The new learner driver regulation seems to have rid the road of those dreaded lone learner drivers, or has it?

On the face of it, it appears that very few learner drivers are venturing out onto the road, but one cannot help think that the vast majority of these drivers have discarded their L plates out of necessity, rather than a real want to break the law. Driving along the Stillorgan Road last Saturday evening I could not help but think that the driver in front was a learner driver, you know what I mean, crawling along the road watching every car that passed, in case the next car suddenly came alight with blue flashing lights. The driver stood out like a sore thumb, slowing down so that every car behind, even those half a kilometre down the road could pass in front thereby leaving the road ahead like Allied Irish Banks on a Sunday, empty. One girl told me “Since I took the L plates off the car the Gardai don’t bother stopping me. When I had my L plates on the car, I was stopped more times than I could count”. It appears that the whole of the learner driver fraternity has decided to go underground as the only method of staying on the road until they pass their driving tests. But this has also caused a greater road safety problem, as other road users are faced with learner drivers driving in a manner that enhances the likelihood of either road rage or an accident by drivers who do not see the car in front as a vehicle driven by a learner driver, therefore the courtesy once shown to that driver is lost in the chaos of getting from A to B as quickly as possible.

Individuals have invested considerable amounts of their hard earned cash in being able to get on the road, some for the privilege of just having a car as a replacement for public transport, while very many others purchased motor vehicles for reasons purely associated with the benefits of the Celtic Tiger or the nictitated migration of people beyond the outer suburbs of Dublin where commuting by public transport was not a viable option. Let’s be honest about this, having to commute by public transport from the suburbs on the south-side of the city, and into the city in order to get another bus to an industrial estate on the north-side of the city, day in and day out, is a task most people do not relish. Anyway, if everybody decided to leave their cars at home and use public transport, the demand on the public transport network would be so over loaded as to make the system crumble under the pressure of demand. Really, what we have is a public transport system that over decades, has been continuously neglected by politicians from all political parties, who paid lip service to the problem by throwing crumbs of financial investment combined with unwelcomed political interference at a system that has far reaching social, environmental and financial advantages for the state. The RSA’s driving instructor initiative pushed learner drivers (government turned a blind eye because it lined the coffers of the Department of Finance and the business community) off the road before all the proper infrastructure was in place in order to cope with the demand for driving tests, and more importantly, fully qualified driving instructors in adequate numbers, who could meet learner drivers demands for professional driving instruction. The governments put the cart before the horse, spent billions of Euro on road infrastructure and then told us we need to reduce our carbon footprint by leaving our cars at home and using a fully functional public transport system that in reality only existed on paper. Dublin Bus hasn’t expanded its fleet, it has just replace old for new, Iarnrod Eireann has ungraded its fleet, added extra carriages but has not been able to meet the growing demand across its entire network, for a public transport service that doesn’t involve packing people in like sardines during peak operating times. But don’t blame Dublin Bus or Iarnrod Eireann for their shortcomings in not being able to cope with the needs of the public for a fully functional and operational public transport service, successive governments have hindered the stifled progressive development proposals and initiatives by the state agency CIE, by reducing grant aid or making grant aid conditional on the private sector having a particular slice of a cake it sees as sweet to its own commercial needs. Privatisation means profit before people, therefore the private sector cannot provide a public transport service that spans the needs of all social classes in our society.

Very many people now live far beyond the boundaries of Dublin and rely on an asset that was handed to them by a government promoting a Celtic Tiger: the use of a motor vehicle in order to commute to work from the far regions of the country. The government turned a blind eye to provisional driving licence holders, as insurance companies raked in vast profits from learner drivers they blatantly knew were not qualified or competent enough to drive on our roads. Because of the huge profits generated from the issuing of insurance cover, road tax, fuel duty and VAT, government, insurance companies and local authorities collectively contributed to the carnage we see on our roads today, by turning a blind eye for the sake of financial gain. The difference now is that the Celtic Tiger days are over and the same authorities and businesses are now preaching to us all that WE AS DRIVERS must now pay for the incompetence and blatant mismanagement they themselves sat on when they encouraged us all to invest our money in private transportation. Hibernian now has a driving school that makes money from customers it once encouraged to take out motor insurance without having any of the necessary requirements in order to drive responsibly and safely on our roads. Motorist are being lectured by the same people (ministers) who turned a blind eye to road safety (despite protest) and issued full driving licences to anybody who held a provisional driving licence, as insurance companies clambered to offer five and six thousand Euro insurance premiums to drivers with high performance vehicles who had little or no driving experience and who held provisional driving licences, talking about the pot calling the kettle black arse.

The provisional driving licence debacle had to end, we all knew this, and we all accepted this. But what we now have is a system where people who genuinely need to use their cars in order to work and pay their bills are being forced through no fault of their own to take their L plates off their vehicles in order to draw less attention to their presence on the road. A better system that allowed learner drivers pass their driving test while at the same time took into account the sudden problems that were generated by the political

incompetence of successive governments in not planning for the eventuality of a country where car ownership would jump from just over 700,000 vehicles prior to the Tiger to over 2.5 million today. People were handed licences, car insurance and road tax, no question asked and no need to worry, that was until the tiger collapsed under its own weight and government required other ways of securing taxes while at the same time reduce the balance of payments in order to stop the economy from going into meltdown.

Asking a person in Mullingar (or anywhere for that matter) to leave their car in the driveway for twelve weeks until they receive an appointment for a driving test makes no financial sense to anybody who requires the use of a car in order to commute back and forward to Dublin. Unlike the regulations in the United Kingdom where learner drivers (the law is the law) from the very start, have come to accept and comply with a law that they can not drive on a public road unless they are accompanied by a fully qualified driver, here in Ireland authorities promoted or ignored those who drove on provisional licences, therefore we require a resolution to a problem that is not of our own making but of those in authority who used the situation for financial gain or other. Similar to a militant jihad and the beheading of innocent people, the RSA and the Department of Transport beheaded in one foul swipe and without trial, all those it seen as alien to their newly found standards. We are not like the United Kingdom, our authorities in the recent past, turned a blind eye and ignored widespread objections and concerns by the media and various motoring organisations to the blatant willy-nilly attitude of allegedly professional political representatives and their political advisors at their incomprehensible attitudes towards the problems of learner drivers, provisional driving licence holders and road safety in general. Thirty years ago people spoke about the sham that was the provisional licence joke. The idea that on a first provisional licence you must be accompanied by a qualified driver but on the second you can drive on your own, only to find on your third and subsequent licence you were back to scratch, was a stupid, ridiculous system that drew not a whimper of attention from politician who walked the corridors of Leinster House over many decades.

There is a clammer by learner drivers for driving tests, many will pass on their first test but very many will fail and resort to removing their L plates in fear of being stopped by the Gardai for driving unaccompanied. There is a distinct absence of L plates on our roads, which seems to indicate that either learner drivers are abiding by the law (which I very much doubt) or are being forced to hide their presence for fear of being hauled over by the Gardai. Gaybo may be able to hire a taxi to bring him to a garden party in the back end of County Cavan and then bring him back home again to his hall door after everybody has bowed and showered him with greatness, but Joe and Mary Bloggs living in the arse hole of Cavan, who struggle to pay a mortgage, educate their children and require their cars in order to commute back and forwards from work, so they can keep the roof over their heads while at the same time are crucified by state and local authority charges and taxes, do not need yet another Gaybo initiative that ignores or takes into account their needs as ordinary everyday people.

Why is it here in Ireland we seem to be unable to do things using our own initiative, things that work from the very start? We mimic everything from TV quiz shows (and make bad efforts) to regulations that work in other jurisdictions but are totally unsuitable for various reasons in our own jurisdiction. We place a stainless steel snooker Q in the middle of O’Connell Street and nobody has the balls to say it’s a piece of shit that over time will eventually be pulled down. Nelson’s pillar was a functional if unwelcomed symbol in the middle of the street. People paid to climb its stairs and gaze out over the city. A more modern version of the pillar, let’s say the Pearse memorial pillar compromising of an central pillar and an outer circular glass carriage that was electrically hoisted to the top of the pillar thereby giving people a breath taking view of the city, would be functional, self financing, a tourist attraction and something that belonged and enjoyed by all the people of our country. Instead some shit arse decided Ireland wanted to celebrate the Millennium by erecting a steel stick in the middle of the capital city. Pointing upwards it reminds everybody of how our city officials had big ideas at the start but found those ideas narrowing into what we see today, a pole in a hole. Similarly, road safety initiatives are cloned from things we see on the other side of the pond. Never ever drink and drive, that is unless you are a politician who can say sorry and continue on his or her’s merry way, as you and I are hauled before a judge who just happened to have a quick one before he drove to the courthouse to administer justice on those who kneel before him and beg for his mercy.

Where have all the learner drivers gone we may ask or as Gerry Adams would say “They have not gone away”, they have just changed their appearance and now work in the background? When Gaybo said the Gardai would use their own discretion when applying the law, it opened yet another chapter in the case of an Irish answer to an Irish problem make the laws and then apply those laws on a case by case, day by day, individual by individual basis. Tell the people the laws apply and then use the nod and wink approach in order to confuse people even more. Tell the people the law will apply from Monday but on Tuesday the Gardai will use their discretion. In this way if road fatalities increase and learner drivers are the cause of these fatalities then at least the Gardai can be hung out to dry by the minister or the RSA for not upholding the law. Either way the Gardai are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. But conflicting information continuously streams out from within these authorities as if they are not quite sure how their great ideas will work in the real world.

There are 2.5 million motor vehicles on Irish roads today, majority of households have two or more cars and an increasing numbers of people commute to their place of work from distances never seen before the days of the Celtic Tiger. What took working class people decades to do in other countries was instantly achieved by the vast majority of Irish people, through the governments Celtic Tiger financial feel good factor encouraged everybody to promote the Tiger and buy, buy, buy. The motor industry boomed, the service sector went into overdrive and the government reaped in the taxes and duties on everything from a hand wipes to a luxury motor vehicles. Irish road construction companies with the brown envelope consent from government were unquestionably encouraged to submit cost estimates for work that would cost half as much for similar work done in other EU jurisdictions. As the money poured in to government coffers, nobody within the walls of Leinster House asked about the future consequences such wasteful use of public money would have when the boom days were over. The hotel industry bloomed as their greed made them want more and more profit, as they disposed ( real patriots)of their Irish labour force in favour of cheap foreign labour that does not demand proper standards of employment and is available 24/7 sometimes without a break. Now when you want a drink in an Irish hotel you now need to have knowledge of Polish or some eastern European language. The craic, the chat and the friendly Irish smile is now replaced by faces that has a given function and very little beyond that, and the hotels reap in profits that shame their willingness to pay their foreign workers a decent wage, thereby brightening up their life.

You may say what has all this to do with learner drivers going underground? Well when you think of it, if our collective bunches of Irish political representatives were directors of Ireland Inc. and the people were the shareholders then the positions of very many politicians in that company would become untenable. While I have the deepest respects for Mr Byrne as a broadcaster, his quality and experience as a broadcaster is unquestionable, but I must question his ability to chair a position where he has no real practical or

professional experience of anything to do with motoring and road safety. There again I cannot blame Mr Byrne for this shortfall, one must question the ability of those in authority to appoint a person based on their professionalism in the field rather than their public popularity as television or radio broadcasters. There is absolutely no doubt about it, the whole learner driver debacle was handled poorly and badly by people in the highest of authority. Not only did they get the initial initiative badly wrong but they then went on to complicate the problem even further by not re-evaluating the situation and coming with a solution that would gain overall public support and be seen to be fair to those who found themselves in a problem not of their own making.

We now have a situation where instead of promoting a reduction in learner driver fatalities, by forcing drivers to remove their L plates the RSA has directly contributed to a problem that could have been avoided if more thought had been placed on the consequences the hasty introductions of these rules would have on motorists who require a motor vehicle as a necessity rather than as a social advantage. Telling people they will have a driving test within twelve weeks is no consolation to the many that live beyond the boundaries of urban public transportation. If Irish driving schools had used their many years of operation to enhance the standards of their instructors to a point where the RSA had no problem in certifying all those instructors, then possibly the excuse for learner drivers not passing their driving tests would have been founded on their unwillingness to want to pass the test rather than the poor quality of instruction so many learner drivers complain about. The reality of the situations is this, of the small numbers of instructors passing the RSA training program as certified driving instructors there are a far greater number of instructors to date who have not completed the certification process despite the regulations stating that all driving instructors must be certified by 31^st December 2008. Once again the Irish solution to an Irish problem is build the house before the foundations are laid and then worry about problems as they come along. What does stand out (because of the visible lack of L plates) is the number of foreign nationals who are driving around unaccompanied on L plates. Again, possibly everybody is not aware of these new regulations and will only realise their mistakes when they receive a fine or a letter for a court appearance in the post.

Despite the good intentions of the RSA to resolve a problem that had to be resolved sooner rather than later, the speed by which the RSA wished to implement the new rules and the time factor allowed for compliance was more of a pipe dream rather than a genuine method of helping people resolve their situation and become compliant. We are all aware that prohibition does not work and just drives the problem further underground, yet many people through no fault of their own are being forced to flout the law. The Gardai for their part have been aware of this problem for many years but are now being told to uphold a regulation they themselves knew would cause problems on its introduction. The learner driver problem may dissipate over time as new entrants on driving permits become accustomed to the regulations governing the driving of a motor vehicle while unaccompanied by a qualified driver. If Ireland maintains its past ways into the future then I’m afraid the new driving permits will be seen as old provisional licences in disguise. We wait and see.

We need a list of writers (listed on site) who will guarantee the site a story on a weekly, or monthly basis.
We need to have a greater presence in the print, radio and television media. We can delegate an individual member to look after  the promotion of the site.
Seek the assistance of interested members in the legal and accountancy  professions who will look after the legal and financial affairs of the site on a voluntary basis.
Use your vast experience in the radio media world to seek assistance from other interested parties, on behalf of all those who feel part of this road safety campaign.
Place an advertsement on the site seeking this assistance.
Set up a subscription fund in order to finace media support and car window stickers promoting the site. (Use Paypal)
We may need to slightly change the name of the site in order to make its name more acceptable to people who  otherwise may not publically identify themselves as supporters or visitors to the site principally because they have to say the name of the site to others. Dont forget we still live in a conservative, Catholic Ireland where certain things are best whispered rather than spoken aloud.
One  such name could be
BADDRIVERS.com  or SHAMDRIVERS.COM

Before you decide to throw in the towel, change the name now  and lets start to  work on the other problems that  are forcing you to close down the site.  Come back,  throw us your suggestions or proposals on how we can move the site from here into the future. Let’s discuss this situation before it is too late.
Dont give up, the good parts are just beginning to emerge. As a community let us all get together and see how we can move the site along from this point.

Not only has the site highlighted the situation of bad driving on our roads, it has also enabled people to comment on the decisions made by people who are supposed to be professionals and who allegidely work in our interests.

The RSA made a mash of the Provisional drivinging licence debacle and is now pursuing the speed camera idea (authorities in the UK are now reassessing the effectivness and continued use of cameras) as if speed cameras were the answer to all our problems. In the United Kingdom, authorities are now looking at their  past decisions to use camera as an effective method of reducing speed and other related road issues. Heavy goods vehicles, truck and bus drivers are now obliged to take a test and receive a certificate of competency from the RSA before they can drive such vehicles on the road. But these sections of road users are currently obliged to take certain tests in order to drive such vehicles on the road. What the RSA has consistently failed to address is the problems associated with the taxi industry and its members blatent refusal to adher to the rules of the road.  Both the Gradai and the RSA have consistently turned a blind eye to the antics of the taxi industry  for as many years as I can remeber.  Our cities are used as bumper car arenas  by the taxi industry in their blstent display to all road users on how to  break every rule of the road and get away with it. The RSA should  be called the ETA (Easy Target Authority) for it total inability to change the way in which the taxi industry is permitter to operate with no driving standard tests, continious driving assessments and enforcment by the authority and the Gardai in making members of the taxi industry comply with the rules of the road (as operators of public service vehicles) in the interests of both the general public and its customers. The RSA consistently targets sections of the motoring public where they can appear to be making change but in actual fact are using their authority in order to secure financial reward for the state on the backs of moorists who are used as footballs by the people who see more in their power and authority rather than a genuine need to make our roads safer.

The taxi industry display a blatent disregard for the rules of the road, which can be seen for all to see, every night of every week in all the cities and towns around the country, We ask ourselves why our young people appear to have a complete disregard for the rules of the road, the taxi industry is a visible example of why nobody appers to give a shit, sure if they can do it  then why cant I. There again gaybo does not drive a car, has never driven a car, and by the way, has consistently ignores the taxi industry possibly because he has spent more time in taxis listening to people who  see everybody else as being the problem and a hinderence in their efforts to generate capital.

Mr Byrne said he would go if nothing changed while he was chairman of the authority. Nothing has changed, if anything the vast majority of people have a total disregard for the ability of the RSA to bring in measures that will lead to  an increased level of road safety and awareness across the board. The provisional driving licence debacle was a clear example that the people at the top of the Road Safety Authority were lacking in the ability to develop a plan that would be fair to those that previous governments directly contributed to the current situation.  Mr Byrne  was made a scapegoat for government and ministerial inabilities to tackle all our road safety problems without standing on the toes of those who hold a vested interest in mainaining the status quo. Mr Byrne now needs to go, the RSA has lost the respect of the public as an authority that has the interest of road safety at the forefront of its objectives to make our roads safer. It has U turned on decisions its has made  and has  pandered to ministerial interference  when those decisions  fell foul of the general public.

The driving instructor  iniative was brought in at a time when  the authority  was attempting to  force people off the road when in actual fact there was not enough fully qualified instructors  registered by the authority in order to meet the increased demand for tuition when the June 30th deadline came. Another situation by an authority that put the cart before the horse by not getting all the backup services full in place before it came out with this JUne 30th deadline. New recruits in  the Gardai now find they cannot drive back and forward from the training college in Templemore  because such action may loose them their ability to complete their training due to dismissal from the Gardai for breaking the law. Talking about building a house before laying the foundation.

The Road SAfety Authority has promoted some good initiatives since its conception, but it needs a new figure that can speak as a driver, road user and an authority on issues relating to all aspects of road safety and enforcement of the rules of the road, Conor Faughnan in the AA may be the person who as head of the RSA will be able to bring back the public confidence needed in order for the authority to move forward. One thing is absolutely certain, the longer Mr Byren and Mr Brett remain as figure heads within the RSA  the  more painful it will be for everyone to accept that road safety is not just an election  issue but a issue that qill affect ourselves or our loved ones.

Now take for example last Monday night when I seen a Garda car screaming down the Whitehall Road, blue light flashing, headlights going on and off, cars ducking and diving to get out of the way, it must be a big one I said to myself, why wouldn’t it be, the Garda was steering with one hand as he held a mobile phone to his ear in the other. There was no sat-nav in the vehicle and besides, if he had to use the phone while at the same time watch the sat-nav, who in the name of Jasus is going to steer the car? Ah ye, I forgot he has a partner, sorry my mistake. While I find the use of mobile phone dangerous when driving, I find the need to stare at a four inch screen, which at the best of times is placed away from the wider angle of observation, is far more dangerous and potentially life threatening than holding a mobile phone in your hand while steering with the other. If I’m wrong then why are member’s of a state body, which is supposed to uphold all the concepts of road safety, allowed to and be exempt from prosecution for using a mobile phone while driving a motor vehicle? Now I’m not knocking the Garda, in fact I understand their reasons for having to use a mobile phone in the course of their duty, what I cannot understand is the RSA hype about using a mobile phone while driving, especially when their thinking says a ‘wrong’ is a ‘wrong’ but under certain circumstances a ‘wrong’ suddenly becomes a ‘right’ and everybody else must accept their ‘wrong’ being a ‘wrong’. It appears to me that the cause of all our problems is due to regulations having a variety of exemptions built into their enforcement. Vehicles with CD on their number plates are a no questions asked, pass on, taxis are commercial interests so on busy nights in the city the Gardai are stood down.

The problem gets even worse when you see mammy, after collecting her little darlings from school, carefully straps them into their seat belt in the SUV and then starts to programme her destination into her sat-nav. Fingers moving at 10 miles a minute she appears to be paying her household bill on the internet. She moves away, down the road, round the corner into a cul de sac and walla into the driveway and HOME. What took her the guts of five minutes to programme would have allowed her the time to walk, thereby affording her kids the healthy luxury of walking home from school.

Watching a sat-nav while driving is similar to driving a car, while trying to clean out a glove box. If you have to direct your attention away from the wider angle of observation in order to read what is displayed on the nav screen, then the use of sat-nav’s should be made illegal. What we must not forget is that a sat-nav is similar to a television screen; its display is constantly changing. In order to view its contents we must direct our attention towards it. We must compromise other important factors in order to mentally comprehend the information that is presented to us. We must compromise on the very basic rule of driving, the important use of observation. On a motorway or a dual-carriageway the use of a sat-nav while driving can be dangerous. On two lane roads, housing estates and country lanes and road, the use of sat-nav’s are potential life takers.

So how do we lessen the problems of this new sat-nav culture? Sat-nav’s are not just associated with boy racers or yuppies trying to impress the ladies with their command of following an arrow on a display screen. Sat-navs are problems of modern times brought about by the availability of cheap functional technologies that have a habit of infringing on other aspects of life that are of greater importance. A requirement by insurance companies for their policy holders to declare if they operate a sat-nav in their motor vehicles and the penalising of such use with higher insurance premiums, may have some effect in reducing the popularity of such devices. It would also be of beneficial use for the Gardai to note if a sat-nav was present in a vehicle when an accident occurred. While waiting for the traffic lights to turn green at the junction of Dame Street and Georges Street last Saturday, I had the pleasure of watching a video called “Trading Places” starring Eddie Murphy, from the comfort of my car. Beside me was a Honda Integra with a LCD video screen secured to the dash panel, possibly pumping out surround sound in order to deafen the outside world out of his existence. There, and attached to the windscreen was a sat-nav. The driver (probably because of a nervous disposition) moved his fingers from the nav to the monitor controls and back again. I wondered why the video was playing, for the length of time we sat in traffic his hands appeared to obscure the video screen as he pressed and touched button after button, sat-nav to video screen, video screen to sat-nav, heater, demister, sat-nav, video screen. When the lights turned green he was still moving his hands over buttons as he drove away. The possible strange reasons for him doing these things could be that he did not have a real liking for the film “Trading Places” but had an idea that everybody else outside his little realm, did.

A taxi driver literally picks up a passenger in the middle of Nassau Street, what is the next thing he does? He starts fiddling with the sat-nav in front of him. What did this poor guy do when sat-nav’s weren’t invented? Is this the answer to taxi fares being so high, as drivers wander all around the city looking for a street they passed three times with their distraught foreign visitors sitting inside? We spend millions of Euro deploying Gardai on roads capable of landing Jumbo jets, in order to catch drivers driving 10KPH over the speed limit and yet we have no laws that govern the use of sat-nav’s in motor vehicles. I have often said that the main thrust of RSA road safety initiatives is not to save lives but to secure on behalf of the state easily secured revenue from the enforcement of laws that are guaranteed to be broken on a regular basis by motorists. After all, how do you prosecute a motorist for viewing a sat-nav when driving a vehicle, if the prosecuting Garda cannot prove in court that the defendant had the nav to his ear and was therefore using the nav in breach of a driving regulation? Difficult methods of securing revenue therefore don’t regulate its use.

Courtesy: Road Safety Authority

Now there are good Irish jokes floating around and then there are Irish jokes that make all other Irish jokes look that little bit less rediculous. The second provisional licence joke is but one joke that must have been thought up by the men in black over a good political drinking session that ended with the theme song from Bear in the Big Blue House being sung by all. How can anybody justify the logic behind telling someone that you cannot drive on the road unless your are accompanied by a full licence holder and then in the next breath say it’s alright to drive alone on a second licence. To add greater insult and blatant stupidity to the provisional licence scandal, on your third licence you are not allowed to drive unless you are accompanied once again by a full licence holder. Now I thought the idea of practice makes perfect means that the more one is on the road the greater the chances of that individual becoming a competent and experienced driver. What the current provisional licencing system tells me is that on the first licence you are not compentent to drive alone, on the second licence you suddenly become competent, while on your third and subsequent licences you suddenly go back to becoming incompetent.

Now this really boggles the mind when trying to understand as to why enormous emphasis is constantly placed on the causes of road fatalities, and here we have a regulation that eminates from the highest of authority, is flawed to such an extent that it makes the process of saving lives through road safety iniatives a complete farce and a joke. Once again the thoughts of commerce comes into one’s mind as provisional driving licence holders are encourage to purchase vehicles, tax and insure the same vehicles and then drive those vehicles despite the fact that they are toying with a licence that operates on the same principals as childrens play money. Insurance companies, government agencies and local authorities openly encourage inexperienced drivers to drive motor vehicles on the road, purely because its revenue into the accounts of the same insurance companies and a tidy earner for the state and its local authorities.

I have said it before and I will say it again, the Gardai are being used as a political football in the enforcement of regulations that are ill-concieved and badly thought out and to which make the Gardai look like a local branch of the political establishment. Mothers collect their children in 4X4 vehicles they are unable to reverse if they are caught in a sticky situation. Young 19 to 24 year old adults drive sports cars without any real comprehension of the handling, brakeing and power charasiticics of the vehicle, as insurance companies line up to make the monthly debits from their bank accounts and the state sends out the Gardai to make sure they have paid their road tax. Gay Byrne waffles on about all our wrongs, but makes no remarks about the shortcoming of the same authorities who consistently get their regulations wrong and who pay absolutrely no attention to inappropriate road signs on many of our roads, bad lighting at many accident blackspots and the problem of the taxi industry that nobody is willing and prepared to tackle as an ongoing problem of bad driving. Taxi’s may not directly kill people, but the standards of driving by the vast majority of members in that industry, directly contribute to bad driving practices by other road users and therefore directly contribute as a secondary sourse for road accidents.The Road Safety Authority is handpicking situations that provide a maximum revenue return for the state by using the Gardai to enforce secondary regulations that in reality would be far better enforced if the root cause of the problems were addressed as their primary priority over petty speeding checks on roads that have the capability of handling 747Jumbo jets. Last Saturday night I stood with my bicycle at the junction of Stephens Green and Leeson Street and watched wave after wave of taxi’s driving up the contra-flow bus lane without one Garda being present for the duration of my observations. Now these guys have PSV driving licences, are supposed to comply with the rules of the road as PSV operators but can be seen night after night violating all regulations with total immunity from prosecution basically because the interest of commerce takes presidence over the enforcement of road safety regulations and the saving of lives.

There are thousand of provisional licence drivers out there who due to the financial investment they have placed in purchasing a motor vehicle, now find themselves driving the same vehicles because they have accustomised themselves to driving alone on their second licence.As I write this article an advertisement sponsored by the RSA and AXA that says ‘The faster the speed the bigger the mess’, suddenly appeared on the television. Ah great, the RSA is screaming about speed while at the same time provisional licence holders are jumping from your not, you are, and back again to your not authourised to drive on the road. We now have a wig wam situation where the driver testing centres cannot handle the influx of applications for driving tests; provisional driver licence holders are still waiting weeks and months for a test while the RSA clatters-on about striking these drivers off the road in one foul swoop. Listen Gaybo, this Mickey mouse state and its political hoo-haas caused the problem by their lack of leadership and foresight at the consequences their actions of handing out full driving licences to provisional drivers without having to take a test would cause and then, having failed to learn form their blatant mistakes then went along to hand out provisional driving licences to everybody and anybody who wanted to get onto the road, purely because the state was reaping in the money from duties and taxes on motor vehicles, fuels and spare parts sold by motor dealers and motor factors.

Every death is a direct result of a political incompetence that has led to the situations we see on our roads today. W cannot blame provisional drivers (although the emphasis on driver responsibility is forcibly rammed down our necks) , nor can we blame full licence holders as they have been conditioned over many years to driving in a manner that seen the state turn a blind eye to what was going on around it. We cannot blame the Gardai for the ongoing rise in road fatalities, although when a finger needs to be pointed they seem to be in direct line for criticism from those who duck and dive away from their own responsibilities. The Gardai are obliged to mount road checks on roads they themselves know Sterling Moss would have no problem driving under any road conditions or circumstances.

It’s as simple as this; let’s go back to basics, let us look at all the other violations of road safety regulations and let us find a better way in which to enforce those regulations. The idea of Gardai in great numbers patrolling our streets is just a plaster on a wound that requires stitches. Let us start enforcing regulations that govern the use bicycles including a regulation that addresses J walking by pedestrians.

Finally, to add insult to injury, our old friend Gaybo comes out and says in response to a question on the lowering of the alcohol limits when driving, said; “Existing limits should be enforced properly”. Talking about kicking the Gardai in the teeth should we see any further rise in road fatalities. It’s not our problem, it’s the bloody guards who won’t do their job. The veteran broadcaster is like a Ever-Ready battery, low in power, is second best to a Duracell and is promoted and maintained by the use of a brand image and nothing really much beyond that. You can give the boys a job but can the boys do the job? To date the wind is blowing from the lower orifice with nothing that indicates life noticeably present from the other end.

As we move into the new year I wonder, will the RSA leave resolution of the learner driver licence debacle until the very last minute, and will the RSA then turn to the Gardai and expect them to do their dirty work in enforcing the regulations. Will these actions in turn drive a greater wedge between the good community relations the Gardai have built up with the general public and therefore further encourage a ‘them and us’ mentality among ordinary law abiding citizens? It’s time the RSA stopped picking their noses and got down to the real causes of road fatalities, which seem to indicate a real problem with the overall driving standards of motorists rather than specific problems such as speeding. It’s time for the RSA to take on the local authorities with their inconsistencies in the setting speed limits and it’s time to stop blaming road users for a problem that was encouraged and swept under the carpet until the need to secure alternative revenue was suddenly required due to falling revenues from other sources.

Speed kills, at 5 KPh speed kills, so what is all the hype about speed, as if speed was the only contributing factor that needs to be addressed in order to resolve the problem of road fatalities? Speed is most certainly a contributing factor, but it is not the main factor. A learner driver driving in an unacceptable manner at 20 KPh is as dangerous as another motorist driving on a motorway 20 KPH above the speed limit. A driver with a full licence who drives (not speeds) through a red traffic light is more dangerous than a learner driver crawling along the road and holding up the traffic. A taxi that stops in the middle of Westmoreland Street in order to secure a fare, as traffic passes on either side, is as dangerous as the taxi driver who stops at a bus stop thereby causing elderly people to struggle in order to board or disembark the bus because the driver cannot pull into the stop and the Gardai pass by. Funny old Celtic Tiger, money out strips the importance and value of life.

Operation free-flow is a stunning success

Now before anybody goes on rabbiting about operation free flow being nonsense and a waste of space, we must remember that the purpose of operation free flow is to allow public transport move freely throughout the city. Unfortunately that includes taxis that do there utmost best to make all traffic move or should I say NOT MOVE throughout the city by cluttering up lanes, driving in between lanes( punter dashing) and holding up at traffic light junctions.. There is a noticeable level of traffic movement throughout the city once the blue hats and the wagging fingers are there, ready to pounce and withdraw the old black notebook from pocket once a muppet motorist plays the same game of feck everybody else, I’ll do the same now, as I done during the rest of the year. Have you noticed the visible emptiness of box junctions now that a Garda stands at the corner of the junction? No cars climbing over one another and blocking pedestrians from crossing the road at the corner of traffic light junctions. Ah yes, pedestrian crossings nicely laid waste so that pedestrians can walk straight across the crossing road without having to go half way up the road to get to the other side. Please save all this nicey-nicey stuff for later you say, when Christmas is over we will be back to the same old two-finger jobs, horns blowing as the taxi driver stops to feck his sandwich wrapper out the window after having his lunch break at the bus stop opposite the bleeding horse pub in Camden street, as little old ladies struggle to board or disembark buses that are forced to literally stop in the middle of the road.  

Ah yes, operation free flow is indeed providing a considerable number of people with a level of relief that one can only wish for during the rest of the year. And operation free flow is also having a level of success for motorist trying to get home at the end of the evening. Although it still occurs to a limited extent, it is not as prevalent as before, to see a driver tear up the bus lane only to come to a screaming halt and then expect you and me to give way because of his or her need to suddenly squeeze in on top of you and the motorist in front of you because a Garda is at the top of the lane. Ah let me in, move, stop, let me in, ye bloody ba***** I’ll be caught, a f***** 80 Euro fine because that f***** to the right would not me in. Ever turn to your left, smile and say in your mind “ I might be two hours getting home but the cost of the wait will be coming out of my pocket and petrol tank and not pocket, tank and pocket again”.  The unfortunate part of operation free flow is when the Gardai at 18.30pm move back to base for the cuppa and the motoring community return to normality, forgetting about the inconvenience for another day. In the case of Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in the city, everything returns to chaos.

But operation free flow should not stop because the festive season is over. The RSA should switch its squandering of money on road fatality images that have no real impact in changing people’s attitude and therefore their driving habits. We have seen worse images of violence, destruction, injury and death in Freddy Kruger films or at the best of time, films that have PG ratings at prime viewing times on TV. The RSA was given a considerable amount of money to spend on road safety advertising and other iniatives, (as in the past) but this time next year the statistics for road fatalities will either be the same or even higher. At the launch of the RSA Christmas campaign I heard Gaybo waffling on about the strength of the images and the message these images were attempting to get across to the general public. Listen Gaybo the lights are on but their is nobody in, never mind listening. It’s time for the RSA to recognise that these campaigns are doing absolutely nothing in changing people’s attitude to their driving habits. I feel sad when I say this, but the advertising campaigns are having no real substantive impact and furthermore cannot be used as definitive proof that the campaigns themselves contributed to any real decline in road fatalities.

The ridiculous debacle of a lorry over turning and the city coming to a complete standstill tells us that there is something seriously wrong in the way we approach traffic management and the methods used to resolution problems that occur during the course of a typical day in our capital city. Take for example Georges Street junction onto Dame Street where a incident involving a motorist and a cyclist seen a fire brigade vehicle completely block the junction ( 17.00 hours) thereby causing a traffic jam that spread throughout the city. Fire brigades and ambulances come to a complete standstill as if all life and all activity in the city had just died and they were the only ones around to use the roads. Now I know there are situations where the emergency services unintentionally but necessarily block the movement of traffic, but all situations, even onto a cat stuck in a tree, does not warrant the need to bring the city to a standstill. The Gardai for their part can be slow to prioritise the free movement of traffic, thereby increasing the impact of the incident or accident throughout the city which may indirectly lead to other incidents or accidents as motorists jostle to avoid streets or areas of traffic congestion. Cork Street, Dublin, a fire in a premise’s caused the road (wide road) to be completely blocked off by fir brigade vehicles despite the fact that one side of the road could have been used effectively if the Gardai had taken effective control of the traffic situation. But the Gardai cannot be seen or accused of being the problem, it appears that there is a lack of communication and co-ordination when it comes to incidents that occur outside the norm. The lorry over turning seems to indicate the validity of my argument. 

Operation free-flow from next year should commence from the 1^st of November and continue until the 31^st of January. During this time motorists should be made aware (through effective and meaningful advertising) that violations of traffic regulations e.g. box junctions, double yellow lines, pedestrian crossings and bus stops will be strenuously  enforced by the Gardai. During this period motorists should be also made aware, that violations outside this period will see instant prosecutions for breaches of the rules. What we have here is a substantial lead in time in conditioning motorists to accept that the rules and regulations will be enforced. Over time the Gardai will have a reduced visible presence as motorists begin to experience a zero tolerance approach to a range of traffic violations. The problem we currently have is that we are taking Gardai away from other duties in order to control situations that in reality should be the responsibility of every motorist. In other words, when a taxi stops at a clearly defined bus stop, then instead of a Garda giving a warning and telling the driver to move on, a prosecution should immediately take place. Turn the onus and responsibility directly onto the driver which over time will see the problem become self policing.

Despite all the hums and haws about operation free flow one thing is absolutely certain, if the Garda presence was not there on our streets then the current problems with traffic congestion would be magnified ten time over. The bigger challenge is how we reduce that presence while maintaining the same or better level of compliance despite the reduction in Gardai. It seems to me that everybody wants to shy away from the enforcement of personal responsibility for ones actions. Our leaders and those in positions of authority appear to strive for other solutions to the problem rather than the solutions that are blatantly obvious and need to be pursued.

If the Gardai can impound a vehicle for non-payment of road tax, then the Gardai can do the same for motorists who have no insurance or motorists who blatantly and dangerously drive through red traffic lights. The smoking ban in public places has provided us with evidential proof that compliance is not about strength of numbers as in a Garda presence, but compliance based on personal responsibility and the consequences resulting from such breaches of that responsibility. If we really want to reduce road fatalities, murder, assault and damage to property then we have to move away from listening to the manipulated cries of insanity or the pleas of regret and sorry for the actions. The unfortunate thing about freedom is that the more freedom people have the less justice comes to people abusing that freedom. Victims of crime must stand back and accept the now regular and frequently thrown about excuse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nobody has grasped the potential advantages that operation free flow could provide in helping to reduce a considerable number of crimes and other incidents that plague this country. We have an opportunity to go beyond the initial concept of keeping public transport moving, if only those in authority took the bull by the horns and made things really happen.

Operation free flow will come and go, road fatalities will increase, the RSA will come up with other stunning advertising campaigns and life will go on as it did yesterday and the day before. People will die on our road, others will be severely injured, thugs will roam our streets and the Gardai will lock a few up as the courts listen to their cries of sorrow and give them yet another chance to get their assaults properly mastered on the streets of our cities and towns. Our country is dangerously sick and nobody wants to call a doctor.

Happy Christmas to the members of An Garda Siochana, your job is constantly made that much more difficult by powers that see what is wrong and know what needs to be done, but are reluctant or unwilling to take the responsibility that will herald in change.

 Merry Christmas one and all

 

Now I have often thought to myself, do the people in the corridors of power in the RSA view this web site and take note of the opinions and ideas expressed by the very many ordinary everyday people who have a real and genuine interest in road safety. Somehow or other I don’t think so, for if they really did, then why has nothing really changed? Like, despite all the good ideas, suggestions for change or the highlighting of problems that are blatantly obvious to every motorist in this state, nothing constructive appears to be done in order to realistically address and resolve issues that appear to re-emerge time after time. Like the typical old reliable that is continuously expected in a minister’s budget, speed, road tax and wasted advertising, play a dominant role when it comes to the RSA pushing forward safety issues as the Gardai are asked and obliged to enforce the rules, no matter how daft they may appear.

 Funny, if your car is three month out of road tax the Gardai can lift your vehicle, but if your insurance is out of date your name and address is taken, and you carry on your merry way home in a car that has no insurance. You see having no tax is defrauding the state of valuable revenue but having no insurance is a private issue between you and the deceased. Stopping motorists on a dual carriageway for driving 10KPH over an inappropriate speed limit that was set by a local authority so that a Garda turkey shoot could take place, is not my idea of convincing motorists the logic reasons behind adjusting their speed in response to road conditions, visibility and other factors that could lead to road fatalities. The unwillingness and inability of the RSA to publicly criticise local authorities for their blatant abuse of power and stupidity when addressing road safety and other road issues is in itself self evident of where the RSA stands when it comes to revenue over lives.This all appears to point to somebody getting their priorities the wrong way round. Firstly, local authorities (notably Dublin and county) are now reassessing the speed limits for very many of the roads in both the city and county. There are very many, no, far too many side roads, country lanes and roads with bends that could be classed as highly dangerous, but still some or all of these roads have speed limits set far in excess of those set on road that are well  lit up, dual carriageways and other’s. But let us not forget, once again, so called highly paid professional people surveyed and recommended these speed limits for all our roads,  as you and I are forced to pay fines for inappropriate speed limits we protest about, as the same professionals are given a second, third and fourth chance to get it right. The N7, Red Cow to Longmile Road junction, four lanes, speed limit 50KPH, Garda turkey shoot, then suddenly after a barrage of complaints the speed limit is raised to 60KPH. Was a wrong made right, what about all those who received penalty points and 80 Euro fines for a wrong that the local authorities knew was wrong but ignored that wrong because they were making big money from speeding fines. What does this say for the integrity and independence of the Gardai in uphold a regulation they themselves find reason to question.

But why go out of the city to get a first hand view in the lack of compliance and enforcement of the rules of the road. Every weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday the Gardai are visibly seen as being in stepped down mode when it comes to enforcing the rules of the road. The commercial life of the city takes precedence over compliance and safety, as taxis congest the city’s roads and give scant, if any regard to other road users or compliance with the rules of the road. Health and safety issues are swept to one side as the city becomes a free for all, as the use of hazard lights legitimises and legalises the need for taxis to stop and pick up passengers in the middle of busy streets. Let’s be very clear about this, firstly, road safety is about how the maximum revenue can be generated out of penalising motorists in the simplest possible way and then and only then, the saving of lives is used to enhance the revenue returns by enacting regulations that the authorities know motorists will be suckers when it come to breaking the same rules. I’m wrong you say, is that what you say. Then tell me where is the logic behind eight man Garda checkpoints on well lit open roads, stopping motorist for various reasons while at the same time the city sees every rule of the road broken and there is not a single Garda around to see what is going on.

 Take for example Dawson Street, one street and just one road, the road is reduced to a single lane because taxis clutter the road, bus stops are completely taken over, hazard lights are illuminated everywhere and not a Garda to be seen for dust. And this situation is repeated throughout the city and in other cities and towns around the country. If road safety is the utmost priority for the Road Safety Authority then why are the most basic and fundamental rules and regulations allowed to be broken, abused and ignored in the very heart of our capital city. Why has the taxi industry not been subjected to tests and continuous monitoring of road driving standards as a condition for holding a public service vehicle licence? Local authorities give this industry special concession in the use of bus lanes and designated parking facilities in the city. They take far less in road tax and ignore violations that other road users are immediately penalised for. And for this they are given an illuminated roof sign so that everybody can take notice that they are taxis and they have privileges that we as fully paid up road users are denied. And let us not forget taxis are not supposed to use the bus lanes if they are not in actual service, next time a Garda stops you behind a taxi ask him or her was the car in front clocking a fare or was it just jumping a traffic jam that you and I are obliged to sit in and patiently wait until everything begins to move.

What is the point in placing advertisements in newspapers and on television about getting into the correct lane, using your mirrors and signalling in time, when you are allowed to throw all this out the window just because you happen to be driving in the city? A car overturns, it roles out of control and hits a child playing in a garden, images intended to shock and change your attitude so you see the wisdom of your ways. It does not work, as a society we have been exposed to more horrific and gruesome images on TV, video and the internet. We pay more attention to the technical qualities of the production rather than the message it is supposed to implant in our brains. Like Las Vegas, the only rule you must conform to, is the rule that you spend. The bright lights of the city, commercial interests and profit means, by enforcing rules and regulations the commercial interests of business will be inhibited by a greater Garda presence on the streets and the law enforcement resulting out of that presence. Road safety is about money, it’s not about saving lives, it’s of such great public concern that the RSA actively discourages bad driving while at the same time the public is discretely and where conveniently possible, allowed to break the same rules that they themselves insist should be there and enforced in order to save lives.

The RSA made a complete and utter sham of the learner driver situation and in time will continue to make similar shams with the same learner driver debacle. Instead of having all the groundwork done and the various structures in place in order to allow for an orderly transition from an old and unacceptable system to a new form of driver training, testing and qualification, the RSA  with Mr Byrne as its chief of staff decided that in one foul swoop they would rid the country of the learner driver problem without giving any regard to the consequences such an action would have on the lives of very many people who in this modern era rely and depend on the use of a motor vehicle. This single incident proved that the RSA is no more than an office full of clerical officers who have the legalised power to dictate decisions irrespective of how ridiculous those decisions may be. Don’t forget successive government ministers contributed to the problems we see on our roads today. The handing out of full driving licences in order to reduce the queue for driving tests prove that even ministers at the highest levels of government are making serious mistakes and flaws in logical judgment, while later shifting the blame for all the problems onto everybody else thereby solidifying that blame by imposing fines and other penalties on those they choose to point a finger at  for blame, but do not recognise that they themselves were the designers and constructors of the problems in the first place.

The government placed Mr Byrne at the top of the RSA chain purely because they seen him as a national figure, a political pawn, a person everybody looked up too and a person that most people listened to whenever he spoke. But that was Gaybo of thirty years ago; young people could not give a toss about Gay Byrne or what he says. Most young people never even heard of him, while a considerable number of my generation have retired Gaybo to his rightful place in the history books. It’s absolutely mind boggling for me to sit in my car, in a traffic jam in the middle of the city and listen to an RSA road safety advertisement on the radio, as mayhem unfolds in front of my eyes and bears no resemblance to the messages coming over the airwaves. But Chris DeBurgh or Ronan Keating on the stand then all youth will listen and take note……..bull shit, nonsense. The only real things that will reduce the carnage on our roads are greater deterrents and a return to the basic fundamental rules and enforcement of those rules. Take for example cyclists, traffic lights and pedestrian crossings mean nothing, advanced training on how not to uphold the rules of the road before you purchase a motor vehicle. Pedestrians walking across roads with pedestrian traffic lights just moments away but still they play chicken with buses, taxis and other road users as Gardai walk casually by, completely unaware of what is going on around them. In fairness to the Gardai, what’s the point, sure a judge will throw the case out of court because the defendant cries his feet hurts or he has not got the energy to push the button to change the lights.

When you read the various articles on this web site one cannot but feel annoyed and aggrieved because the evidence is there for all to see, sound logical suggestions are put forward for consideration by very many people and that includes taxi drivers, but the powers in the RSA and government departments find no credence in these suggestions because those proposing the suggestions or answers are not “professional enough” or “qualified enough to know what they are talking about” hence good ideas from those non-professionals are placed on shelves, allowed to gather inches of dust and over time taken down and presented as new ideas thought up by ministers or other agencies of the state. Think of all those lives that would have been saved if the RSA sought opinion and input from people who experience these situations on a daily basis. It is like the RSA is there to solve all our problems and they alone are the only ones capable of solving our problems. Gaybo preaches to the audience not to drink and drive as a government minister is caught pissed drunk behind the wheel of a car on the wrong side of the road, and all the strings that can be pulled are pulled to lessen the impact of the problem.

Road safety is not about saving lives, Dublin city is a prime example in the promotion of bad driving that is ignored and discarded in the interest of commercialism. Every other city and town around the country boasts exemptions to enforcement because it suits economic interests rather than saving lives. Every time somebody dies on a lonely country road there is an outcry. The Gardai mount road checks in the cities, far away from the sources of the problem. The RSA begins a new road safety campaign and the game goes into overtime.

Nothing is changing and the deaths still rise. Hopefully another RSA campaign will deliver results but should it fail well then we can start all over again by finding something else to blame for the carnage. Probably this time it will be the noise of the car heater distracting the driver, therefore turning your car heater knob while driving will incur 2 penalty points and a small fine of 80 Euro, made payable to your local authority  overseas councillor travel junket fund.

Now before I’m accused of bashing the taxi’s, it must be clearly stated that taxi drivers are not the only ones who block box junctions or park on double yellow lines. It’s a common site on weekends in all of our cities throughout the country. Obviously taxis have a unique position as road users in the rules of the road book and therefore are allowed to piss everybody else off in the name of business. That’s why you do not see the Gardai in any significant numbers enforcing the rules of the road in our cities on weekends. I mean take Dawson Street last Friday night for example. The wife and I decided to go into town for a drink and just happened to ramble down Dawson Street where to our amazement the whole street was taken up by taxis parked at bus stops, loading bays and here’s the best, DOUBLE and sometimes TREBLE PARKED, which meant everybody else was ducking and diving to avoid the sight of Piranha feeding. When we rambled down to the bottom of the street, there was a box junction that in reality would have been better off painted black so that it was not so noticeable in daylight, for in the night its function was non-existent. Red traffic lights, look around, no Garda, and then go straight through. Nassau Street and then Suffock Street all the same, no Gardai and total rules of the road madness in progress.

It get’s even better when you encounter a box junction in and around a school. The box junction ahead is clear but all those loving mammy’s who cherish their little siblings safety and welfare, have parked their cars on either side of the junction thereby restricting the safe movement of other traffic in and out of the junction. Better still, if there is a corner available to park a car then why go for it, and they all line up one behind the other. When lorry drivers stop their vehicles on box junctions the obvious dumb look and remark is “Where else can I park it” or “I’ll only be a few minutes as one minute goes into two and then three and so on. One lorry driver decided to come to a sudden halt beside a box- junction on the Swords Road. On went the hazard lights (a perceived legal belief and an indication to others that the driver has now decided stop and everybody else should just move around) as cars behind start to form a tailback along the road. As cars began to swerve and turn, horns howling and fingers rising, the driver calmly steps out from the cab, mobile phone to ear and walks to the shop across the road to purchase possibly something nice to eat. Within a few minutes a motorcycle Garda came to a halt beside the lorry. Slowly rising from the seat he removed his helmet and placed it over the bar that has the blue light on top of it. Before you can say Jack Spratt the lorry driver comes scurrying out from the shop, a bag in his hand and in great panic, he crosses the road as if he was running up a garden footpath where the danger of being hit by an oncoming vehicle was impossible. The Garda’s finger is going a mile a minute as the lorry driver prays to God and pleads for him to spare his stupidity by placing the Garda in a forgiveness mode on the day.

The final outcome of this incident was that the lorry driver got into the lorry and drove away, untouched and possibly laughing.. The Garda got on with his duty and everybody appeared to be content. But what would have happened if a young child was struck by another vehicle or a learner driver got into difficulty because the lorry was positioned in such a way as to seriously obstruct other vehicles from proceeding? There is no point in hauling the lorry driver into court because a life was taken, the death would not have occurred if the proper deterrents were not only in place but were applied when necessary. There are too many inconsistencies in the enforcement of the law. What warrants a sever penalty appears to find compassion, reason and judicial leniency, while others who commit minor offences are penalised completely disproportionate to the severity of the offence. We see it every day of the week and we see it at box-junctions. Driver strays into a box-junction and a Garda gives the driver the riot act, as a lorry or a driver in a jeep casually stops at a traffic light, beside a box junction, is impeding the flow of traffic and nothing is done. The junction at Rathdown Motors in Terenure, Dublin is a classical example of drivers abusing the use of box junctions. In fairness to the Gardai, their presence at the junction conditions the vast majority of drivers to obey the rules; the problem arises when the Garda decides to move away.

As you cannot expect the Gardai to be present on every corner and on every road, we therefore must have a system whereby the deterrents that force us to comply with the regulations are in reality deterrent that we really cannot afford to receive should we breach the rules. The smoking ban, seat belts, drink driving laws, all have deterrents that force us to comply with the rules and regulations. Not taxing your car within three months of due date means your car will be impounded by the Gardai. The plastic bag tax, the smokeless fuel laws, all somewhat shock treatment and all had the desired effect. The onus of compliance and the threat of the severe consequences for breaching the rules will in turn condition drivers to comply with the law. While we resist and object to what appears to be draconian rules and regulation, we over time adjust ourselves in order to comply with those rules and regulation. Overtime what we perceived as being anti- everything, blends in to being a natural part of everyday life.

In the photos above you can plainly see that despite all the information presented to the lady driver, that she cannot turn right at the box junction from Templeogue Bridge towards Templeogue village, this lady persisted in breaking the rules and therefore breaking the law. This lady was not only a danger to herself; she was a danger to others. You may also notice that the traffic lights were red when she proceeded forward and around the bend. If this lady was observed doing this, what else is she doing on other roads and junctions when she gets behind the wheel of her car? In these circumstances it is vitally important that appropriate deterrents that make drivers think before they act are in place and are fully applied.

A more simpler and straightforward system would have been as follows;

1. Close the issuing of provisional driving licences on the 25th October
2.Hold press conference announcing the new system on the 26th October.
3.Issue new driving permits from the the 30th October with all the restriction fully in place.
4. Allow all current provisional licence holders to use their licences until they expire (2years maximum)
5.All provisional licence holders must apply immediately for a date in order to take the test and must on request show a member of An Garda Siochana a booking form stating the date of that test.This booking date must be made no later than one month after the new system has come into operation
6.The current restrictions on third and subsequent provisional driving licence holders needing to be accompanied by a qualified driver should be lifted in order for these drivers to prepare for taking the test.(this original rule was absolutely mad and had no logical reasoning attached to it) taking into account that a second provisional licence holder could drive unaccompanied.
6.First issue provisional licence restrictions should remain the same.

With this system fully in place the objectives of the RSA would be fully met while at the same time allow all provisional driving licence holders to make adequate preparation for the complete changeover to the new system.This would also relieve considerable pressure on the various driving test centres in having to cope with the sudden influx of applications for testing.

It is also very important to note that to date the majority of well established driving schools in themselves have not come up to a standard of driving tuition that warrants such harsh measures when compelling provisional drivers to seek professional help and tuition.In my professional opinion and with extensive experience and research into the standards of the vast majority of our driving schools, I have come to a conclusion that it may have been far better to address the problems of both the shortfall in qualified driving instructors and the manner in which driving schools conduct their business that has directly contributed to the skills problems we see today by many of our drivers on the road. Waiting lists for driving tests have not been adequately addressed and waiting time till range fro 8 weeks to 50 weeks in some centre around the country.The taxi industry has remained untouched, despite all the evidence of bad driving by members of that industry throughout the country.

We all want to see a reduction in fatalities on our roads but we must also not forget that a government minister sanctioned the issuing of full drivers licences to those on provisional licences without them having to take the test.These people are still on the roads and these people are just a dangerous as those who want to apply for the driving test and are prepared to take that test.

While we understand and accept that the current situation cannot go on indefinatly, there must be a gradual transition to the new system so that people(and they are human) can adapt and make provision for the change taking place.

The RSA made a mistake that was ill thought out and exsecuted. The honourable thing to do now is to give people some breathing space in order to get their house in order.
In our modern society, driving to quite a number of people is a necessity in life. Its not like the smoking ban where there was an alternative to smoking indoors.This is different. Lives may be saved but there again this rule may cause provisional drivers to commit an even more dangerous action and one which might lead to more deaths, remove the plates that announce to others that they are learner drivers and need some space.

Like the FAI debacle the RSA has also plunged itself into the situation where ordinary mere mortals now question their professional ability. Unlike the FAT the RSA have it within their own ability to admit they may have been wrong. Its now up to them.

Regards
Jim Travers

I recently received a number of photos in my email account from a resident in the Clondalkin area, who got so annoyed with what she had seen, took a number of photos of the incident at hand. Apparently a driver who was attempting to make a left turn into a busy housing estate was forced to swing onto the other side of the road because a another driver who was collecting her child from Aras Cronain school in Clondalkin(Watery Lane) village decided to park her vehicle on a bend. Now I know when space is scarce we sometimes try to make four inches fit into two, but this lady driver basically told the driver to F*** off when he told her the problem at hand and that he would call the guards if she did not move. I’ll only be a minnaaaaaaa she said. The driver said it only takes a minute for someone to be serious injured, especially a child. Ah f*** off, as she walked away totally unconcerned for the safety of other children, elderly people or anybody except her own.

Now in order to observe the problem at first hand, I made my way to Watery Lane in Clondalkin and experienced the antics of drivers who are hailed by all the insurance companies as good and safe drivers. The majority of people collecting their children were women. The majority of cars parked on footpaths, obstructing resident’s driveways, up on grass verges, parked on double yellow lines and outside premises that clearly displayed signs “NO Parking” were driven by parents collecting their children from school. Every day of the week residents living in and around the school are subjected to a park and ride scenario, that would not be tolerated by the same people, if they were exposed to the same inconvenience outside their own hall doors. From 13.00 hours until 13.45 hours, people living on adjacent roads to the school are prisoners within their own homes and road. To see if this was an isolated incident associated with a school located in an area where any form of vehicle parking became a serious problem, I made my way to another housing estate called Rossmore, just up the road from Orwell Road Shopping Centre in Templeogue Dublin.

To my horror the situation was even worse, no it was not worse, it was wors-titer (as they would say) than what I had experience in Clondalkin. With a school on one side of the road and a church on the opposite side, it actually boggled my mind to understand how any vehicle could manoeuvre down the road without something or anything that moved making physical contact with something else. It got even better, suddenly a bus appeared, slowly creeping towards the line of parked cars, the driver could be seen either trying to say a decade of the rosary or relieving his frustration by wailing at the window wipers in front of him. Twisting and turning he manoeuvred the vehicle until he came to a point where he could not go any further. Now I have often had to stop at the end of a road in order for an oncoming vehicle to pass and allow me proceed safely, but this was becoming really ridiculous. As the drive moved slowly down the road, parents who had collected their little darlings suddenly jetted out from the side parking or from the end of the road and towards the bus. Suddenly everybody was attempting to drive over, under and anywhere in order to get out of there as quickly as possible. The driver in the bus had a smile on his face as he brought the bus to a halt, handbrake ‘ON’, he crossed his hand and watched the spectacle unfold in front of his eyes. It was like a fish looking out the window of his fish tank home at a world that made him feel secure within the confines of his own existence.

After wiping my eyes in case I may have been imagining all the things I was seeing, it suddenly got even better, as vehicles began to back away from the scene, a parent with her little darlings snug and secure within the vehicle began to execute a three point manoeuvre despite cars being parked on either side of her, a pedestrian traffic lights behind her and other children appearing out of every nook and cranny in order to cross the road. It was a sight a film director could not reproduce with the best of props and facilities around him.

To finalise my investigations, I picked an SUV from the very many vehicles that took over the landscape of the area, in wait for the owner to arrive so that I could follow the vehicle to its destination. Two young children running towards the vehicle suddenly made me realise that mammy had given prior directions to her children as to the parked location of the vehicle. The two children came running to the vehicle as the indicators flashed sending the car alarm into disarm mode. One child ran onto the road and tried to open the rear door as another opened the door towards the footpath. Climbing into the car the child left the door open, as others walked the footpath swerving and weaving to avoid the hazard in front of them. Mammy quickly came along and added to the hazard as she stretched in and buckled her young darling into their seat belts. To cut a long story short, the distance the mother made to her home by car would have been better served if she had walked around the corner and crossed over into the other side of estate. Because she lived towards the end of a Cul-de-sac, it made far greater sense to walk across the road and down to the school. Instead, she had to drive around a series of turns and bends in order to get to her place of residence, a completely ridiculous journey.

This incident combined with an increasing number of other road safety incidents leaves me to believe (and I am adamant about this) that the enforcement of road safety regulations are at best hap-hazard and overwhelmingly inconsistent with the desire to reduce road accidents and fatalities. At worst the enforcement of road safety regulations are done in such a way that they cause people to question the alternative motives behind enforcement in the first place, such as revenue collection. In a recent accident where a young girl tragically lost her life when her vehicle hit another vehicle on the N7 motorway in heavy fog, the inquest returned a verdict of accidental death and suggested that authorities should erect signs warning motorist of oncoming hazards such as fog, so that they may take appropriate action and slow down. In all respects, it is my firm belief that if multiple signs were erected that lit up like a Christmas tree along the road, it would not have made one single difference to an accident that at some stage was going to happen, purely because signs alone will not force people ton use the most obvious skill they fail to use when confronted with a situation that could potentially become dangerous, COMMON SENSE. The most basic rule when driving in fog is slow down, if you are unsure about the road ahead of you, slow down and proceed with caution. No amount of road signage can replace or enhance this basic understanding of how we should proceed forward when driving on our roads.

To get back to the dual standards of road safety, over a considerable number of years I have carefully documented incidents and situations where basic common sense and action on behalf of the authorities appears to make no logic. For example, Gardai check vehicles on empty dual-carriageway at night for speeding 10KPH over the speed limit, when in reality the same roads are capable of handling speeds far in excess of the speeds permitted. In the centre of Dublin city taxis break every rule in the book and there is not one Garda around to enforce the regulations. We are told to observe the rules of the road, but it becomes very difficult when you see an industry displaying its contempt for those rules purely because it does so in the name of business. Dublin city centre or any city centre for that matter is an absolute disgrace and a scandal when it comes to effective enforcement of road safety regulations. Before we go blaming anybody, we must be clear about one thing, the Gardai are placed in limbo because there is no real commitment from either local authorities or politicians to honestly and effectively address an initial city problem that would act as a catalyst for future progress throughout the country. As a nation we have a great ability to do things in bits and pieces. Start ant the top and the bottom, at the same time do a little bit in the middle……keep everybody happy while in the long run making nobody happy.

There is a dual standard of road safety enforcement, which in the days of the Celtic tiger is primarily conditioned to the needs of business. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in the city centre there are no Gardai to be seen in any significant numbers in order to enforce road traffic regulations. The need for the state to generate revenue by using the Gardai to enforce road safety regulations in places where those regulations have not been properly thought out by local authorities is visibly evident, as Gardai are directed to perform duties outside the city thereby allowing commerce to continue uncontrolled by effective law enforcement. The inability of local authorities to show professionalism and consistency in the way they set speed limits and lay road markings is there for al to see. The obvious fact that the vast majority of serious road fatalities take place on secondary and country roads, consistently make the Gardai mount road checks on roads where speed become a secondary problem due to enhanced road conditions, lighting, signage and the ability to take corrective action where necessary. The problem comes back to the driver and the skills necessary for that driver to drive the vehicle based on the conditions present at that particular moment in time. Here we must question the willingness of the vast majority of insurance companies who offer insurance cover irrespective of the cost, to drivers who wish to drive vehicles that in reality are time bombs waiting to explode.

Ten years ago I wrote a comprehensive proposal to the then Minister for Transport for a complete restructuring of our provisional car licensing system. The minister wrote back (as did his predecessor) with a comment that the proposal was novel…..thank you…goodbye. Today we see a new minister attempting to introduce exactly what I had proposed over ten years ago. Then there was no “good idea Jim, come to my office and talk”, nothing, not even a ‘well you took the time to think it up and then write to me, so I recognise your attempts to resolve a problem that is contributing to road fatalities every day of the week’, nothing. I proposed a staged licensing system where each applicant had to achieve a set standard before proceeding to the next stage of development. I outlined the method by which this system could be implemented. A system of progressive training where driving schools played an active part in helping to develop learner driver skills. A system that produce a more confident, dynamic and proficient driver when the full licence was finally achieved. And where are we now? We have motorist on our roads that have been given full driving licences by the government without having to take a driving test and we wonder why driver testers are accused of not being proactive in their assessments of applicants. To date, and I know of other who despite their brilliant proposals, are consistently seen to be banging their heads of stone walls purely because those in authority have not been seen to be the once to come up with the idea in the first place. Its very simple, place the idea or proposal on a shelf in a ministerial office, allow dust to settle on it and in time take it down as a new imitative though up the powers that be, as the victims of road fatalities mount and innocent lives are lost unnecessarily because people in power did not want to recognise that good ideas can also come from those outside the corridors of power.

Once again one thing ties into another as drivers are asked to observe road safety regulations in one instant and are then given a free hand to drive as unprofessionally as they wish. In the city it’s a free for all, red light breaking is on the increase, speed is really not a problem, stopping and turning on your hazard lights at a major junction is a must if you want to have a chat, and all the time the Gardai are nowhere to be seen. Dawson Street is an absolute disgrace as taxis congregate everywhere, as the rights of everybody else including those with disabilities is waived to one side because the taxi industry wants to stop everywhere, anywhere in order to secure that buck. No Garda in Dawson Street, no Gardai in Dame Street and no Gardai at the top of O’Connell Street as taxis take over the city as their right to do so business nights.

We ask why does Mary Jones park her car outside a school and block everybody. Why does it appear that nobody give a damn about where they park and for how long they park. And why is it that rules and regulations are rigoursly enforced only when certain condition and situations prevail such as a serious road accident or a pile up? There is no consistency in the enforcement of road safety regulations and as a result of this motorist’s, cyclists and even pedestrians take a come day go day approach to the problems at hand.

Taxis flout the law because they are allowed to do so. Mary Jones parks her car wherever she likes because it the norm, nobody cares, F*** you. Paddy Murphy screams up the road because the maximum penalty he will receive will be an 80 Euro fine. If he pays it through the post he will avoid a court appearance and then be able to go on and scream again, only this time he will scream in a build up area where the Gardai are least to be seen. And when cars are lined one behind the other on a two lane road that was cut apart by a median in its middle, where will the Gardai be to move or prosecute the owners of these vehicles, thereby allowing other road users to comply with the rules by not crossing into a median.

Cars parked outside school premises are recipes for disasters to happen. It just takes one inconsiderate driver( and there are very many outside school gates) to push the pedal to the floor or make an inappropriate move that in turn causes a domino effect and involves other in an accident that was not of their making. When a young child is killed or seriously injured, there is no point or consolation in expressing our condolences to the family of the victim or victims when the problems that caused the tragedy was there to be seen, identified and rectified long before a life once there is suddenly gone forever.

The photos you see are pictures showing a series of event from the time the vehicle was initially parked beside the housing estate until it left Watery Lane. The owner of the vehicle drove towards the direction of Boomer”s a local public house in the Monksfield area of Clondalkin.

You will also notice the driver cutting across the road at the T junction where traffic merging from the main carraigeway road instantly comes up to this T junction. This may look bad but it is not unusual

We are told to view medians as islands or raised sections of the road that vehicles are not supposed to enter, but in reality, to a driver a median is a painted section of road that can be driven upon if necessary and therefore open to abuse and violation. Take Tymon North in Tallaght for example where a median stretches the full lenght of the estate, reducing what could be a four lane road to a two lane. On the same road and because of the median, it means that there is not one single stretch of cycle lane on the full lenght of the road. Children come out of school and try to cross the road as drivers overtake other vehicles by using the median to pass the vehicles out. Roads that have two lanes per side suddenly are reduced to a single lane as traffic wishing to turn right or left are suddenly confronted with a median that reduces the road to a single lane thereby restricting the flow of traffic to the right or left by traffic wishing to proceed on the straight. Its absolute madness and a cause of concern for both pedestrians and cyclists who are confronted with an impatient driver who will use the median in order to quicken up the journey.

As in the tragic case of the fire fighters in Bray who lost their lives in the course of their duty, in Ireland nothing is done until someone loses their life and then everybody stands up and says “Something has to be done”. Local authorities go into emergency session for something the knew would eventually happen, but still they hang on in hope, just to save a buck for the next Japanese junket for the lads. . There is a visible overuse of medians, that in reality cannot be effectively policed purely because of the extensive use such, on far too many of our roads. In adding to the problem, local authorities then erect small islands in the center of the roads, in the center of the medians and then expect pedestrians to use these points of crossing that are scattered throughout the network of medians. These island in turn add to the insecurity surrounding the safety and use of the medians by pedestrians and others alike. Similar to road signs, one sign is understandable and noticeable, two is adding to the level of attention paid to each of the signs as three and more means confusion, lack of attention, misjudgement and breach of the rules governing each sign, Medians add to the confusion by inhibiting the smooth flow of traffic thereby causing the potential for an accident and serious injury to either pedestrian, motorist or both. On the Belgard Road traffic is tunnelled into a single lane by white lines on the road that have the potential to be misjudged, unseen and therefore a potential contributor to accidents. In wet or poor visible conditions the same road marking are at best non-existant and at worst a source for concern as traffic in dual lanes are forced to sway from one side of the road to another. It is evidently clear that the use of medians and the layout of road marking on many Irish roads have not been properly assessed in order to meet the safety aspects associated with those roads. In Dublin city we see an increase in the use of medians on the roads, that present to a driver no logical reason as to why that median should be there in the first place. Local authorities lay road marking, the Gardai are compelled to uphold the laws governing the same markings, as the following week the local authorities change the layout of the same markings simply because someone made a complaint, brought it to their attention or the Gardai questioned the sanity in the initial layout of the markings and forced the local authority to change or reconsider their decision. These people are supposed to be professionals,experts in their field but slightly short of two halfpennies making a penny. Its rampant, indecision, bad planning and constant changing of road marking, road signs and speed signs. Today you get a fine for speeding 10KPH over the 50 KPH speed limit and tomorrow the local authority changes the speed limit from 50 KPH to 60KPh because they deemed the existing speed limit as inappropriate for the road concerned. In all of this the Gardai are made to look complete arse holes as local authorities change what they feel is wrong today, to what they feel is right tomorrow. Over the past number of months I have carefully monitored medians in many housing estates throughout Dublin city and have come to the conclusion that they do not work and furthermore contribute to the potential for dangerous driving and a risk to the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

When taking into account the use of medians on dual carriageway’s it can also be seen that on some stretches of our dual carriageway roads(N11 for example) medians directly contribute to severe vehicle breaking and the potential for vehicle pileups where medians force vehicle to converge into a single lane. This problem is magnified ten fold in wet or dull road visibility conditions.

It is now time we started to look at the advantage and disadvantages in the extensive use of medians on our roads. It appears evidently clear that quite a considerable number of motorists view the presence of a median on a road as a handy advantage and means of jumping the long queue of traffic ahead. The purpose of medians on the roads is being constantly challenged by motorists who see a wide open road ahead being reduced to a single lane that inadvertently promotes a tunnel vision image of the road ahead and the hazards that lye beyond their own field of vision.