It may be congested as hell, but Dubliners sure do love taking the high road.
We all know a desperate driver with strong opinions about how terrible all the other motorists are. They’ll pull a muscle ranting about bad parking, tailgating and those Padre Pio stickers, but the moment they’re behind the wheel it’s a different story.
If you’re living in Dublin, chances are you know more than a few, because the capital ranks the highest in Ireland and the UK when it comes to hypocritical drivers.
According to a new survey carried out by Imperial Car Supermarkets, Dublin motorists were found to be the most guilty of bad driving habits, which they tended to complain about when those habits involved other drivers.
Which either means, Dublin is the most hypocritical, or the most self-aware and honest, since they were willing to admit these things.
How’s about that for a deflection? It’s how cities survive.
The ‘Hypocritical Driver’ Survey asked several questions to motorists in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, including a list of their pet hates on the road, how often they admit to doing these things themselves and what kind of advice would they give to their kids when it comes to driving.
The most annoying habits were, inevitably, not indicating, inconsiderate parking, driving “drastically” under the speed limit, using a phone while driving and tailgating.
Overall, 35% of people asked were exemplary drivers who claimed that they had no bad habits at all when driving. 26% of people admitted to engaging in bad driving habits at least once a month and 20% said once a week.
According to the survey, Dublin was head and shoulders above the rest when it came to “bad habits”, followed by Southampton, Birmingham, Cardiff and London.
On a more concerning note, however, 42% of Dublin drivers surveyed admitted to using their phone whilst driving, with just under half doing it at least once a week.
The survey follows an equally worrisome recent study conducted by AA Car Insurance, which found that one in 12 Irish motorists admitted to using their phone on an occasional basis while driving at flowing speed on open roads.
Interviewing over 6,000 Irish road users, in total, 5.48% of the respondents admitted to occasionally using their phone, while 1.42% admitted to regularly doing so.
0.83% said that they used their phone while driving in flowing traffic on a daily basis.
60% of respondents admitted to using their phone while stopped at a red light.
This came after An Garda SÃochána released their latest road stats, which revealed that the number of fatalities on Irish roads in 2018 has reached 16, with five having taken place in February alone.
