Well, we might as well be the worst drivers in Ireland when we finished second to Dublin following a recent survey carried out by the AA on 7,000 drivers.
This comes following a recent judgement by the National Geographic Magazine, saying that Donegal is the coolest place to live in the whole world.
Wasn’t he lucky the man from the National Geographic that he didn’t run into one of the AA’s 7,000 on his way around the coolest place in the world?
The AA have their say on what 7,000 driver think of the driving in Donegal, and it’s not good.
So can both of these titles live together in the one county? I have to say I am as proud of Donegal as the next man or woman but have to be honest and say I can see this problem from both sides of the coin.
The price of being beautiful!
So at the flip of a survey the coolest place in the world has suddenly become the second worse place in Ireland to drive. How could this be the same place?
I have included a picture of Rathmullan that I recently captured at the end of a great days weather. It’s not hard to see how places like this make Donegal so amazing to visitors.
A view of Rathmullan pictured from across Lough Swilly, just one of the sights that people think is so special about Donegal as long as you can put up with their driving. Photo Brian McDaid
It’s a different story if you are stuck in the traffic on a sunny Sunday afternoon trying to get to a location like this.
The majority of drivers that use the roads of Donegal except the volume of traffic on Donegal roads and plan their journey and by now know to expect delays at peak traffic times. The majority of drivers on Donegal road respect other road users but it only takes the one disrespectful driver to change the attitude of the drivers around him or her.
It’s so easy due to the action of one driver who decides to pass a line of traffic, to flip the button on other fellow drivers who in seconds can developed into a road battle.
Our two neighbouring counties, Leitrim and Sligo fared the best in the survey and as a regular visitor to Galway I would have to agree with them. Unfortunately for me is more to do with businesses closing down in small villages like Ballincarrow in Co. Sligo that make these places so quiet and peaceful where the only bit of life that you are likely to see is the speed van sitting in the the closed down petrol station and convenience store in the middle of the town.
I wonder if the AA Insurance, who carried out the survey will give the people of Sligo and Leitrim a reduction in the their next car insurance based on the survey they carried out.
Bad driver
The examiner looked out over his glasses at me. After a short pause he said, on this occasion, “Mr. McDaid you were unsuccessful in your driving test.”
“Unsuccessful! Unsuccessful!”, I screamed silently into myself, “how could I be unsuccessful?”
He placed my test sheet in front of me on the table, it was covered in black biro pen marks. It’s was like a nightmare to me. I couldn’t tell him that I was driving for nearly 10 years even though I was still only 17 years of age. The examiner started, “driving too close to parked cars. No use of rear view mirror, failing to give way at a yield sign.”
These were just three of the faults that the examiner pointed out on my test paper. My late father was the man that taught me to drive. Mirrors was the most important thing to him, adjust them before you go anywhere he always said. Then if he seen you moving your head when you were driving he would say, didn’t I tell you about your mirrors.
My mirrors were adjusted perfectly on the day of my test, so well adjusted that the examiner never even seen me looking into them! When I did my test in Letterkenny there was two-way traffic on the main street. Outside the post office was the narrowest part of town. I was so proud of the way I judged our Hilman Avenger down through that part of the town.
I could put that car through the eye of a needle, my examiner will be so impressed with me, or so I thought.
Crossview
I had to ask the instructor where on my test did I not yield to traffic and he told me it was on the High Rd. at Crossview House. I remember saying to him I did yield when I had a good view down the Port Rd when I could see if there was something coming up!
I was so mad with the driving examiner that day. At 17 years of age I felt that I even was a better driver than him, even though I never seen him drive.
It wasn’t long until I was back to resit my driving test again. I so wanted to show the examiner how good a driver I really was, I was taken back a bit when I realised that it was a different examiner on duty for my second test. I was very aware of the faults in my driving test from before so I made sure the tester saw me looking in the mirror at all times. I gave the parked cars at the post office a wide birth this time, and made sure I came to a stop at the yield sign on the High Rd.
We completed the test and walked in with the instructor to the office.
This instructor didn’t wear glasses, “Mr.McDaid on this occasion you were unsuccessful in your driving test.”
I couldn’t even look at the tester as I heard that sentence finishing that included the word unsuccessful. Why is this happening to me? What can be so hard for me to understand about something that I just love to do?
My instructor left my test paper down in front of me.
Now he was pointing out my faults, driving too slow on the road, lane position and a general lack of confidence on the road were the factors that gave my second tester enough information to conclude that I wasn’t ready to pass my test.
He even suggested that I try to get more experience driving on the road before I apply for my next driving test. I never felt as low as the day I left the carpark of the brew offices on the High Rd.
That day and days after I went over the “what ifs” in my head again and again and figured that if I had the second driving examiner for my first driving test I would have passed with flying colours.
Location location.
So after a gap of a year or so and a new MK3 Ford Cortina of my fathers, I was applying for my driving test for the third time. A friend of mine suggested that I had developed too many bad driving habits and was too familiar with driving around my home town of Letterkenny.
They suggested that I do my test in Donegal Town where I wouldn’t be so familiar with the roads.
So now I am heading through the gap in search of a piece of paper that says I am good enough to get a full driving licence.
I pulled in along the road just to check everything was in working order before I got to the test centre. I went to make an adjustment on the passenger seat when the back of it collapsed into the back of the car.
In our wisdom to look cool my brother and I fitted high back seats from a 2000E Cortina only to find that the back on the seat was loose, as a temporary measure we were using the passenger seatbelt placed around the back of the seat to keep it in place.
As a last minute desperate measure I placed the spare wheel in behind the back of the seat and adjusted the seat back to where it was a tight fit and then covered the spare wheel with my coat.
Things went from bad to worse when I realised it was my first examiner, still looking out over his glasses at me who was now about to examine my driving on my third attempt. We both got into the car with very little communication and were out the gate of the test centre and away on my test around Donegal Town. “What if he ask to look at the spare wheel?” I thought, “nah they would never do that.”
So we’re are back at the office again. The examiner is taking a lot longer to get organised today as he closes his clipboard and looks out over his glasses at me again.
On this occasion, Mr McDaid (long pause) you were successful in your driving examination and I am happy to say you have passed your test.
Angry Bird: Our motoring man completed with his L plate who failed his driving test twice before getting it on his third attempt.
I never was as happy to pass my driving test on my third attempt. Like myself looking back to those days of my driving test I thought I was a great driver. I could do a perfect hill start I could reverse and do a perfect three point turn. I could even double clutch going up a hill in my father’s ESB lorry. All of these meant little or nothing when I went to sit my driving test.
I thought my driving would be enough to cover me in passing my test, but like the 7,000 that considered Donegal to have the most aggressive drivers outside Dublin in their survey, my driving at 17 was aggressive and my tester was right to look out over the top of his glasses at me and say you need to consider other road users as well as yourself.
Happy motoring folks
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