More driving etiquette.

[Damo]

I see stupid drivers, they are everywhere, they don't even know they are stupid!

Rant on:

As some of you guys will know, I have had a rant about this before. I really REALLY hate it when the general public is unable to use the road in harmony with all the other road users and people going about their own lives without impacting someone elses driving.
Coming from Canberra, I am used to seeing people become very protective of 'their' portion of the road, by blocking merging traffic, rushing forward at 'form one lane' merges to get one space further ahead, overtaking in roundabouts, not to mention the use of the horn to show you are not happy with the actions of another, ect ect. I put this down to people being in a rush, not wanting to loose any more time when they may already be late as it is. I figured 'we Canberrans' as a whole acted that way because we were pretending to be Sydney and the need to be ultra aggressive just to get bye.
After being on the GoldCoast for the past 2 months, I have come to appreciate the extremely well layed out and logical nature of Canberra roads and the well signposted streets. This puts even more reasoning that Canberran's in general suck balls behind the wheel.
BUT, on the Gold Coast, it gets even worse! The roads are ordinary, road markings make very little sense, speed limits change very frequently, solid lines marked across exit slip lanes, and literally 1 in 2 people who think their indicators are too hard to use! FFS, you can be coming upto a roundabout intending to go straight through, from your right you see a car closing onto the R a B so you stop expecting to give way to the vehicle which is going to cross..........but they don't, they turn to their left, without indication, leaving you at a standstill at the R a B thinking "I wonder why 'they' think I have just stopped!!!"
On the motorway if you are a motorbike rider you SERIOUSLY take your life in your own hands. People change lanes, no indicator, no head check, and no freaking idea that you have just had to hit the ABS to avoid them. Whilst on the motorways, there is absolutely no need to stay left period, trucks included. (On the back of one truck whom was sitting in the right hand lane, "Passing side" printed on the right above the 'Don't overtake turning vehicle", on the left side "Suicide" printed in bold. BTW, I don't think trucks are limited to 100kmh like ACT/NSW.
On a four lane road, the right two lanes are chockers with everyone, if your thinking of overtaking, stand in the queue.
But, I must say, there is no road rage. I have only heard a car horn once, when someone dangerously pulled out in front of someone else. I think that the general population has come from the town mentality where until recently there were no motorways and people didn't need to stay left, so everyone treats the motorway like any other road, a free for all.

So guys, lets make a difference. Challenge yourself to obey ALL road rules, stay within the confines of your own lane (this is a huge one, the % of people that split lanes in round a bouts must be in the 90's), think of your own driving as a chance to show that your foot print on the road has NO effect on any other road user, ie: no one has to change what they are doing to accommodate you on the road. If everyone did just that, there would be no accidents, no rage just flowing traffic.
It may even be benifitial to brush up on the road rules themselves. Did you know that you MUST give way to pedestrians if you are on the terminating road and turning left at a T intersection, with the pedestrian on your left walking across the T?
"Walk lights" at the traffic lights are to PREVENT pedestrians crossing the road, as they have right of way the majority of the time, not the other way around.
You Can't enter a round-a-bout if there is anyone in any lane coming past you wether they are going to be in your lane or NOT!
A STOP sign is not a slow down sign or a give way sign, it means you MUST STOP, not rolling, not inching forward, STOP, traffic or no traffic!
Amber lights are there to show you must stop at the red if you can safely, not if you can make it across without being hit by on-coming traffic.
FFS, Indicate people! you may think there is no one around to see what you are doing, but the average motorist doesn't even know if their tyres are flat, let alone if there is someone in their blind spot.

Rant off

Damo

[tassuperkart]

Pfff..... And they call ME the cranky old man....pffff............!!
Nothing further to add on this. Damo has it covered.

Oracle

[samual]

Love it.

Just LOVE IT.

And I used to live near Canberra and used to love the roads there.

[xr6eta]

Whose not getting any lovin then hey. Mate you must be missing the blue bullet to be going off like that. When you get it up there you can just blow those mother fuckin law unabiding Queensland red neck sons of bitches right off gods green earth. Or you can just dump big puddles of oil everywhere and see how they like that. Good to see you still banging your head against that wall bud. Hope it's all going good up there, besides the driving that is. Catch ya, keep up the good ranting, I miss it.

[Ash]

It doesn't seem to matter which state your in. The majority of drivers are either uneducated or just don't give a shit.

[dexi_styles]

You haven't even seen the merging issues.

the thing i cant stand on the motorway is the motorists entering on! there is no "flow" as you say Damo. THERE IS NO-ONE DOING THE SPEED LIMIT as they enter!

NOW if your entering a motorway the entrance ramp is there for you to do the limit before you reach the end, not enter at the 50 or 60km/h you where doing on the side road! if its 110km/h DO 110km/h! the only people who should be doing less then 110km/h is Learners and Perversionals.

if your one of the people already on the motorway do us all a favour! leave the far left lane for the entering traffic to flow onto the motorway without braking. if you have to be in this lane do leave a far gap between you and the car in front so there is enough room for the entering traffic to SAFELY flow into your lane. Not doing this causes The Ripple Effect...

NOW the definition of "The Ripple Effect:
For you who don't know QLD traffic the ripple effect is where first car brakes hard but only for a short time and then continues driving, now this causes the following cars to do the same. NOW by the time you get 5 or 6 cars back the have slowed down to the point of 20 - 40km/h ON THE MOTORWAY. NOW this is effected all over the four lanes due to cars changing lanes to avoid the RIPPLE but causing it to flow into the other lanes. SO now you have all four lanes doing 40km/h grid locked for..? NOTHING AT ALL.

Things the cause the Ripples..
Merging traffic.
Broken down cars ON EITHER SIDE OF THE ROAD.
Hot girls in a yellow dress sitting by a boat on side of the road! WHILE her boyfriend gets another tyre for the boat trailer.
Looking at crashes on other side of road.

Now back to what I was on about.... There is nothing worse then having one of the biggest highways in Australia go past my place and to see all the cars only doing 40km/h during peak hour traffic.
Now there is the issue of too many people on the road during these times but if you followed a few of these rules the Traffic should be by right only doing 60km/h at the slowest point, but mainly in the left lanes. the other lanes should by right doing minimum of 80km/h.

Its not hard for you to drive with observation so when there is one of these "causes of The Ripple Effect" you can...
Make room for Entering Traffic
Do the speed limit
DON'T pay any attention to the accident that is already getting cleaned up, tow trucks and police are there so there is NO NEED TO PANIC and.... OH YEAH! it's on the other side of the freeway, 8 lanes across and in the middle there is a barrier to stop any Effect of whatever happened over there doesn't cause you to jump on your brakes and pull the rest of the motorway to a halt. "ITS AN ACCIDENT NOT A BIG ONE AT THAT! YOU'LL SEE MANY MORE BUT YOU STILL WANNA LOOK AT THIS ONE? LOOK AHEAD IN 20KM YOU MIGHT JUST HAVE TO SLOW DOWN CAUSE THERE WILL BE ONE ON YOUR SIDE OF THE ROAD SO YOU CAN HAVE A GOOD LOOK AT THIS ONE! @$#%


I Hate QLD Metro motorways
Dexi

[e15et2002]

Quickest way from Brisbane to the Gold Coast and back again is in the left lane!! No one (else) uses it. Mobile road blocks everywhere, all just driving side by side in the 3 right hand lanes... I could go on...

[amraks]

incontinent people don't even know they are incontinent.