Australian Drivers

[sneakey pete]

sorry did i read this wrong?

you didn't read post 104. Basic driver training courses only ever deal with stuff like emergency braking.

[ARTZ]

you didn't read post 104. Basic driver training courses only ever deal with stuff like emergency braking.

Yeah gotcha... my missus went to one of those courses, was free with aami insurance...was a waste of time

[Peter89]

governments are too focused on enforcing road rules and making money then teaching people how to handle cars. i would be safe in saying, most drivers have no idea how to recover a car if they lost control or how to minimize damage. most people dont understand how to drive, how their car works in the current environment.

i'm not claiming im perfect, i have done some bloody dangerous things however the difference is that i knew how to minimize or correct my mistake and learnt from it. eg, brakes locked up, could feel which wheel had less grip (mix wet and dry ) and countered it out to avoid the car infront. true, my experience hasn't always been enough but it has helped in quiet a few situations.

governments wont ever change tactics though because it's expensive, doesn't earn them money and they don't want people "knowing how to hoon better".

[gmx]

What other driver's can't do it ... you can almost write and endless list of deficiencies of the common driving culture in Australia.

All they do is drive between white lines, eyes glued to their speedo and the road ahead. Oblivious to everything else.

of course, majority can't even do that properly.

My commute daily is most single lane road. The amount of dumbshits that slow down for school zones on holidays. Slow down to 35km/h in a 60 zone (as soon as they see camera warning signs).

You try tactics like getting in their mirrors or being cheeky and using the lights. They're oblivious to that too. They have no idea what's going on behind, and to the side of them. And little regard to ahead as proven by erratic and improper driving behaviour according to road & traffic conditions.

Edited January 10, 2010 by gmx

[bozodos]

I can't believe the amount of people who can't time when the green light is going to come on, or that if the next set of lights 200m ahead has just gone red, why bother getting up to 50km/h just to slow down!?

[ARTZ]

Hey SNeakey Pete your gunna love this one...

Was flying down some road out back of Macedon today, road unknown to me probably doin about 80k come over a small crest in the road and FAARKKKKKK!!!!!!! cow in the middle of the road no shit...

Well a maybe little shit, cause it wasnt actually a cow it was a stop sign at a T intersection, but just as bad...I had probably 15-20 mtres to pull her up..jumped on the anchors hard, real hard, locked up all four wheels hard, knocked back to 3rd, sliding, sideways , stalled stopped..i did manage to stop well before the intersection though, even if i was pointing the wrong way I actually stopped about 2 inches from a stop sign in a bit of a ditch..chucked into reverse, (i didnt realize it had stalled yet) and it rolled into the stop sign ever so gently....

But yeah i guess some sort of Karma got me on this one..

[R TUNE]

Our government would rather spend tax dollars on expensive dinners and holidays for its members of parliament then fix the shit roads we have throughout Australia.

The only reason why Canberras roads are so awesome is coz we have all the members of parliament down here, and there is no way they can stand spilling their glass of champagne on their pants due to a pothole in the road.

And we are the country of the bogan, bogans are overconfident and under skilled.

accerly Los angerlies road are far worse. was just over there for work late last year my god they are shit. cambered straights (heavy) fill cracks every wear. some streaches felt like i was getting a massage they were so bumby, even as bad as driveing on a ripple strip.

Darwin roads are quite good nice and smooth ( i relised this when i went back to melb were i felt every bump in a camry.

[gts-4 dreamer]

People who sit several car lengths behind the car in front of them at the lights, blocking other people who could make their way into the turn lanes if the 'tards only moved up a few inches.

Ok, not several car lengths but if there is 1m space into a turning lane, your the last car in line as a set of lights and the retard behind you decides they can squeeze their beamer through inching along in a slow sideswipe, well thats just excellent. I ALWAYS make sure that if there isn't enough room to get a car through comfortably, I sit back enough so that the genius can see that they can't, even if that means sitting up to a f'k'n meter from the car infront of me.

[sneakey pete]

Or the converse, people who won't take a turning lane even when they could drive a frigging truck through. Shits me off to no end aswell.

[scotty014]

i hate drivers, and i get angry easily which im working on. i know for a fact that im not an awesome driver but at least i know how to check my mirrors constantly so i always know whats around me and that THE RIGHT LANE IS FOR OVERTAKING!!! i cannot stress this enough, it gets me so angry. also when they sit side by side not overtaking, then when the overtaking lane is about to end they quickly speed up a bit more so they get past but dont care about anyone else. and thats the main problem, everyone thinks about themselves and doesnt care about any other motorists who might want to overtake that slow car. i flashed my lights at someone the other day for doing 80 in a 100 zone in the right lane and they didnt even notice. only when i got beside them with my hand on the horn giving the good ol finger that they realised other people are on the roads.

also what annoy's me and makes no sence is when someone does something wrong like cut you off or decides to turn into a petrol station making me slam my brakes on and of course you use your horn and say what the hell and then they start abusing you and sticking there finger up, now why the Fu*k are they abusing me when they were in the wrong if they just apoligised and acknowleged they were in the wrong like some drivers do ( and im one of them, ive done mistakes and always apoligise) the situation would end there.

[mad082]

i'm not a fan of clutch coasting. puts extra stress on your throw out bearing or whatever one it is that the clutch fork moves. it also means you wear your brakes out faster as well as use more fuel.

i also hate people who pull the handbrake up without pushing the button in. it just sounds terrible and does actually increase the wear of the ratchet mechanism, although it is minimal.

as for stupid drivers, i came through an intersection once (slowly cause it is a shit road) and could see a car ahead attempting to pull out of a park. i slowed down even more to about 20kmh as i approached. he had his indicator on and pulled out a little bit then stopped and sort of rolled back in a bit so i assumed he had seen me and was letting me past (since i was only about a car length away at this point). so i sped up a bit and went round him. as i was right next to him he went to pull out again and got this massive shock to find a car next to him and then gave me the finger with this disgusted look on his face. i'm sorry, but you just attempted to pull out into the side of me because you weren't paying attention to other cars, and you were the one at fault, not me.

[sneakey pete]

i also hate people who pull the handbrake up without pushing the button in. it just sounds terrible and does actually increase the wear of the ratchet mechanism, although it is minimal.

Yeah, might need to find a replacement one in a thousand years time when it finally wears

I also agree, its annoying when at fault people get pissed off. Last night i was heading out to viccy point in my drover and came upto a roundabout (they can't get enough bloody roundabouts out that way), car coming from the other way without an indicator swung around right so i stopped hardish, my rear left wheel must have been on some gravel (or i need to look at my brakes), because it started to lock up a little. I managed to stop in time to avoid hitting this moron, however the girl in the passenger seat gave me a death stare as they drove past. God i hate roundabouts.

On the way home (at night) i had some arsehole sitting behind me with what i think were his hibeams on. Either way, they were annoyingly bright.

[Silver_GT]

May i direct peoples attention to the following?

Good Read, and he makes good points i must say.

Driving cautiously:

http://www.anmanindustries.com/scollection...ving-lives.html

Driving slowly:

http://www.anmanindustries.com/scollection...nyone-else.html

Single lane roads:

http://www.anmanindustries.com/scollection...-max-speed.html

Stopping for trams:

http://www.anmanindustries.com/scollection...-for-trams.html

Traffic lights:

http://www.anmanindustries.com/scollection...ts-and-you.html

[bluejeans]

here peoples ego's f**king soar when they get behind the wheel, no matter what they are driving.

its personal fault alot of the time - no one else to blame apart from possibly the absolute shit condition of our roads..

[mad082]

if the roads are in shit conditions then drive to the conditions. so if the road is rough, etc, slow down more for corners. simple as that. you don't HAVE to do the speed limit just because that is what it is signed.

i have driven on some pretty shit roads in my time (thanks to living in a small town whose council prefers to let money sit in the bank rather than spending us, making us one of the richest councils in qld) and very few roads i have been on are actually unsafe. some of the ones out of town a bit that require you to drop the outside wheels off onto the dirt shoulder if a car is coming the other way are a bit dodgy (if a car is actually coming the other way) but other than that, as long as you aren't trying to be speed racer they are fine.

what shits me off though is many times i have been driving along on one of the above mentioned roads and had a late model 4wd coming the other way and they won't drop a wheel off onto the should but force me right off to the edge of the shoulder. i don't mind getting off onto the shoulder, but for them to be such a pussy and not want to get their 4wd a bit dusty for 10 seconds just shits me right off.

[bozodos]

haha marc the entire 5-7 kilometres of my gf's street are like that, it's literally a single lane road with blind crests and corners, and wide shoulders. To make it even better, the turnoff is at the top of one of these crests. Given that 3 people have died in the previous 12 months due to road accidents within a kilometre radius of her place, you'd think that Mildura Council would be a bit more proactive about laying down a bit more bitumen.

All they in fact do is occasionally fill the bigger pot holes in on the shoulder whilst using their time to make Sunraysia a 'casino free zone' and building bike hubs that no one uses.