bad rap for irish drivers

Captain Commie · 18-10-2010 1:32pm #1

In the north there is a real low opinion of drivers from the south, which some times is true, however its much worse the other way.

Being from the north i would like to be able to stand up for drivers from the north, but i just cant. I actually feel safer on irish roads than when up north.

Have had a couple bad experiences here with lunatic drivers doing crazy things, but was up north at the weekend, on saturday night bout 11pm was driving from antrim to carrickfergus doing 60mph on A road (legal limit), some guy comes flying up behind me and takes me on the wrong side of the road, only to tuck in front and slam on the brakes and slow down to 50 mph, no one in front, nothing on-coming and no junction for another mile or so.

Some of my family were giving the usual banter about irish drivers till i told em that and some other stories, they quickly shut up

Cookie_Monster · 18-10-2010 1:35pm

both countries have their fair share of idiot drivers.
I've have only done small amounts of driving in the north but in towns they seem more relaxed and better overall and on the main roads just the same as here

coylemj · 18-10-2010 1:39pm

If you meet anyone from the north with a low opinion of us southern drivers, just tell them to come down south around Paddys day or the 12th of July and watch the antics of northern drivers when they come down here to play on our roads!

Ditto all year round in Donegal.

Yakult · 18-10-2010 1:43pm

Never drove up north, but I would assume just like down here theirs a fair share of idiots driving around. Dont see why they think they'd be better tbh.

bazzachazza · 18-10-2010 1:49pm

coylemj wrote: »

If you meet anyone from the north with a low opinion of us southern drivers, just tell them to come down south around Paddys day or the 12th of July and watch the antics of northern drivers when they come down here to play on our roads!

Ditto all year round in Donegal.

Not all yellow reg's in Donegal are driven by northies there are a fair few VRT tax dodgers driving around up there.

I think it's a case of see a few northie bad drivers and we think all the others are equally as bad.

Sure aren't half the topics on MOTOR's about bad southern drivers.;)

Under A Funeral Moon · 18-10-2010 1:53pm

From my own experiences, drivers in Ireland (as a whole) are a hell of a lot worse than drivers in the likes of Germany and Scandinavia. The amount of road deaths and serious crashes is hardly surprising considering the high rate of stupidity from drivers on our roads. The roads themselves are a disgrace too. Driver education is an absolute joke in this country.

Cavehill Red · 18-10-2010 1:57pm

Don't want to generalise, but I'm back and forth regularly and I'd say I notice three main differences, two motoring, one roads.
1. The roads up north are better maintained and more clearly marked.
2. Drivers in the north are much more adherent to speed limits and lane discipline.
3. Drivers in the north are more likely to behave properly taking turns where lanes merge. By contrast, if you find yourself in the wrong lane in the north and try to change, you're less likely to find the traffic flow will permit it.

Anan1 · 18-10-2010 2:01pm

In my experience, Irish driving tends to get more aggressive the farther north you go. I'd include the whole of Ulster in this, not just the six counties.

18-10-2010 2:09pm

Go to Germany and drive for a week, even the Autobahn has safer drivers than lots of village idiots in this country.

Davidth88 · 18-10-2010 2:24pm

This is a two part problem

If you see a person from your own part of island of Ireland ' acting the maggot ' , you don't really notice..... if you see someone from the other part you notice . So if you are in the south you notice ' yellow plates '. Same as if you are in Cork you would notice a DL plate .....

Drivers from the north KNOW that 90% of the time they can get away with anything down here , so they are more inclined to do silly things. Before the motorway was open if you were driving between Navan and Dublin in the rush hour the things you would see ' yellow plates ' do was beyond belief ( overtaking an overtaking car etc )

I imagine the reverse is also true , people from the republic feel they can transgress in the north with little comeback ( although I believe this isn't true )

johndaman66 · 18-10-2010 3:10pm

Cavehill Red wrote: »

1. The roads up north are better maintained and more clearly marked.

Cant say I particularly agree with the above point Cavehill Red. I've done a fair share of driving in the North, in particular in Derry city but a wee bit of driving in Belfast too. Roads are not always maintained fantastically in my experience. Road signs were lacking and could be misleading in places also I thought.

I would have thought that 10 to 15 years ago the North would have being ahead in this regard but certainly the gap would have closed since. Think improvements and inroads have being made in the Republic more than anything.

Eric Cartman · 18-10-2010 3:35pm

the opinions of your mates are probably based entirely on seeing donegal lads in TdiddlyEyyy VAG car treating a trip to the shops like a rally speed trial

RandomAccess · 18-10-2010 6:53pm

I drive Dublin to Letterkenny pretty frequently.

A lot of the local area drivers in the north drive really really slowly, when driving at night a lot of them comfort brake for all bends in the road and all oncoming traffic. It gets old fast... the only good thing is that they invariably tend to turn off onto minor roads along the route.

Just an observation anyway,
Southern drivers probably get a bad rap for aggressive overtaking for the reason above.

Beyond that, there are the same old slow coaches on the road all the time, both Donegal regs and northern ones who plod along either rigidly sticking to 70 or 80 kph, or those even more annoying ones who vary between 70kph and 100kph and make overtaking a pain in the arse.

Cicero · 18-10-2010 6:56pm

I think the agreement is in place now between north/south in relation to penalty points so might see an improvement on both sides in the coming months..

johnos1984 · 18-10-2010 7:04pm

I do a lot of driving on both sides of the border and I believe its all in the mind.

They are no better, but then again no worse than drivers on the rest of the island

The increased insurance premiums in the North of Ireland compared with Britain in general reflect's this also.

I would say that the motorway system isn't as good but national and secondary roads are an awful lot better

dunsandin · 18-10-2010 7:07pm

I would have a different view. I do a lot of work down the north(to give it its proper title), and I feel a lot safer when I cross back into the south - traffic speeds are lower, there is a more patient attitude, and its less frenetic. The same goes for driving in the uk- I'm not a fan. Getting off the ferry I always think someone has fired a starting pistol and the whole bleedin country is racing somwhere. Have driven a lot in Europe, mainly spain and Italy, and you can give me Ireland any day over both places. Going by road from france to germany via belgium, the same flat out, pick the wrong lane and you are fecked, outta my way, attitude applies. I could be biased, but I much prefer driving in Ireland. Its just not as frenetic. And I drive pretty fast, I'm not a dawdler.

johnos1984 · 18-10-2010 7:15pm

dunsandin wrote: »

I do a lot of work down the north(to give it its proper title)

If ever a comment could take a thread O/T for so many reasons

Dunsandin, you may wish to rephrase the above

Big Nasty · 18-10-2010 7:35pm

johnos1984 wrote: »

If ever a comment could take a thread O/T for so many reasons

Dunsandin, you may which to rephrase the above

And you may WISH to edit your post!

johnos1984 · 18-10-2010 7:38pm

MCMLXXV wrote: »

And you may WISH to edit your post!

I'll do it myself

:D

being a smartarse fail

Big Nasty · 18-10-2010 7:42pm

Many years ago well before the M1 was built I worked in Drogheda for 12 months and the pure lunacy I saw by yellow reg drivers was unbelieveable. I wasn't so tame at the time myself either so that's a big statement coming from me. Seems to have improved a lot over the years but then again so has my driving to!

dunsandin · 18-10-2010 8:47pm

johnos1984 wrote: »

If ever a comment could take a thread O/T for so many reasons

Dunsandin, you may wish to rephrase the above

stick and wrong end johnos mate, Ive a rake of friends from the north, and every last one of them says "im heading back down north later on", not "im heading back up north later on". No politics involved at all, its just what the lads up there tend to say.

johnos1984 · 18-10-2010 8:51pm

Not politically motivated at all

My gf is from up North as well and it annoys the hell out of me when they say going up to Dublin or down to Belfast, its pet hate that I feel necessary to correct on every occasion now

Apologies for going O/T

dunsandin · 18-10-2010 9:06pm

johnos1984 wrote: »

Not politically motivated at all

My gf is from down North as well and it annoys the hell out of me when they say going up to Dublin or down to Belfast, its pet hate that I feel necessary to correct on every occasion now

Apologies for going O/T

fyp:D

johndaman66 · 18-10-2010 9:20pm

I don't paticularly want to drag the thread off topic and was going to start a new thread elsewhere on boards on this once but is it not very bad english or indeed geography for someone to say theyre heading up to such and such a place when theyre going southbound? I have a few college friends in Cork city who I visit from time to time and any time I'm talking to one chap in particular he would say to me whens the next time your heading up to meet us to me even though I'd be coming from Limerick city direction. I challenged him on it once but he was fully convinced he was correct:eek:. I notice more people do the same. I'm not sh!thot on geography myself but would have thought going from Limerick city to Cork city is quite obviously going down to meet them?

Sorry for being a spoilsport and dragging thread off topic

slimjimmc · 18-10-2010 10:23pm

Cicero wrote: »

I think the agreement is in place now between north/south in relation to penalty points so might see an improvement on both sides in the coming months..

Got any more info on this? The only agreement I know of is the one between Ireland and the UK (as a whole) to mutually recognise driving bans imposed by a court. Penalty points and bans based on penalty points are not included in this agreement.

stealthyspeeder · 19-10-2010 4:29am

Im from the north and I would notice a difference. They both have their flaws though

Generally from what I have noticed...

Bad experiences with Irish drivers stem from incompetence at either rules of the road or car control

Bad experiences with Northern Irish drivers stem from dangerous or unsafe driving because of the drivers risk taking.

j2dab · 19-10-2010 5:17am

Northerners are definitley more dangerous (usually the diesel saloons).. But when it comes to general driving (motorways etc...) Irish are awful at abiding by the rules of the road

johndaman66 wrote: »

I don't paticularly want to drag the thread off topic and was going to start a new thread elsewhere on boards on this once but is it not very bad english or indeed geography for someone to say theyre heading up to such and such a place when theyre going southbound? I have a few college friends in Cork city who I visit from time to time and any time I'm talking to one chap in particular he would say to me whens the next time your heading up to meet us to me even though I'd be coming from Limerick city direction. I challenged him on it once but he was fully convinced he was correct:eek:. I notice more people do the same. I'm not sh!thot on geography myself but would have thought going from Limerick city to Cork city is quite obviously going down to meet them?

Sorry for being a spoilsport and dragging thread off topic

This is one way of looking at it but what if the place you are going to is higher than the place you were coming from? Then technically you are heading up to them.

Captain Commie · 19-10-2010 7:24am

slimjimmc wrote: »

Got any more info on this? The only agreement I know of is the one between Ireland and the UK (as a whole) to mutually recognise driving bans imposed by a court. Penalty points and bans based on penalty points are not included in this agreement.

Was pulled by PSNI about 4 or 5 months ago for speeding on the A1 outside hillsborough en route to belfast, as was on irish license was told that couldnt give me points and that the legislation wont be in place until new year at earliest. Copper was gonna lift me but decided against and let me so with a severe tounge lashing

Alun · 19-10-2010 7:32am

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

Bad experiences with Irish drivers stem from incompetence at either rules of the road or car control

Bad experiences with Northern Irish drivers stem from dangerous or unsafe driving because of the drivers risk taking.

j2dab wrote: »

But when it comes to general driving (motorways etc...) Irish are awful at abiding by the rules of the road

Nail hits head. That's my take on it too .. other countries have their fair share of bad drivers too, but these are generally those who do actually know they're doing wrong and are consciously taking risks engaging in dangerous or unsafe activities such as crazy overtaking or excessive speeding.

Irish bad driving includes such things too, of course, but also includes in many cases a truly mind boggling lack of knowledge of the rules of the road, or indeed, just plain old common sense.

Take the guy I came across on the N11 on Sunday for example who pulled in to an off-ramp about half way along to take a phone call. I doubt you'd see anything quite that stupid anywhere else.

senordingdong · 19-10-2010 7:37am

So we've assessed that this is not a problem that is specific to one state or the other?

johndaman66 · 19-10-2010 8:55pm

j2dab wrote: »

This is one way of looking at it but what if the place you are going to is higher than the place you were coming from? Then technically you are heading up to them.

Hmmm, assume you mean metres above sea level? Fair point j2dab, which I haven't really considered. It is another way of looking at it too. Would have just assumed my friend was talking in terms of driving down (up?!) the country.

senordingdong wrote: »

So we've assessed that this is not a problem that is specific to one state or the other?

Seemingly drivers on one side of the border are bad but drivers on the other side of it are worse!:p

bad rap for irish drivers

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