Irish Drivers Roundabout Way of Thinking.
Here's a post from Francie, who incidentally has a driving record just slightly better than that of Richard Hammond :-)
Irish drivers, don’t you just love them? For a majority of them the rules of the road is a once-off document that is studied prior to their driving test, and then banished from their memory following a successful pass. On a recent drive from Dublin to Sligo, I once again experienced the stress involved in driving on our national road network. The majority of this nation has a distinct lack of understanding for the rules of the road. Many drivers are a time-bomb on our roads waiting to go off; it's no wonder road safety is such a high topic in the news.
Why don’t people understand that the outside lane of a dual carriage-way or motorway is for overtaking, and drivers should only enter this lane whilst in the process of overtaking another vehicle and then re-enter the inside lane until they need to repeat this process? That means that no, you cannot hog this lane for your own pleasure and hold up traffic behind you enticing them to break the rules also by using the inside lane to overtake you.
And roundabouts, an Irish driver's idea of a decision-making nightmare, oh … how do I get onto/off it, what way do I go round, what exit do I take? This, I feel, is because roundabouts were a non-existent feature on many of our rural road networks until recent times. I have often seen cars driving around a roundabout in an anti-clockwise direction; mayhem waiting to happen!
But what irks me most is the lack of indicating by drivers on roundabouts. People forget that upon entry to a roundabout, he/she must either indicate left if they are taking the first exit (and stay in the inside lane if doing so) or right if taking any exit after, and then proceed to indicate left when exiting the roundabout.
The media and politicians keep ranting on about road safety and particularly speeding on roads, and what has to be done to stop the high number of fatalities on our roads. What I feel is needed is better education on the rules of the road, and this should start in our schools as a subject.
tags:driving
Published by Colm.
Irish drivers, don’t you just love them? For a majority of them the rules of the road is a once-off document that is studied prior to their driving test, and then banished from their memory following a successful pass. On a recent drive from Dublin to Sligo, I once again experienced the stress involved in driving on our national road network. The majority of this nation has a distinct lack of understanding for the rules of the road. Many drivers are a time-bomb on our roads waiting to go off; it's no wonder road safety is such a high topic in the news.
Why don’t people understand that the outside lane of a dual carriage-way or motorway is for overtaking, and drivers should only enter this lane whilst in the process of overtaking another vehicle and then re-enter the inside lane until they need to repeat this process? That means that no, you cannot hog this lane for your own pleasure and hold up traffic behind you enticing them to break the rules also by using the inside lane to overtake you.
And roundabouts, an Irish driver's idea of a decision-making nightmare, oh … how do I get onto/off it, what way do I go round, what exit do I take? This, I feel, is because roundabouts were a non-existent feature on many of our rural road networks until recent times. I have often seen cars driving around a roundabout in an anti-clockwise direction; mayhem waiting to happen!
But what irks me most is the lack of indicating by drivers on roundabouts. People forget that upon entry to a roundabout, he/she must either indicate left if they are taking the first exit (and stay in the inside lane if doing so) or right if taking any exit after, and then proceed to indicate left when exiting the roundabout.
The media and politicians keep ranting on about road safety and particularly speeding on roads, and what has to be done to stop the high number of fatalities on our roads. What I feel is needed is better education on the rules of the road, and this should start in our schools as a subject.
tags:driving
Published by Colm.
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