driving debate

Started by pullhard, August 15, 2013, 09:43:49 AM

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pullhard

Do they French plod not give slow drivers the lights to give them a move on??

This debate is interesting as we have moved back and forth between compulsory retesting (aimed at older drivers) to people going too slowly on the motorways. There is a correlation between the two. 

Would anyone be apposed to compulsory retesting? And why?


Bud Wiser

The Biff !!  Now there is a name from the past on this board? Same Biff of about 15/20 years ago me wonders?
" Laois ? You can't drink pints of Guinness and talk sh*te in a pub, and play football the next day"

The Biff

Quote from: Bud Wiser on August 15, 2013, 04:38:02 PM
The Biff !!  Now there is a name from the past on this board? Same Biff of about 15/20 years ago me wonders?
Same one Bud.  Now I only speak/type when I'm well bothered, or idle.  Are you still pitching up in Delaney's?  Sure it was never the same after they re-routed Ballycullen Road.

We better not get into reminiscing about the good ol' days before the Nordie Invasion around here.  Maybe they're only annoyed with the slow elderly drivers in NI.  Down here, we like life in the "Slow Lane" .... in "The Land of Time Enough".
Never argue with a fool; He'll bring you down to his level and then beat you on experience.

JUst retired

As someone who has driven an average of 50.000 miles a year in my job in a company car. Has a driving licience clear from I started driving,in the early 60`s,I find a lot of the previous comments so stupid. You fools who advocate older drivers are a danger on the roads need to wise up.I can confidently say I would beat any of you in a safe driving competition any day. I would be in England 3 -4 time a year driving on the M1- M6- M25- M18 to name but a few. All you need is common sense on the road,something young drivers do not have at times. By the way I am 69 years old. A road is not a race track,I don`t need these fools  in their wee cars with the big exhausts,slowing down and waiting until the car in front has gone far enough in front so they can speed up to hear the exhaust noise only to have to slow down again on the next ramp.
Good post Bud Wiser

All of a Sludden

Quote from: pullhard on August 15, 2013, 01:04:48 PM
How do you feel about compulsory retesting?

Good idea, but I can't see it happening for various reasons.

I would be more in favour of proper enforcement of the law as it stands. No tax, no insurance etc, crush the car. Tow away illegally parked cars and charge the offending motorist accordingly. I could be here all day, but the laws are there, but we do not have a police force capable of proper enforcement.
I'm gonna show you as gently as I can how much you don't know.

pullhard

Quote from: Bud Wiser on August 15, 2013, 04:23:09 PM
DRIVING TEST EXAM – LEARNER LEVEL FOR GAA BOARDERS
Q1.  You are driving along a motorway and you come up to a car driving at 50Mph. Do you (a) take up the "Hamster Position"  where you sit up real close to the steering wheel with your knuckles white on the wheel and curse the day that person ever got a licence for the next 100 miles or (b) do you use the width of the motorway and overtake and go on about your business?

Q2. You have this fixation that falls short of shooting pensioners to keep them off the road but you would like to see them do a speed test because if they are travelling at 50mph they are a danger to HGV's.  The law in Ireland on motorways is that all HGV's must travel at 80Kmh or 50mph maximum on motorways.  Which is the biggest danger (a)  the person carefully driving along at around 50mph which is the speed the HGV should be doing in the first place, or (b) the trucks that travel at 100+kmh, almost double their speed limit and outside their braking capability?

Q3. You have just bought your first or second car and along with all the flash wheels it has a CD player. You are in a hurry to nowhere that is a life and death matter and you want to listen to your music and you need to put in a new CD. You do this on a slip road while you are travelling at 75mph (120kmh), the maximum speed for a motorway. There is an accident ahead of you and the ambulance is loading a person onto a stretcher (or there is a slower driver) and you brake hard and avoid a serious crash. Are you (a) Stupid but lucky, or (b) Think you are a hero for avoiding a collision?

Q4.  You are coming out of Newry heading Southbound on the M1 and you are driving  a car with English registration plates.  About 30 miles on you see a sign that says 120kmh and you say to yourself (a) Oh, they have metric signs down here, that means 75mph where I come from so I must obey and drive carefully, or, (b) to hell with them and their metric signs, I will floor it up to 120mph and if am stopped I pretend I didn't know, and I don't really care anyway because I won't pay the fine?

1. the toruble is that people like this often feel its safer to drive in the middle lane which blocks up the rest of the road. If they motor along at 50 on the inside it causes trucks to overtake them, blocking up the motorway. Prehaps there should be a min. speed limit on motorways for cars?
2. Driving at 50 on the motorway maybe careful but its dangerous. If the drivers reactions or confidence dont allow them to drive any quicker than they should not be on the motorway as they are danger to themselves and others. I wonder what the distance covered between a car doing 50 and one overtaking at 70/80 is?

Points 3 & 4 are different debates. Both just poor driving

All of a Sludden

Quote from: JUst retired on August 15, 2013, 04:48:22 PM
As someone who has driven an average of 50.000 miles a year in my job in a company car. Has a driving licience clear from I started driving,in the early 60`s,I find a lot of the previous comments so stupid. You fools who advocate older drivers are a danger on the roads need to wise up.I can confidently say I would beat any of you in a safe driving competition any day. I would be in England 3 -4 time a year driving on the M1- M6- M25- M18 to name but a few. All you need is common sense on the road,something young drivers do not have at times. By the way I am 69 years old. A road is not a race track,I don`t need these fools  in their wee cars with the big exhausts,slowing down and waiting until the car in front has gone far enough in front so they can speed up to hear the exhaust noise only to have to slow down again on the next ramp.
Good post Bud Wiser

Excellent post.

Although I haven't been driving quite as long as you, I have held a full clean licence since the mid 80's and hope to keep it that way.
I'm gonna show you as gently as I can how much you don't know.

pullhard

Quote from: JUst retired on August 15, 2013, 04:48:22 PM
As someone who has driven an average of 50.000 miles a year in my job in a company car. Has a driving licience clear from I started driving,in the early 60`s,I find a lot of the previous comments so stupid. You fools who advocate older drivers are a danger on the roads need to wise up.I can confidently say I would beat any of you in a safe driving competition any day. I would be in England 3 -4 time a year driving on the M1- M6- M25- M18 to name but a few. All you need is common sense on the road,something young drivers do not have at times. By the way I am 69 years old. A road is not a race track,I don`t need these fools  in their wee cars with the big exhausts,slowing down and waiting until the car in front has gone far enough in front so they can speed up to hear the exhaust noise only to have to slow down again on the next ramp.
Good post Bud Wiser

Thats, that then no more debate...

The Biff

There's a lot of presuming going on in this thread, like do all of these Motorway 50 mph drivers fit into the "older driver" category?  Have you checked each one as you pass them?  Are you sure some of them are not young lads changing CDs or Radio Stations at the time, or a young lady putting on her make-up, or a young learner driver out with his Dad taking a chance?

I'll make one presumption here that you are free to question .... an older driver doing 50 mph on a Motorway is probably giving 99% (there's always room for improvement) of his attention to the road ahead and all other road users around him.  Can you say the same for the younger folk doing 75 mph or more?
Never argue with a fool; He'll bring you down to his level and then beat you on experience.

JUst retired

No debate away, I just like to watch and read posters make fools of themselves and then prove it by stupid comments like "is there a lower speed limit on the motorway" If they don`t know by now there is no hope for them. :)

All of a Sludden

The real problem is that everyone thinks that they are an excellent driver.
I'm gonna show you as gently as I can how much you don't know.

JUst retired

I would not claim to be an excellent driver just one who is aware of the road conditions around me.I change CD`s I change radio stations, I light cigs, eat chips on occasions when the wife is not in the car. :) I have and probably will continue to do these things but I have learned when to do them.

Puckoon

Alligned with the fact that people dont understand having a license is a privilege, not a right. We are all obliged to take care of our own safety - and the safety of others on the roads. I may be wrong, but most fatal accidents are involving young males, rather than older folks.

I'd rather be frustrated with a slow driver than dead.

Oraisteach

Well, JUst, let me explain my stupidity.  When I lived in Ireland, I did not have a driver's license, but now as a resident of the US I do.  And in the US there is a minimum freeway driving speed.  Just didn't know what the NI minimum is or whether indeed there is one.  Sorry for lowering the tenor of this debate by being obtuse.  I curse my halting intellect every day.

Canalman

By the way folks, you will not see worse driving than at the various exit junctions on the M50. Be prepared for anything when some drivers find out  at the last minute they are in the wrong lane. Have seen cars swerve from the outside lane onto the exit at the last minute without a care in the world ( for them anyway) and visa versa (sic). Seen a car once knock down a sapling tree while getting off an exit to get back on the M50. It is lunacy.
Whatever you do leave yourself some wriggle room to swerve as you will probably need it some day.


50mkph/80kmh on a motorway if on the inside lane is fine imo.