L plates

J

jango1975

Guest
hi all ,just want to tell everyone bout my experience with L plates over the weekend
my car was in getting a service over the weekend,so i was driving the wifes micra she is on a provisional and has her L plates up,the way other drivers treat L PLATES and learner drivers shocked me i have a full licence 5 years now,from friday to monday i was driving it round dublin , people hate being stuck behind L drivers ,i was flashed at,overtaken at the first chance ,i was in the pheonix park on sunday and was nearly ran off the road by a guy trying to overtake me on a small road ,it was an shock to me i really feel for first time drivers, now have people really no time for L drivers
 
Interesting, my son had L plates up for a few months then got his test (yippee) . I was driving car as you were several times while L plates were on it. I found the worst time was when stopped at junctions. I was constantly getting beeped at flashed to move on even when I ( as a driver with almost 30 years experience ) did not consider it safe to proceed. I agree with you fully.
 
I've 16 years driving experience, I can still remember back to when I had L plates - I was a right bag of nerves.

Nowadays, I'll go out of my way to accomodate a learner and be tolerant of them stalling / hesitating / making mistakes etc.

I am shocked to read of your experience.
 


Me too!!!
 
i was and still ,im not messing either ,i feel it would be better and safer not to have L PLATES up i know its the law etc ,i think learner drivers get a lot of bad press im starting to wonder if they have it wrong about learners,my wife is a nervous wreck driving over people beeping and rushing her,i had no idea until i drove the car how bad it was out there
 
I have L plates on my car but I have to say I don't notice much negativity on the roads towards me. Though I do know it exists and I think its shocking. You would swear these people were born as fully licensed drivers! They forget what its like to learn to drive!

One incident I did experience though - one time I was out taking lessons in an official Irish School of Motoring car (complete with massive "L" sign on the roof!). I was stopped at a red light and I stalled slightly when the traffic lights went green again and this idiot behind me started beeping me like mad! When I say I stalled slightly, I mean I didn't move off for about 4 seconds literally!.
I just thought this fella was the height of ignorance if ever I saw it. I couldn't believe it!
 
I experienced the same when I put L plates up whilst my sister was insured as a learner driver in my car.
The difference in attitudes was shocking - I literally couldn't wait to get the L plates off when I got home
 
I got beeped at the lights the other day - it rarely happens to me im normally quite observant at lights but was lost in some conversation about a woman or a car with the guy alongside me. the light turned green and immediately I got beeped - well I didn’t like it at all and I took my dam good time pulling off Next time I feel iv been beeped unnecessarily I will be getting out to see what the problem is –

“hello sir/miss is everything ok? You beeped me there with the speed of light as the light turned green is there something wrong?
No nothing wrong?
Oh right I thought you were warning me about something. Ohh look the lights gone red again"

ohh i dont have L plates
 
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joeysully said:
I got beeped at the lights the other day - it rarely happens to me im normally quite observant at lights but was lost in some conversation about a woman or a car with the guy alongside me.
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Thanks Joesully,
While stuck in traffic I have often wondered what men talk about in cars when they are alone together, always seems like such intense conversation as you observe from the gridlock! lol
But on the topic, I think there has been a serious slide in courtesy on the road in general in the past decade and L plate cars may be just one of the targets of the serial beepers, it seems that some drivers evaluate what the other vehicle is and who is driving it before taking a decision to say merge dangerously in front of it or other sometimes unnecesary or dangerous antics. So is the answer better enforcement? we may hate the Nanny State but we sometimes act like brats in need of our noses being wiped!
M
 
Its an absolute disgrace how people behave on the roads anyway but if you have L Plates up its even worse. My OH was learning last year and using my car so L Plates were up - I definitely noticed more people trying to overtake me, more beeping at lights. I just ignored it all.
I had a similiar experience as Dee101 - and the instructor got out and started giving out to the people in the car behind, they sped off laughing.
I always mosey along slowly behind a learner driver, and leave plenty of space, and Id never beep one at lights - whats the point - if someone is nervous and you start hassling them they are only going to get more nervous and take longer to do the manouver!!!

I also think older people in larger cars think they own the roads compared to younger people in smaller cars. I was almost run off the M50 recently by an ignoramous who attempted to overtake me on the left just as my lane ended so he almost sideswiped me (he shouldnt have been overtaking on the left at all), and then proceeded to beep me from behind, at the next opportunity he overtook me in the correct lane, shook his fist at me and beeped again. He was an older man in a large merc, i am a younger woman in a small ford - he was absolutely in the wrong but I wonder would he have tried what he did at all if Id been in a larger car? (the L Plates are long gone - were not up for this incident)
 
I've often thought the Gardai would make a fortune (especially in speeding fines) if they drove an oldish small car with L plates around the place at the speed limit. When I was learning it always amazed me that people felt the need to overtake just because I had L plates.

Driving school cars are another matter though. I have encountered a couple of frustrating ones lately. The main one being on the back roads between Lucan and Blanch at rush hour. This road (after the leisure centre) is narrow and windy. Driving school car, with learner doing about 30kmph built up a crazy line of traffic until of course some idiot tries a death defying illegal overtaking of about 6 of us (I was 2 cars behind the driving school car). Terrifying stuff, and stressful to drive in.

We all have to learn somewhere and sometime granted, but rush hour learning really needs to be a couple of lessons on when the driver has at least some confidence. So I blame the driving schools for that one.

I have no problem driving behind a learner as long as they don't scare me!
 
Fully agree with OP. Im driving with a provisional licence at the moment, mainly my parents Avensis... and people treat me with such contempt.

My main gripe is with speed. I've driven Mullingar-Athlone several times. Speed limit is 80kph and i do 80kph most of the way. Its a dangerous enough road with sharp bends... but yet even when im driving at the speed limit people constantly overtake - often very foolishly... they drive right up against you... and intimidate you.

My gf, also learning to drive has been called every name under the sun. Recently a artic driver past her out and wound down his window to give her the fingers as he drove past at 100kph! Crazy! Firstly it was wreckless driving on his part, secondly she was doing well over 80kph on a normal west of ireland road... not a motorway or anything...

My parents take down the plates when im not around because they get beeped at and intimidated.

The horrible thing is, it's typically wreckless drivers who do the intimidating and it only encourages already nervous learners to do dangerous things...

Without a doubt the biggest culprits (in my mind) are 'professional' drivers... vans, lorries, taxies... they are so dangerous and self rightous!!
 
The safest and most effective response is to avoid contact with your heckler. More than anything, they want to know that you've heard and acknowledged their gripe.

For leaner drivers in particular, it's important to maintain concentration on the road ahead and to ignore unhelpful distractions. Doing so will also annoy the offending party. Confrontation only makes things worse.
 
Staples said:
More than anything, they want to know that you've heard and acknowledged their gripe.
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Can be fustrating when their 'gripe' typically is that i've erred on the side of caution rather than speeding out a junction and in the process delaying them a precious second.
 
I never had L plates on my car when I was learning, and I never had any hassles on the road.

I put them up just to do the test and got beeped at twice while doing the test, so in the space of 40 minutes.
Once was by a resident who wanted me to refrain from doing my reverse around corner until she had left the estate (fair enough, I read the other thread and I understand it could be annoying to have this in your estate all day every day) and once was at traffic lights by the car behind me, beforethe lights went green!
 
jango1975 said:
i feel it would be better and safer not to have L PLATES up i know its the law etc ...
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I agree with you, when my son started to learn I insisted the L plates went up, but I couldn't believe the attitude of many other drivers. I was beeped at, flashed, tailgated, cut in on from the right, cut in on from the left, you name it. The worst were van drivers. Whenever I hear someone saying that their son or daughter is learning to drive I tell them about my experiences. Most of them have come back to tell me the same thing is happening to them.

Eventually we left the front plate up but left the back one flat on the rear shelf, as if it fell off the rear windscreen! It's amazing how other drivers' manners improved after that

However, I must say that I had a very nice experience one time while the plates were up. A very nice driver saw I was about to reverse into a fairly tight parking space, he quickly stopped his car in a loading area across the road, jumped out and held up oncoming traffic while I parked. As it happens, I'm pretty darned good at parallel parking so I performed this manouvre flawlessly, and the guy gave me a big smile and a thumbs up Kind of made my day actually! So there are some drivers out there who are decent to L plate drivers.
 
Has anyone seen the Dara O'Brien stand-up dvd?

he recounts a story of when he was learning to drive (he was over 30). He was getting a lesson in the instructors car & he stalled at a set of lights. He got beebed by the BMW behind him, then calmly pulled up the hand break, got out of the car, went back to the (small) driver behind & asked what the problem was.

BMW driver then got quite nervous with this big Irish lump leaning in his window & mutterd something about him not leaving when the lights turned green.

O'Brien then went on to ask Mr BMW if he thought the giant pyrimad of L's on the top of the car meant the driver was loush (sp) and did not leave because he didn't feel this green was right for him.

very funny (must be the way he tell's it)

a good DVD too i would recommend it.
 
I have my own response for those who beep me when I'm at lights. Put the car into reverse. You can see the look of horror on their face when they see the reversing lights come on.

NOW you've got a reason to beep sunshine, hehe
 
Pique318 said:
I have my own response for those who beep me when I'm at lights. Put the car into reverse. You can see the look of horror on their face when they see the reversing lights come on.

NOW you've got a reason to beep sunshine, hehe
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Good one. Specially if you're driving a Hummer or Landrover
 
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