While driving through Dublin this morning I noticed two things that got my mind spinning. When did it become alright to break a red light? And why do some people just stop in the middle of the road, especially at busy junctions to let somebody in or out of their car?
Earlier this week I complained about people not using merging lanes in the way they were designed to be used, the week before it was people not indicating, and now it’s this – when will my complaining stop?
Here’s the red light scenario from earlier today. I’m driving through town and making my way to the Stephen’s Green car park in Dublin 2. There are two lanes, one for turning right and one for straight on. The lights are red (not changing from orange to red, they were unmistakeably and one hundred per cent RED). I was preparing for a right turn and waiting patiently for the green filter light to let me go.
The lady on the left, for some unknown reason, got fed up and decided to just roll on through. I couldn’t believe it, but then seconds later some fella sneakily passes me on the inside and does the same thing. Is this okay? Had they been stopped by a member of An Garda Síochána would the man in the second car have pointed at the lady who did it first and say, “Well I saw her do it, so I assumed that the extremely red light was actually green”?
There’s not much opinion I can offer to this first scenario, other than to say that this is not okay. There was a junction there, a blind junction at that, and there is no excuse for doing what they did.
The second thing I noticed is about people stopping their cars randomly in the middle of the road to let people in and out. In this type of scenario somebody stops their car, usually just after a junction or a corner. They generally don’t pull fully over to the kerb and they leave a line of frustrated drivers behind them who don’t have enough room to over-take, or a line of people who are hoping to get through the lights at said corner. Again, there’s not much I can say about this, it is a bad mannered thing to do and it causes endless frustrations.
What can be done to stop this type of behaviour? Personally I am a firm believer of educating. Schools should have motor education as part of their curriculums. At the age of seventeen, people in this country are given access to a car, which is over a tonne in weight, with very little experience or knowledge of rules of the road. It’s not just about rules of the road though, some of this stems back to the simplest thing in life – manners, and they cost nothing. If the powers that be in our country seriously looked into compulsive education at a secondary school level we could start to look into teaching; methods, rules, and best practice to our future road users – gradually this might alleviate some of the bad habits and stupidity from our roads.
That’s it, my rant is over. I can now enjoy my weekend and watch the Six Nations without having these heavy burdens on my chest.
