CONTEMPLATIONS

The idiosyncrasies of driving in Ireland

Are Irish drivers good drivers? Well, it’s fair to say that we’re reasonably safe drivers - Ireland has the fourth lowest road deaths per head of population in Europe. Certainly anyone who has driven abroad will know that other nationalities can be far more aggressive and take bigger risks than you would typically see here. And although there is always room for improvement, the majority don’t speed excessively, adhere to drink and drug driving laws, and wear their seatbelts.

But good drivers - as in drivers who know and adhere to the rules of the road, while also being alert to potential dangerous situations? Maybe not quite so clear cut. Certainly we have a few unique characteristics about our collective driving that don’t appear anywhere in the RSA’s Rules of the Road and are likely to perplex anyone from abroad driving here for the first time.

For example, our reluctance to drive in the left hand lane of three lane motorways. The rules are clear - you should always drive in the left lane unless you need to overtake a slower vehicle or vehicles, or unless the lane is blocked. However such is the determination of so many drivers to rigidly stick to the middle lane that the only obvious conclusion is that they believe this is correct practice. We don’t have many three lane carriageways in this country - which might be as well seeing as how little the inside lanes are used. Though of course they are useful for those middle lane aficionados who move left to undertake another vehicle before moving out into the middle lane again…

Another unique feature of Irish driving is our use of hazard lights to acknowledge a vehicle that has accommodated an overtaking manoeuvre by keeping left or moving on to the hard shoulder (normally followed by a retuning flash of the headlights by the driver of the overtaken vehicle). Nothing wrong with this, it’s nice to be nice as the man said, but for some car drivers, flashing the hazards seems to have become more important than actually executing the overtaking quickly and safely. I’ve seen violent lurches and drivers cutting in on the vehicle they are passing such is their eagerness to ‘thank’ the other driver. Some take it to the next level, acknowledging every vehicle they overtake regardless of whether they assisted the overtake, and on at least two occasions I’ve seen cyclists pedalling well in on the hard shoulder getting the old ‘thank you’ from overtaking motorists.

A first time visitor to these shores might also wonder about our lighting up habits, particularly the preference for some to spare the life of their dipped headlights by driving with parking/ side lights only. Not quite as prevalent these days as in the past as daytime running lights (DRLs) have become more standard, nonetheless there are still plenty of drivers out there who seem to think that a pair of 5 watt bulbs can illuminate their vehicle sufficiently in poor visibility. Another peculiarity to this country is the penchant to combine parking lights with fog lights instead of dipped headlights, even when driving in full darkness.

We’re also a little unusual in that we take strong offence to being beeped at or flashed at. Whereas in most European countries it’s accepted as a means to alert another driver to a situation (and is practically compulsory if you’re in places like Italy), it can be a quick way to induce road rage here.

Ultimately though, these are relatively minor idiosyncrasies and we can be thankful that Ireland is a relatively safe country to drive in. Which is what’s important at the end of the day.