Driving in Ireland — sometimes you have to make up your own rules

Posted on Monday, September 13, 2010 at 01:54 PM

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If you've ever driven in Ireland you might well believe that there are no rules of the road only some general guidelines that you can ignore at your pleasure. Well, that's not quite true; there are rules of the road and they're even enforced, sometimes rigidly.

Yet recently the Dun Laoghaire County Council, which is responsible for the roads in the southeast part of County Dublin, created a situation that I don't think is covered by the actual rules of the road. They have established a 4‑Way Stop.

I know Americans (& Canadians too, I believe) are used to the concept of a 4‑Way (or All‑Way in some places), but I've never seen one here before. Generally speaking you will find round‑abouts here. And there. And just about everywhere.

The round‑about is just about ubiquitous. However, the intersection where this new 4‑Way Stop has been set up is, I'm guessing, not wide enough for a roundabout so the County Council just put up stop signs (minus the helpful "4‑Way") on the primary, busier road. They already existed on the smaller road.

However, nobody driving through here now seems to know how to treat the 4‑Way Stop. From what I've seen it's a mixture of (a) people on the bigger road just ignoring the new stop sign and (b) people on the bigger road slowing, sometimes stopping, but always acting like they have the right‑of‑way and blowing through before a car on the smaller road has a chance to move.

For all I know those who stop but act like they have the right‑of‑way could well be right. I could find no mention of 4‑Way Stops in the rules of the road. Still, when I pulled up there over the weekend I came to a stop and waited for the car on my left to go. {Note 'left' - I adjusted my 4‑Way instinct for driving on the left. Clever, no?}

What happened? Well, the driver looked stunned and took a bit of encouragement to go and the people behind me began tooting their horns as if I'd just waited for a pedestrian to cross in front of me as I made a turn off 2nd Avenue in Manhattan.

I was unfazed and smiled in the knowledge that I was the only one around who knew how to handle this 4‑Way phenomenon. I may even have shaken my head slightly in the way an adult might when a child has blurted out six or seven wrong answers to a question.

It was later that I started to wonder if I was actually right about how this Irish 4‑Way Stop should be handled. That thought and my fruitless search have wiped that smile right off my face. Still, this is just another one of the fun aspects of life here - getting a chance to make up your own "rule of the road."

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TheYank | Sep 23, 2010, 09:51 AM EDT

Ajreaper,

Near where I grew up in the suburbs of Albany, NY there is one big, well known traffic circle, which was changed a few years ago to be more like a roundabout. NYS law differentiates between traffic circles and roundabouts regarding right-of-way, etc.

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TheYank | Sep 23, 2010, 09:48 AM EDT

Dublinjas,

I don't disagree on the roundabouts, but I also got the sense in recent years that there was a competition among some local councils to see which of them could put in the most ridiculous roundabout.

Some truly unnecessary roundabouts have been added to the roads of south county Dublin the past 5 years or so.

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TheYank | Sep 23, 2010, 09:45 AM EDT

Monsoonman,

I still remember May 1985 when my college roommate & I flew to England for a few weeks spread between Britain & Ireland. I was outside the terminal at Heathrow Airport about to cross the street.

I gave my usual quick glance right and started for the far side. Just as I heard the squeal of shrieking brakes I felt a two big hands grab me by the shoulders and haul me onto the curb. I turned around and saw it was a big policeman and he just smiled at me and said, "We don't like to lose too many of you at the airport, Yank."

It's his fault I'm still among the living plaguing you folks.

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Monsoonman | Sep 22, 2010, 11:40 AM EDT

Getting off the plane in Dublin and immediately getting behind the steering wheel on the left, the gear shift on the left and driving on the wrong side was a daunting challenge, especially driving on streets which weren't designed for automobiles to begin with...The rental car people gently reminded me that "we lose more yanks within a ten mile radius of the airport than anywhere else in Ireland"....I will add I almost got whacked a couple of times crossing the street as a pedestrian, looking first left when I should have looked right.

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Dublinjas | Sep 13, 2010, 10:58 PM EDT

Traffic Circles or as we call them Roundabouts are a very efficient way of maintaining good traffic flow, Much more so that stop and go type of junctions, When I done my driving test in a London Transport double decker bus many years ago they challenged your nerve by requiring you to negotiate the Roundabout at Hyde Park corner at Rush hour 9am. If you failed to enter and exit correctly you failed the test, With a lot of luck I passed.But that is the ultimate in Roundabouts, It was featured in the Griswalds European Vacation.

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Ajreaper | Sep 13, 2010, 02:15 PM EDT

LOL, John while 4 ways stops are very common here in the states drivers often are confused over who goes 1st or next. Right of way is determined by who got to the stop 1st or in the case of 2 drivers arriving at the same time the driver to the right has the right of way. Simple yet often results in down right confusion. I actually teach Driver Education to high school students and in a video I have showing a traffic circle the example used is one outside of Dublin- not very common, particularly in the western U.S. but they are starting to crop up here and there.

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