6 Annoying Things That Irish Drivers Do

We’ve all seen them, hogging the overtaking lane, recklessly occupying yellow box after yellow box – they are Ireland’s most annoying drivers.

Here are six ways sharing the road with these amadáns causes you to lose your nut.

1. Reckless Indicating 

There are those who fail to indicate, and there are those who fail to stop indicating. Type A will strike when you’re calmly cruising along a secondary road. All of a sudden, with no indication or warning, they abruptly slam on and start to turn - giving you mere moments to avoid ploughing in to the back of them. Type B indicates when they are merging on to the motorway - then drives in a straight line for six miles with the indicator STILL ON.

2. Lane Hogging

After a long day at work, you’re commuting homeward bound on the inside lane of the N11. You decide to overtake the motorist ahead when you see one – unmistakeable and insufferable, it is of course, a ‘Lane Hogger’. Lane Hoggers take up residence in the overtaking lane, they crawl along at an excruciating pace and never allow you overtake. You fill with dread as realisation dawns - you’re going to miss Fair City tonight. 

3. Blocking Yellow Boxes

All you wanted in life was to turn right, but then the Yellow Box Occupier showed up. They noticed the traffic ahead coming to a halt, they knew they wouldn’t clear that yellow box, yet they drove on to it anyway. Now, blocking your way, they sit there nonchalantly picking their nose or texting, completely oblivious to the pain they have caused you. “WHY?” you scream out as you contemplate the unfairness of it all.

4. Being Overcautious

Cautious drivers you encourage, but the over-cautious ones drive you around the bend – or rather, keep you waiting for ages just before the bend, and then drive around it really slowly. Behind them you wait, as they take the best part of a day to pull out on to a roundabout, or attempt to merge on to the M50 at 20km per hour. You’re forced to accept that you will never get these wasted moments of your life back.

5. Tailgating

These people are usually in a mindless rush to God knows where. They drive so far up your behind that you can see the lines of their concentrated frown in your rear view mirror. As you catch their angry lips cursing you, a tiny, crazed part of your brain contemplates slamming on “just to teach the fool a lesson”. You have no choice but to allow The Tailgater to overtake you and throw them a filthy look as they pass. 

6. Not Letting You Merge

You build acceleration, crank up the gears, check your mirrors, and prepare to merge. It’s text book motorway driving, and you’re acing it. Then, just as you’re about to make your move, the Merge Preventer appears in your right wing mirror. They see you attempting to merge and deliberately speed up. For a split second they disappear in to your blind spot and then reappear right beside you. Now, both of you are driving side by side, at the same speed. You look ahead and realise you only have a short distance left until the lane you are in ends. You are forced to slow down and merge in behind them, thus ruining your perfect moment, your pride and your hope for humanity. 

If you haven’t noticed any of these drivers on Irish roads, then you must be one of them – tearing around leaving all kinds of hair raising and hair loss in your midst.

Who do you think are Ireland’s most annoying drivers?

Just a quick reminder to make sure you have car insurance before driving. At AIG, we offer low cost car insurance quotes with absolutely no administration fees, so if you need to talk to someone simply phone 1890 27 27 27 or go to aig.ie for a quote today. And lastly, annoying driver or not, always remember to drive safely.