AA Blog

Early days for our Speed Limits campaign, but it is hard to imagine a dafter limit than this one. Many thanks to William from Co. Westmeath for this one, which is from Ballykeeran near Athlone. Definitely a €25 winner, and an early contender for ‘Ireland craziest speed limit’.

Do please keep them coming in to publicaffairs@aaireland.ie. Photos are helpful but just send in the details in plain text if that is easier.

The AA is asking for your help to report badly set speed limits up and down the country.

Boreens with grass growing up the middle and an 80kph limit. Very safe major roads with triple and even four-lane carriageways but speed limits so low that you barely feel that you are moving. The setting of Irish speed limits has become a mess.

The AA has been arguing this issue with government literally for years. Now with the new government we have been promised meaningful co-operation at last. With help from AA Members and motorists countrywide we have a chance, we hope, to get this shambles sorted out once and for all. We will be providing the Department of Transport with a list of poorly set limits and we have been promised that they will intervene with the local authorities to have them corrected.

You can report a bad speed limit by emailing us at publicaffairs@aaireland.ie . Please give as much detail as you can. If you have a photo so much the better – we will be putting the best example up on our website and we will pay €25 for every photo that we feature.

We are asking for your help once again in conducting a major opinion survey of Irish motorists. The link below will take you to our simple on-line questionnaire. You will see that this time around we are asking a lot about speed limits. We have a major challenge here to try and get speed limits properly set once and for all, and we hope that with your help we will be able to compel local authorities to get it right.
 
To take part in the AA Motorists’ Panel Survey, CLICK HERE

We do have prizes on offer to say thanks to those who take part. This time around €500 in cash to give away. Just enter your contact details at the end of the survey and we will draw one lucky winner.

The AA is set to revolutionize the way Irish homeowners deal with home emergencies through the introduction of a brand new subscription based rescue call out service for homes ‘AA Home Emergency Response’ which launches today. Customers will now be able to call the AA nationwide to deal with any problems that arise.

Like the AA’s rescue service for cars, ‘AA Home Emergency Response’ offers its customers access to its service 24/7, 365 days a year for the most common household emergencies such as broken down boilers, burst pipes and faulty electrics. This means an end to the financial worry of call-out charges and the stress of having to find a skilled tradesman in an emergency.

If taking your car to France this summer, new french legislation due to take affect within the next few months will mean that you are obligated to carry a personal alcohol breathalyser with you at all times.   If found in breach of this new law you could face a fine of €17.  Click here to read our tips and pointers for driving in France.

Ireland’s penalty points system is undoubtedly working and enjoys broad support but when motorists are caught some are inclined to feel hard done by. In a poll of 4,000 motorists who had received penalty points at least once nearly half felt aggrieved to some extent.

46.4% of respondents felt the circumstances in which they had received penalty points were fair but a similar number, 48.4% had a gripe of some sort about the incident.

AA Ireland has announced that an impressive 17 Irish restaurants were newly awarded AA Rosette Awards during the 2011 inspection season in celebration of culinary excellence.   Of further triumph for the industry and a barometer of the quality of restaurants available in Ireland today, this figure represents a 50% increase on the 2010 season when just 11 of the highly esteemed awards were newly attained.

AA Rosette Awards are assessed as part of an unannounced overnight inspection of a hotel or guesthouse and the 17 new recipients are among just 109 properties in Ireland to currently hold the respected accolade.  Since 1956, AA Inspectors have been awarding AA Rosettes which today are graded on a scale of 1 – 5. 

Here’s something that might restore your fragile ego if you’ve failed your driving test recently!  We came across this article in the UK Telegraph  about an unlucky learner driver who has failed his driving test a whopping 92 times!  Maybe he should just stick to the bus!

Opening up the debate of whether to stop and help or to prioritize personal safety, AA Rescue has today published results of a contentious poll question which asks drivers whether or not they would kick into “good Samaritan mode” or simply keep driving if they came across a stranded motorist.  

The poll question which specifically hones in on motorists classified as more vulnerable such as a lone female, a parent travelling with children and an elderly motorist, shows that an older driver is most likely to illicit a sympathetic response.   60% of the 12,300 drivers polled by AA Rescue indicated they would stop to assist an older driver whose vehicle had broken down.  A figure which increased to 71% among the poll’s male participants.

Owners of Mini Cooper and John Cooper Works models built between 2006 and 2011 will be written to in the coming weeks to ask them to bring their cars to a Mini dealer for a replacement water pump.

The recall is estimated to affect around 235,000 cars around the world – approximately 300 of these in Ireland – and follows reports of the water pump drawing heat from the car’s turbocharger failing.  Mini say a failure of the circuit board controlling the pump may lead it to smoulder and Mini have said they cannot rule out the possibility of such a failure leading to a fire.