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| Here’s me, driving home to Dundalk today along the M1 from Dublin … |
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and here’s the cars in front of me … (Note: pictures were taken quite safely and quickly with a mobile phone) |
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A minute or so after this picture was taken, the traffic slowed a bit and became more condensed together. There was a line of traffic at least 20 cars long sitting in the overtaking lane with only 2 or 3 cars in the left-hand lane in the same length of road. I can never, for the life of me, understand why people do that - sit in the overtaking lane while NOT overtaking! There should (at LEAST) be signs along the motorway saying “right-hand lane for overtaking ONLY” and more gardaí on the road enforcing it.
Later on, after I’d gotten past this - admittedly, by overtaking on the left (- or “undertaking” as it’s been referred to a couple of times on boards.ie) in a few cases, the traffic slowed down even further with a long line of cars going very slowly in the right-hand lane. The idiot at the front of this line of cars was holding a mobile phone to his head and was both driving slowly and wobbling a bit from side to side. He should have been pulled over and fined on the spot. And possibly kicked around a bit. Gah.
Once again, I believe we need more gardaí on the roads pulling over bad drivers who inconvenience and annoy other drivers. It’s all very well having the penalty points system - it has to be enforced.
Anway… rant over…
*EDIT*
Note: in light of certain comments to this post, I need to make the following points:
1. I didn’t take the pictures above. My passenger did.
2. I’ve read the rules of the road and article 19 in the Road Traffic General Bye Laws (1964) states that it is acceptable to overtake on the left:
(c) in slow-moving traffic, when vehicles in the traffic lane on the driver’s right are moving more slowly than the overtaking vehicle.
- which WAS the case here.
3. This is my blog. It’s not a high traffic site by any means, but it IS mine and I WILL delete any spam or rude/ignorant comments which appear and I’ll disable commenting if I feel it’s required. I don’t feel I need to explain myself for that and I honestly don’t see why I should care about any of these comments I delete or the opinions of the people who write them.
7 Responses to “Idiots on the roads…”
Practise what you preach Mr.Okeefe. Irish law states that you are not permitted to use your mobile while driving a vehichle, that includes taking pictures even if you are so very very careful. Also go read the rules of the road, under-taking is bad practise on the motorway, and its worse than the fast lane hogger. Its people like you that cause accidents on motorways by taking pictures and undertaking!!!!!!
I have responded to FIVER_DIVER’s comment in the edit at the bottom of my post above.
Also - (in response to another person whose comments I’ve deleted - NOT FIVER_DIVER), If you’re going to be rude or ignorant in your comments, they will simply be deleted, so don’t waste your time. You’re not wasting mine as I’ve plenty free at the moment. Cheers!
To be honest Im with you here - drivers in Ireland are shocking. I saw a dude in a big merc driving at 100km suddenly slam on his brakes, for no reason. As I went to overtake I noticed that he was answering his mobile and hence the braking.
Fair play for your rant.
Thanks for your comments, Steve!
So coming back from Waterford today and there’s a car full of feens in front of me doing a steady 90 on a section of the N25 with a slow lane. As I approach I indicate and pull out into the outside lane and we pass a sign saying end of slow lane 400m. Grand. I’m approaching him, perhaps just 5m behind and he pulls out right in front of me. No indicator, nothing. Luckily there’s no following traffic and my braking suddenly didn’t cause danger to anyone. I follow this driver all the way past Middleton heading into Cork and try to overtake again. He’s steady at 95, and I go to overtake as before, and he’s not letting me pass him out, we’re both at 110 level for some 200m perhaps, so I pull in back behind him - what a right langer he is for ccelerating when being overtaken. Up ahead traffic is crawling due to an earlier RTA so off he pops into the outside lane that’s almost clear, trying to get ahead. As I said, a right langer. WHY!
I travel this road regularly and I simply do not understand the logic of driving for miles in an overtaking lane but not overtaking. One evening on the way from Dublin, I undertook (wait for it) 32 cars in c.45 miles. This was irresponsible lunatic lane changing at 200kmph, but simply travelling in the “slow” lane at 100 / 120kmph and passing the idiots in the overtaking lanes. I’ve always felt like going out into the overtaking lane some day and sitting there at 90kmph just to see what the attraction is.
One day I was driving the dual carriageway from Limerick to Ennis only to be immediately stuck behind a jeep in the fast lane going at exactly 96.7 km/h. He sat there for the entire length of the dual carriageway, with his full lights on and front and rear foglights on. I did the only mature thing that anyone would have done and patiently followed behind him and signaling him to move over. After about 25 minutes I finally had enough, undertook him, and very carefully pulled out a safe distance in front of him and very gently slowed down to 60 km/h. Every time he tried to overtake I speeded up and so kept him behind me for the rest of the trip, with the occasional waiting a little too long at a junction with no traffic and him going mental behind me.
You see the problem with people blocking the fast lane is that they know what they’re doing. They know that everyone will say “no, i will not sink to his level, i am a mature adult”. The signal that sends out is “go ahead and do what you want, there are no consequences, I will take everything you throw at me and more”. I did not at any stage tail him, try to outbrake him or in any other way endanger him. I merely used the exact same tactic he has been using on every other road user and to my absolute joy and delight he was totally apoplectic with rage.