If you replace foreigner with young driver these proposals are pretty similar to what that ****wit Gay Byrne has been coming out with since he got sick of not being on the radio.
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
I don't think even Gaybo suggested that young drivers should drive on the right.Originally Posted by Schumi
Anyway, as a 24-year-old learner driver, I've been less than impressed at the wonderful grown-up drivers we have, and there are far more of them than 'boy racers' or 'fordners'. There is a huge number of factors influencing our accident rate, and everyone keeps complaining about the corner cases.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Who boys?
Its easy to blame it all on the "boy-racers", it gives the rest of society an excuse so they can absolve themselves of a more approriate level of personal responsibility ....."no need to improve my driving, its them young feckers causing all the problems".
Young male drivers are certainly a problem, its well documented, but I agree with John83. Make a mental note of the category of driver you see doing something dangerous or illegal over the next month, you'll soon build up your own picture of who's driving needs to improve.
haven't heard that term before, can you enlighten me?
LTID
I was attempting to represent phonetically a common Irish pronunciation of foreigners. Sorry, should have been a bit clearer.
You can't spell failure without FAI
I'm not disagreeing with your point, but I would argue that the poor state of our roads are a major factor in the "conditions present".
The reason I say this is because I did my test in the UK and when i eventually re-patriated, I soon began to find that in order to avoid any scrapes, I had to reduce my driving speed from that which was normal and safe in the UK.
A big factor is the state of the road verges here;
On your typcial country road the verges tend to become part of the road, you get loads of dirt dragged onto the road which makes things much slippier when its wet. Also the road-edge tends to break up and the "usable" portion of road becomes narrower as more and more of the tarmac surface breaks away.
Trouble is it's inconsistent, the road is grand in parts, then (usually just as an oncoming car approaches) you get the broken verge/pothole, and you either go crashing through it and break your suspension or stop until the other car passes, but when you try to stop all the muddy crap thats been dragged onto the road makes you skid and you still go crashing through the pothole and half wreck the car.
You only need to be travelling at 50mph or less for serious implications to this everyday scenario. So your speed is inappropriate for the conditions present but you're not actually doing anything out of the ordinary.
Even the main routes suffer the dirt problem, particularly at this time of year. I was travelling along the N7 one eving last week, and i had use the screen washer 2 or 3 times a minute even though i was a good 3 - 4 seconds behind the lorry ahead. You dont get anywhere near this level of dirt on UK roads (just take a look around any car park and notice the state of most of the cars, its just not like that across the water).
LTID
Dublin - Fartiners
Bog* - Furridners
Generally preceded by "Bleedin" and "Bleddy" respectively.
Agree on the accepted stereotype of the bad driver being incorrect. Driving around Dublin, I personally have noticed that when it's not ME causing the problem, it's white males between the ages of 35-60 and women of indeterminate age (who all seem to suffer from Stillorgan syndrome : Permanantly startled look, aged somewhere between 16 and 60, too much make up, €500 sunglasses perched on €500 blonde hair, ski pants, ugg boots...You know the type) who make the most obscene errors.
*where Im from
On the way into the stadium, an elderly San Marino Steward waved us in and said "Tonight, may the best team win"
And they nearly did.
Sounds good to me
My Guarantee
Am looking for old Irish matches on VHS, PM me if you have some and I'll upload them here
More true than you know:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_242.html
You can't spell failure without FAI
every so often a post comes up that I find my nodding furiously too (like a Bobblehead Ray on speed) or silently roaring "here here" too. This is such a post. Mrs Kingdom (whom I'll admit terrifies me when I'm in the passenger seat) travelled to West Sussex via Rosslare ferry at night last Thurs. I was sure I'd get a sobbing phonecall at the m25 junction outside London. Not one problem at all. Most comfortable she's ever felt driving a car. As soon as she got back to Wexford she'd taken a wrong turn due to conflicting road signs.
This country is a joke, and there are very few signs in my small part of it that things are changing.
Dare I say it, but if you put the restricters back on "boy racer" cars how many complaints would you have? Very few genuinely I guess. I have to be honest I kinda admire the pride they have in their cars and the few that I know around where I live aren't into booze or drugs, they just pump every penny they have into their cars. Doesn't stop me from abusing the fcukers when the cars roar past the house at 11.00 at night. I find they're generally good drivers, they're just too facking loud for my liking!Its easy to blame it all on the "boy-racers", it gives the rest of society an excuse so they can absolve themselves of a more approriate level of personal responsibility ....."no need to improve my driving, its them young feckers causing all the problems".
Young male drivers are certainly a problem, its well documented, but I agree with John83. Make a mental note of the category of driver you see doing something dangerous or illegal over the next month, you'll soon build up your own picture of who's driving needs to improve.
Last edited by dahamsta; 07/03/2008 at 2:32 PM.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Oddly, a lot of the signs when entering Waterford county read something like: "Welcome to County Waterford. Please drive on the left". Especially on a lot of the smaller roads. We obviously have a deep distrust of our neighbouring counties.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Similar signs up the road from the Killimer Car Ferryport in Clare which only connects with Tarbert in Co. Kerry and on the southern outskirts of Charleville Co. Cork
" I wish to God that someone would be able to block out the voices in my head for five minutes, the voices that scream, over and over again: "Why do they come to me to die?"
Plenty of them around. Most bizarre i've seen is just placed at random on a point on the cork-kerry road. and it is also in german. Did some mad german drive halfway to kerry on the wrong side of the road? fair play if he made it that far.Similar signs up the road from the Killimer Car Ferryport in Clare which only connects with Tarbert in Co. Kerry and on the southern outskirts of Charleville Co. Cork
Your Chairperson,
Gavin
Membership Advisory Board
"Ex Bardus , Vicis"
There's one on the road from Turnpike to Thurles, which is only a glorified country road. I assume it's for all the foreigners who may be driving happy as larry on the right only for the sign to remind them. Always struck me as a complete waste of time.
Cork Airport famously advised French people to drive on the right last year.
http://blog.rymus.net/2006/01/04/conduire-a-what/
Perhaps they were getting in ahead of the game?
adam
That's funny.
It's cruel putting a sign up like that before a roundabout. At least it doesn't look so busy.
I learned to drive on the right, the first time I came back driving in Ireland I was doing okay until I hit that big roundabout at Walkinstown, It was as if time froze (every car stopped dead in their tracks) and allowed me to get around and out.
That the road that was listed as a European black spot and has the same speed limit as sections of the m50 and n7?
The Model Club
Tell all the Bohs you know
that we've gone and won two-in-a-row
and it's not gonna be three
and it's not gonna be four
it's more likely to be 5-1.
60mph? That's the one. Funnily enough, the last time I was down there, a doctor died in a car crash on the road.
I met a (probably German) camper van coming at me on the wrong side in Charleville last year. It had just pulled out of a petrol station forecourt.
In fairness, as anyone who's had to drive on the right can testify, it is very easy to get it wrong when you come to a junction. It really takes a lot of concentration to move onto the correct side, it goes against your natural in-grained routine, it can really throw you for a few seconds.
LTID
Sure those damn Europeans tried to make serving alcohol in pints and ordering a pound of rashers illegal last year, tho luckily for us the Brits stepped in and put those Frogs, Germans and the lot in their place. and now people suggest we give up driving on the correct side of the road. Errrrgg. Will Never happen thank god.
"No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little." - Edmund Burke
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