Learner Driving in Housing Estate

H

Happy Girl

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Our estate is being innundated with learner drivers, driving schools and testers (between 40-50 cars per day) doing their three point turns and reverse manoeuvres from 8.00 in the morning until after 10 at night. While I fully appreciate that learner drivers have to practice somewhere (God knows I was there myself many years ago) however our main concern is the safety of our children in the estate and this road where the drivers are has to be crossed by the kids to get to the large green area. We have contacted the driving test centre and put our case to them but they replied that we are on of the listed sites for these two manoeuvres & that they would only use these places for tests approx 6-8 times per day. If we have probs with driving schools & individuals we should take it up with them. However the question I am posing here is does anybody know what legal entitlement we have to tell one of these learners/driving schools that they cannot use our estate.
 
In my driving test a few years ago in Cork, two ladies stood behind my car on three occasions so that i could not do my reerse around corner. they were obviously protesting and I can see their point of view completely, i think reversing around a corner is a very dangerous thing to do anyway and i would be very worried if my child was playing in an estate where that was happenening. i hope there is something you can do
 
Thats what you get for having a good surface on the roads in your estate, they dont come to my estate. The car would get a right doing with the amount of potholes!!! You know that yourself!!!
 
I'd would have thought drivers taking lessons or a test are likely to be about the safest drivers on the road!
Leo
 
Leo said:
I'd would have thought drivers taking lessons or a test are likely to be about the safest drivers on the road!
Leo
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As a alearner myself I would agree with you on that. :)
I for one am extremely cautious and uber vigilant when driving in estates where there are kids. That said some kids will just walk out on the road looking straight at you and not move, grrr:mad:
 
Leo said:
I'd would have thought drivers taking lessons or a test are likely to be about the safest drivers on the road!
Leo
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I dont want this issue to become a discussion as to whether L drivers are safer driver than ordinary drivers or not. My take on it would be that L drivers certainly would be the most cautious which is different from the safest. But that is not the issue here. The issue is that there are unacceptable volumes of cars queuing up to do their 3point turns and reverse manoeuvres on a road that leads across to our green area. I personally do not feel for one moment that one of these drivers will reverse over any of the children. They do however block the view of oncoming cars which has potential for accidents. Anyway even aside from these issues, the point is that we do not want 40-50 extra cars daily in our 40 house estate, that we maintain and look after and take great pride in.
 
how about approaching your local TD / County Council & addressing your concerns with them?
 
I can't get in or out of work on Saturdays or Sundays with all the learners in the industrial estate so console yourself that they don't just target housing estates.
 
If the residents' association is concerned about this they could approach their local council or TD and make their concerns known. Failing that approach which more than likely won't work, as even in an estate , the road is a public one, then maybe the residents need to think about making the area less user friendly...........eg park all cars on the road outside the owners houses. Park in such a way that reversing around corners is difficult, and place kids bicycles and plastic toys etc as obstacles in the middle of the road.
One estate I know did this last to slow down drivers with great success. Remember those driver schools are running businesses , so do whatever is necessary but legal to look after your own area , they'd do the same if it was affecting them.
 
Brianne, Brill idea. Had considered getting some residents to park on areas concerned but the kids toys, bicycles etc. great idea. Tks. Will certainly give it a go.
 
Happy Girl said:
Brianne, Brill idea. Had considered getting some residents to park on areas concerned but the kids toys, bicycles etc. great idea. Tks. Will certainly give it a go.
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Great until a child decides to run into the road to retrieve one of these toys. The learner drivers will probably keep out of the estate when the funeral is leaving it.
 
The children in the area which did this knew the purpose of the exercise, had no interest in retrieving ancient toys that up to this were languishing in sheds and furthermore children of an age that would dash out into traffic were never allowed out anyway without their parents. The end result was a much safer estate.
 
The learner drivers driving into our estate do so at a much much reduced speed than the residents, many of whom seem to be either landing or taking off when they turn the corner. ( Tell me this isn't the case elsewhere too ) Bring on the learners I say.
 
Out of curiosity which estate/area is it? i don't think there's a whole lot you can do apart from go to your TD. Personally the learners should realise that practising reversing around the same corner the whole time might not be a good idea as there could be roadworks/crash/anything on the day of the test and they might have to go to a different estate!
 
Nimbyism writ large here, you state you don't believe the learner drivers will cause any accidents so what's the problem, where do you want learners to learn? Where did you learn to drive? Did you ask the residents there before you drove around? People should learn to calm down and not get so het up about non issues.
 
dereko1969 said:
Nimbyism writ large here, you state you don't believe the learner drivers will cause any accidents so what's the problem, where do you want learners to learn? Where did you learn to drive? Did you ask the residents there before you drove around? People should learn to calm down and not get so het up about non issues.
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I think the point was quite clear...

Happy Girl said:
....our main concern is the safety of our children in the estate and this road where the drivers are has to be crossed by the kids to get to the large green area. ...
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Its a public road (unless the developer still has it) so theres nothing you can do. Other than parking (legally) to make it awkward for them. Unless of course they are driving dangerously in which case you could report them to the Guards.
 
Happy Girl said:
the point is that we do not want 40-50 extra cars daily in our 40 house estate, that we maintain and look after and take great pride in.
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FYI Happy Girl - the extra traffic ( small learner driver cars ) will not do any noticable damage to the roads - our roads would need virtually no maintenance if it was only cars using them - it is the heavier vehicles that damage them. My point is that I don't think an approach to your TD along " the Wear and Tear to road " route is the best plan.

I agree with other posters that your best best bet is to legally make the site less attractive to the test schools by parking etc

good luck - as one with small kids I understand the concern
 
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