I think one of the most dangerous things happening on irish roads is when slow drivers come off a slip road onto a motorway or dual carriageway. The slow driver can usually get into lane quite safely, leaving the driver behind to deal with the 100km/h oncoming traffic. This would be one of my no. 1’s not because of the severity of the crime but because about 20% of drivers do it and it happens to me at least once a day.
There should be a minimum speed limit of 20km/h below the maximum advertised so unsure drivers know what is going on. This is not unreasonable as the majority of these slow accelerators get to a decent speed in the end anyway.
Also, this kind of driving would earn you a failed driving test for lack of progress.
Any comments?
13 Comments
While I agree that drivers should make decent progress, especially when entering a motorway, where they should expect cars to be going that bit faster, I don’t think imposing a “minimum” speed limit of 20km/h below the maximum would be pratical or realistically enforceable. Who can imagine the gardaà at the motorway entrances encouraging motorists to speed up?
Possibly there should be more warning signs of when there are expected traffic merges ahead, and people should really move over to the overtaking lane if they think that they may be about to encounter a slower driver ahead trying to get out onto the motorway.
On September 3rd, 2007 at 12:20 am
niallok said:
“and people should really move over to the overtaking lane if they think that they may be about to encounter a slower driver ahead trying to get out onto the motorway”
You are spot on with that comment, hat is what a considerate and observant driver SHOULD do. Unfortunately most drivers do not associate merging motorway traffic with a driving hazard or an overtaking manouver.
The safest place to be when passing an entrance or exit ramp on to the motorway is in the outside lane as far away from merging or exiting traffic as possible.
If drivers followed this advice it would be irrelevant what speed the were using when joining the motorway. Leave them to God and an Artic. truck in the inside lane !
That will soon sort them out.
Shite drivers eh?
i dissagree with part of what your saying . the idea of a motorway is for smoother safer driving usually at speed without passing through traffic lights or towns. lanes should be able to merge flawlessly . if this cannot be done then it is because of a clear lack of planning by the local authorities. at this point ive now done close to 12k miles across europe and have seen many perfect examples of how this can be done . ive also seen this done in places around ireland where they have extended motorways after many years . n4 mullingar joining the m4 . if i have my motorway numbers correct .
there is already a min speed limit on the motorway of i do believe 60 kph.
motorway driving in ireland is the safest by far of all the roads at present. the speeds on the motorway should be increased to 130 kph and the speeds on all other roads except duel carriageways reduced to 80kph .
I always thought that if traffic was merging onto the motorway you moved over to the over-taking lane as long as it was clear and you were not going to impede anyone further back in the over-taking lane. That way it didn’t matter what speed the merging traffic was doing. Having said that, from experience, this is generally only possible at off-peak times or away from cities. I’m not sure if this is in the Highway code as I, like the vast majority of people, haven’t read this particular document in a number of years.
Elexes, you are close enough – the motorway min is effectively 50km/h in that vehicles incapable of a speed of at least 50km/h are not permitted. Note that I said effectively – some legal eagle out there may tell us if a vehicle capable of that speed may be driven below it and save me looking it up.
Neil, what you are saying about allowing traffic merge by moving out, where possible, is laudably courteous and results in a smoother flow. While legally you should not be in an outer lane if the one to your left is free, in this case you are anticipating an imminent overtaking manoeuvre.
You make an excellent point when when you say you, like the vast majority of people, you haven’t read this document [the rules of the road] in a number of years. We are all guilty of this. There is a link on this site to the current version* for the Rep. of Ireland. If you reside outside this state you will have to look elsewhere for your own local one.
*The 2007 version. Until such time as the long promised free copies are delivered it is worth downloading. There are a number of additional rules and some that have been altered that those of us who took our driving tests a few years ago may not be up to date with.
i shall take a photo and put it up of the sign for all motorways . i dont live to far away from one
I live and learn. Primalscream is correct, there’s nothing in the Highway Code about moving over and making room for joining traffic. I wonder how much else I have assumed to be correct isn’t?
Sorry, meant Primal Sneeze.
I don’t know about imposing a minimum joining speed, but I agree that slow drivers joining fast roads cause great danger. I used to travel the road from Mallow to Cork City on a regular basis, and often met people joining the main road (100k limit) at 40-50 k and _braking_. yes that’s what I said _braking_ . one of the first times I saw this happen, I was panicked – it’s a very short slip road, but got a good look at the provisional driver when I went by. It was a girl with a male passenger – who presumably was teaching her (in rush hour tho), I assume that he had passed his test and should know better. I would have expected him to be pushing her on, to pick up speed, to filter into the traffic, but he seemed unconcerned, Three cars behind her were beeping at her to speed up….
About one year later, the same on-ramp, same driver, same male passenger, same scenario. That day I was a passenger (car share is great) and when we went around, I shook my fists at her. I was so angry, and so frustrated, that anyone could be making the same mistakes a year later…. Would no-one tell her how to join a road? Would she not gather from the daily beeps that she was doing something terribly wrong?
In the UK, merging traffic have to do so at the speed of the traffic to which they are merging. 100kph road, they must join at 100kph if safe to do so. Of course if the traffic is going slower then they must join at a slower speed.
Also traffic merging/joining from a slip road in the UK IS the GIVE WAY vehicle. If they cannot safely pull out they must wait until they can. There is not an automatic right to join the flow of traffic.
A friend of mine was in an accident where the vehicle joining the motorway did so at far too slow a speed and caused a minor pile up of 3 cars already on the motorway. While the idiot joining the motorway did not suffer any damage to themselves or vehicle their licence did! As they caused the accident, and the motorway cameras saw it, I believe there insurance also coughed up, as it could be proved that they were ultimately liable.
Charlie – The same applies here: You must use the acceleration lane to build up speed so that you match, as near as possible, the general speed of the traffic in that lane.
Rustyshackleford – So therefore, the minimum is, in effect, the general speed of the traffic on the motorway.
Neilferguson1701 – Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply there was nothing about what you said in the ROTR – I meant that it was courteous, sensible and had a strong legal basis in that you would be ‘reading the road ahead’. Because of that, there is in fact a statement in the ROTR that says you may also use this [the outer] lane to accommodate traffic merging from the left. I was attempting to draw attention to a situation where a ‘golden rule’ of staying left is not compulsory in certain circumstances. There are others.
I have noticed this also people start to brake coming on to the motorways or dual carriage ways . At one point i was behind a car that actually stopped to pull out waited for a gap and then started to accelerate slowly. I merge to a dual carriage once to twice a day i have noticed that a lot of drivers on the inside lane are actually going quite slowly, by this i mean i would be traveling faster than the actual user of the lane. This is where the minimum speed would not work, in most cases if the merging lane is ending you have to brake to enter the lane. I also find a lot of people do not know how to react when they find a car merging, they do not know if they should brake, pull out or just keep going. But in my experience i find people do not know how to enter the motorway more so than drivers allowing people to merge
Yes I agree with most here. Those merging have do incorporate with the traffic on the motorway. Drivers already on the motorway can use the overtaking lane to accomodate them, but they aren’t bound by any rules of the road. Just courtisey. However it’s not always possible to do so as it is the overtaking lane and others will be using it. At the end of the day we all have to use the road so lets help each other as much as possible