that a road had re-opened after a crash. Followed by hashtag #staysafe.

.

I have said similar upthread. I do believe it accounts for quite a lot of the ****e driving that is becoming more prevalent, eyes on the phone screen instead of the windscreen. Big gap in traffic, failure to take off at green lights, bursting across pedestrian crossings while pedestrians are actually crossing - guaranteed the driver is glued to the phone screen.

Driving into own estate recently, van ahead of me, turns in, stops dead, I wait. Goes on another bit, stops dead. By now, I'd reached home and turned in to the drive, but glancing back could see what the issue was - the phone was more important than him actually looking at the road. A lot of small kids play out in the estate. Not safe with the likes of that around though.

I would have been very tempted to post something in response to that councillor's comment to let them know that I had seen their behaviour.

run_Forrest_run

A thing I see on the rise is the speed at which cars come out of a house, school, car park etc and arrive at a junction with a road. Often there is a footpath where the car would have to intersect but they approach it so fast that they would fail to see a pedestrian on the path or even a cyclist on the road they are rushing to join. Cars rarely do a full stop and look left and right before continuing on to the road.

fryup

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