I must admit being Irish myself that the standards of driving in this country leave a lot to be desired….
Driving appears to be a new revelation here! People seem to be under the impression that the OVERTAKING lane is called a FASTLANE… Theres no such thing. Day in, day out, I come across a**holes who are of the idea that sitting in the overtaking lane is acceptable if you stay to the speed limit.
As far as im aware not every one living here is a member of the Garda Traffic Corps. Who are the people who think sitting in the overtaking is ok if you are travelling at the speed limit??? They arent Garda and have no right to impede other drivers , where do they get their licenses ( lucky Dips perhaps ). Im sick of being stuck behind morons policing the roads when im constantly held up by them on my way to work.
I ask all who read this to observe drivers in the morning ( or when ever ) to count how many people REFUSE to pull into the LEFT LANE when a car approaches them in the overtaking lane, yet due to time constraints i am forced to undertake them to make it to work on time. They may think they are doing their part for road safety but a frustrated driver will take chances ( more so when they are held up by people who OWN the road).
These same people will then speed up to stop you undertaking them and quite happily break the speed limit at the same time…This must be the only country in the world with out a standardised learning system to bring eveyones standards to the same level. Have these people never heard of traffic flow,common courtesy,pulling into the left lane to allow others to pass?? NAHHH. I have driven in countries like germany, UK,N.Ireland even South Africa and they all have courtesy on the roads and allow faster moving cars to pass by pulling into the left lane, In fact im sure Ireland is the only country on Gods Green Earth that has a Website dedicated to shite drivers.
IRELAND PLEASE READ THE HIGHWAY CODE!!!!!!!!!!! Indicators seem to be faulty on most cars here too, i have many grey hairs from people just pulling into lanes without any indication what so ever, How can people who are BAD DRIVERS TEACH PEOPLE TO DRIVE!!! Lets get things regulated here with a standard set by the government which all Instructors must follow, Im Irish and Embarassed….
9 Comments
“thumbsy”, your article has been edited to make it more readable/presentable. Please use paragraph breaks next time!
Thanks for contributing.
In European countries where dual carriageways and motorways have been in existence for decades, people know to keep to the inside lane/s whenever possible. Otherwise the advantage of these roads - namely, allowing traffic to overtake safely - is lost.
Here, however, we are plagued by any number of pig-headed ****holes - many of whom have not even passed a test - who are so self-assured in their ignorance and stupidly that they will simply sit in the overtaking lane for the duration of their journey. I’ve I had a 4×4 with big bars on the front, and no witnesses, I’d happily ram the b**tards into the hard shoulder!
Sorry, getting carried away there. And another thing… do the coppers ever apprehend these stupid idiots? No. And why is there no advertising campaign to educate Irish people how to use dual carriageways and motorways?
In Germany or France, for instance, the police will pull anyone sitting in the overtaking lane and put points on their licence.
Undertake, pull into fast lane ahead of them and gently slow down. Speed up everytime they try to undertake you, keep that up for a while and then speed off. They get the mesage.
Is John Smith the archetypal shite driver or not? What a stupid,dangerous way to spread road rage!
I always understood that on a dual carriageway you keep left unless and until you are overtaking. after overtaking you return to left lane. But, I also understand that while overtaking you cannot exceed the speed limit.
If I’m behind a car doing 100KPH, strictly speaking I should not be overtaking him. Also, If I am overtaking a line of cars doing say 85KPH I should not exceed the speed limit while completing the manoeuvre.
So, I am a little confused about the Posters point. Should people in the overtaking lane exceed the speed limit or what???
Even though it’s not called it, the left-hand lane is often going a lot slower than the outside line. Sometimes as much as 30 or 40kph.
So, to make any real progress, you do find yourself staying in the right-hand lane for miles, as there’s no room to slip back in because so many people like driving so close to the car in front.
They probably think it’s safe to tailgare in the ’slow’ lane as they can see for miles up ahead….
Hi Builderfromhell, it just means that when the slow lane is clear that people should not sit in the fast lane at 98.56 km/h and deliberatly block everyone from going faster, this is also a form of roadrage, but is also known under the name “extreme oafishness” and will eventually trigger a response from hacked off drivers stuck behind said driver.
Enforcing the speed limit and lane discipline should be the responsibility of the Guards (as if), so we’re stuck in Mad Max land again where it’s every man for himself and STB.
That said, if there’s a line of cars going at 85 km/h you should not neccessarily tear past at 240 km/h, so no one will blame you for overtaking at the speed limit.
Theoretically, per ROTR, you should not exceed the speed limit even when overtaking however this means that on an N route (100) you will be overtaking the driver in front doing 90-95 for a long time, or won’t be able to pass at all unless there are 2 lanes or there is enough distance on a slow lane.
I tried it some months ago - sticking to the limit whilst overtaking someone doing about 95 on a dual carriageway. He was doing between 93-98 and I was doing between 97-100, I had to pull back in behind him in the end as I couldn’t pass him out, we were level for about 3 miles and then I wasn’t gaining enough distance in front to pull back in. Luckily I was not holding up any traffic.
It just doesn’t work in reality.
And staying behind someone like that is frustrating on a long stretch of road.
So yes break the limit if necessary (if necessary when overtaking), maintain control and reduce speed back to the limit once you have overtaken and moved back into the left lane. It’s the idiots how insist on pressuring you at a stupid speed.
I live in Atlanta and we have the same problem, two lanes of traffic going nowhere and a line a mile long behind the moran in front. Its so frustrating. My husband wishes he could ram the people off the road with his super duty pick up.