Rules of the Irish Road

Today as we were driving between Elms Village and Mount Charles, Ian answered a deluge of questions about the roadways. I thought you all might be interested to hear a little about them.

In Northern Ireland, white lines separate lanes of traffic from each other, usually dotted. If the line is solid, you may not switch lanes or pass for that stretch of the road. A dotted line means you can switch lanes or pass. The dots become closer together or longer to warn that doing so is not particularly safe, such as on the crest of a hill or on an entrance ramp to a major motorway. A double yellow line on the side of the road means you may not park there, but you may pull over briefly to drop someone off or to take care of some matter of business. A white zig zag means you may not do either, usually at a crosswalk. This protects pedestrians who may cross in front of a stopped vehicle and risk being hit by another vehicle which passes by on the other side. Some streets have a bus lane by the sidewalk.

Most major roads have reflectors built in between the dotted lines and on the edges of the pavement. They’re called cats’ eyes because they’re made with two round bits of glass stuck into a hard plastic case, that looks like a tiny pair of eyes. The plastic case is surrounded by a metal piece that sticks up above the asphalt, and if a tire rolls over it, the capsule is pushed down into the ground and pops back up when the pressure is released.

That’s it for now…

~Catherine