The Irish Mitsubishi FTO Owners Club

well , as you know i drive a lot around the city during the day but today i've seen the stupidest thing ever.

this was around 11 am .

M50 ,southbound, 2 lanes .. i was doing around 85-90 on the fast lane with 2-3 cars in front of me when we reached a car that was doing around 60-65 , and a few cars on the other lane , so we had to slow down to 60 .. after a few hundred meters the car in front didn't pull in the slow lane so everyone decided to pass her on the left lane.

As i passed behold , there was a women driving and .... READING A BOOK ! i said WTF and checked again i thought it was a map or something but it was defo a book on the steering wheel!
She wasnt even bothered to see the other motorists passing her on the left .

and you wander why people crash on motorways!

you know you were breaking the law and endangering yourself by overtaking on the inside, right?

Like youv'e never done it

Seb you should have taken her reg no and reported her to the gardai, only time before she kills someone!!

gary d wrote:Like youv'e never done it

I never do it, it's my pet hate.

colm_mcm wrote:

gary d wrote:Like youv'e never done it

I never do it, it's my pet hate.

i saw u do it

besides i hate flashing ,getting stuck on the HORN and tailgating each time a fella in front of me on the fast lane just feels like it's a good day for chilled cruising .

If people used lanes properly, you wouldn't need to overtake them on the inside,
I firmly believe that doing this makes the oustide lane hogger think they're not inconveniencing people and also doesn't make them question if what they're doing is correct. there is also the effect from seeing everyone else doing it - people will presume it's the done thing.
If there is a car blocking the outside lane, I usually keep a good distance and flash the lights, 90% of the time this works the first time. because the person moves out of the outside lane, it means the rest of the traffic behind you can also pass safely. If we were a little more assertive towards these people, they wouldn't be long changing their habits - as it is, overtaking on the inside is compounding the problem.

I realise that in some other countries, this law doesn't exist.

I like your thinking Colm. Admittedly, I would be guilty of overtaking on the inside lane of a motorway from time to time (largely due to to impatience). We should all try flashing the lights at slow-overtaking-lane-hoggers to see if it has the desired impact, together we can change the world! (or at least driver behavior on the section of the N7 between Rathcoole and Naas....).

CJ

Sebastian wrote:As i passed behold , there was a women driving and .... READING A BOOK ! i said WTF and checked again i thought it was a map or something but it was defo a book on the steering wheel!

It might have been a compelling read. lets not judge too harshly

colm_mcm wrote:If people used lanes properly, you wouldn't need to overtake them on the inside,
I firmly believe that doing this makes the oustide lane hogger think they're not inconveniencing people and also doesn't make them question if what they're doing is correct. there is also the effect from seeing everyone else doing it - people will presume it's the done thing.
If there is a car blocking the outside lane, I usually keep a good distance and flash the lights, 90% of the time this works the first time. because the person moves out of the outside lane, it means the rest of the traffic behind you can also pass safely. If we were a little more assertive towards these people, they wouldn't be long changing their habits - as it is, overtaking on the inside is compounding the problem.

I realise that in some other countries, this law doesn't exist.

I think it might be time to mount the front missile launchers.

Have to say I'm guilty of overtaking on the inside on occasion. Was forced to do it twice today. Forced because the twats were doing 80kph on a motorway. I don't think flashing the lights works. These idiots have the concept of a 'fast lane'... I'm going fast by my standards, so I'm entitled to be here. They have no concept of an overtaking lane.

I sound my horn continuously as I overtake them on the inside. This serves two purposes... alerts them to the fact that I have been forced to undertake a potentially dangerous maneuver and hopefully pi$$es them off a bit.

I know what I'm doing is illegal, but so is what they are doing. If they weren't behaving illegally, I wouldn't have to.

Im with Colm on this, its an absolute pet hate of mine. My no.1 cause of road rage. Probably because I was almost wiped out from someone doing it before.. I was on the Ballincollig bi pass and I came up behind an elderly driver in a Golf crawling along. I gave him a flash and in fairness he signalled and moved across. But there was a langer in a a brand new Lexus flying up behind me who just tried to dive down the inside instead of waiting. Poor old fella didnt have a hope of seeing him and the lexus slammed on the breaks and horn and narrowing squeezed between the barrier and the Golf. Needless to say the old guy swung back across me with fright and narrowly missed me. The crazy thing is, is that the Lexus driver came up along side me and he was starring in disbelief signalling that the old guy was at fault. Id really try never to do it, but the amount of people that dont know what the lane is for is incredible.

I remember from the rules of the road book that I learnt from, there used to be a "Keep left, Pass right" logo on every second page, yet the RSA or Gov have never put these on a sign. bizzare.

It would be great to be able to say that flashing the lights always works, but it doesnt, I've often come up behind people in the fast lane and they wont move out of my way, and when I flash they still wont, then I undertake them. I had someone once who wouldnt move and you could see by his reaction when I undertook him he was doing it to just p1ss me off. Just the way he was smirking and looked over as I passed him, prick. I find the best thing to do is return the favour to them for a brief amount of time, see how they like it.

sure your lights don't work anyway Martin

colm_mcm wrote:sure your lights don't work anyway Martin

Oh ya. Could be it.
No seriously though it was well before my HID went, so it was before last August!

I have a story to add to this..

I may come across as a total dillhole in it.. but the whole thing caused amusement to somebody else on the road.

Pulling onto the "m2" from the old section of the n2 slane side of Ashbourne some dousche in a focus decides that doing 75 in the fast lane is plenty..whilst there is nobody on the inside.. Like others here I dont really enjoy undertaking peeps.. (had pointed out to me by a gardai once that it was a dangerous pratice and it could be the cause of many many pentaly points)..

so anyways...

I do the flashy flashy with the headlights.. Nothing.. I repeat.. Nothing..

Lady behind me undertakes me and the guy in front..

I flash and beep - that gets him looking at me in the mirror - I am keeping well back.. and thank god for that..cause his reaction is to SLAM ON THE BRAKES!

That may sound like "a bit of fun" but it really isn't as there's now a rather long queue behind me..well it's atleast 10 cars, vans and the likes there of..

I brake and think to myself that it's just not worth it some mornings..Beep at your man and do the head shaking thing.. He then give me the finger and accelerate up to about 90kph at this stage more cars are undertaking both of us.. I remember thinking..sod this plank he cleary got out of the wrong side of bed or something..I wait till flaming everybody has undertaken us excet for a young lad in a mid 90s golf who seems to be sitting back just watching..

I move to undertake..

Plank moves to block..

Thankfully there's rather wide margin on the stretch of road and the corsa is more than capable at those speeds so my manouver worked and I got in front of him..He then proceeded to flash, beep throw fists and fingers all over the place.. this guy was furious or having a seizure of epic propotions combined with a dose vocalised of tourettes.

He matches my speed up to well - the speedlimit really give or take 5kph - by I wasn't going any faster than that.

still having his tantrums and now riding the bumper.. I look behind him and see nothing except the golf..who is still keeping back..
I brake slightly..

Still having fits of rage behind me.. but he adjust his distance back a bit..

10 seconds later I check the mirror again..

I should have just driven off and let him sit there on his tod..but at this stage I was quite annoyed with his behaviour and frankly I wanted to make sure he got away from this situation with somesort of experience..

so deeming that he'd be able to stop and the golfist person was far enough back that he could avoid the two of us...

I stood on the brakes. So did he.. and it seemed the plank hadn't been wearing his seatbelt cause there was contact between his head and the windscreen..only for a second.. but it was enough..enough that his flailing stopped and he moved his hands to palpate the general region of his facial features..

Happy in the knowledge that he probably wouldn't be doing that again I drove off.. quietly

The golf mean while had slowed to a stop on the hard should immediately behind the dousche .. and I was frankly a bit nervous that he could be jotting down license plate details ... however when the golfist moved to overtake 30secs later and gave me a big thumbs up and a smile as he passed.

the whole thing did make me feel like a toss pot - I totally let myself get provoked by the other guy, and I shouldn't have..

Morale of my story.. bad drivers make us all drive a little worse than we normally do.

**Apologies for lenght, girth and otherwise..**

The cheek of you in a little shopping trolley wanting to pass a real car out

Seriously, your man standing on the brakes is disgraceful. God knows what would have happened If he had caused a pile-up.

I applaud you Muad, thats a damn good story!
When I get people like that who hold me up, like that, when I get in front of them I give them a bit of a taste back too, see how they like it. But slamming on the brakes is just something I've never been brave enough to do, I know whatever happens is there fault but I still couldnt bring myself to do it.

Its such a stupid thing to do..even more so when you're not even wearing your seatbelt..

I did mention that I thought the story made me look like a plank didn't I?

Good story Janus, made me laugh.

Muad_dib77 wrote:I did mention that I thought the story made me look like a plank didn't I?

CJ