Bad Drivers & Bad Road Design In Perth

[MLCrisis]

Hi guys. This started as a reply to another post, but quickly got off track .... I would be interested in whether any of you share my frustrations - clearly some of you do from previous threads. I hasten to say that I love Perth and if this is the only problem I have to deal with in living here, then it is still a wonderful place. There are bad drivers everywhere, but having said that Perth drivers have a few idiosyncracies that drive me nuts! Here goes:

## You're the fifth car from the lights and the lights change - it takes 30 seconds before the guy in front of you is rolling!!! (In London, if you are more than a nanosecond taking off, even ten cars back, you get horns from the guy behind.)

## The people whose God-given right is to drive in the right hand lane - no matter what.

## The people, often also of the latter category, who form mobile road blocks with someone on the inside lane. People, if you are in the outside lane, then you are ov-er-tak-ing, which means you go faster than the car on the inside lane, then you pull in in front of them. Matching speeds is not an option!

## The people who drive up behind someone turning right (or a bus that has stopped) and just stop. Even though the other lane is clear and they could easily go around them. The skill you are lacking is called an-ti-ci-pa-tion.

## Roundabouts are your friend - they help traffic flow and avoid more traffic lights (and the problems above). So why not learn how to use them? Four cars stop at a roundabout in West Perth, one on each entrance to the roundabout. Nobody moves - except me behind one of the idiots and I am leaping about in my car, tearing my hair out and yelling "It is not that difficult!".

## The more advanced Perth driver who has learnt how to enter roundabouts and is good enough to actually use their indicators, but get it wrong and indicate right when they are going straight ahead!! When going straight ahead, you are supposed to enter the roundabout with no indication, then indicate left as you pass the exit before the one you are going to take. You only indicate right when, unbelievable as it seems, you are actually turning right!!

And while we are on the subject, the F#CKING road designers need shooting, castrating and made to sit in the passenger seat of one of the idiots described above who doesn't understand the stupid road arrangements they have laid out!

$$ Traffic lights that take 2 minutes to go through their cycle, giving every possible manoeuvre a go. You do not have to have lights controlling right turns when there is never any bloody traffic - for example, Oceanic Drive and Westcoast Highway. There are never more than half a dozen cars going either way on Oceanic Drive - so why have the delay of right turn signals?? On WCH, it's fine, but on Oceanic it is stupid.

$$ What is the obsession with narrowing perfectly good roads and putting all these twiddly bits along the side, sticking out into the road and asking to be driven over??!! Try driving down Nicholson Road in Subiaco at night. You can barely see these things - and there have clearly been lots of people who have hit these big kerbs, because of all of the black tyre marks on them. If you happen to hit one and destroy your wheel or suspension, take photographs and sue the council!!

$$ Also, what is the obsession with putting all these twiddly islands in the middle of previously perfectly good roads. Then stick a tree in the middle of it, with red and white steel barriers at ninety degree to the traffic. So if your wheel survives hitting the kerb, the barriers and the tree will stuff your bodywork! Don't these people realise that a wide road is a safe road? Narrowing a road and peppering it with obstacles just causes problems. Try driving down Grantham Street in Floreat and every stupid island has black tyre marks on the kerbs. If you are a pedestrian, don't think you are safe on one of these islands. I have seen a car hit the kerb of one of these with a big impact, the driver clearly lost hold of the steering wheel, and the vehicle drove right over the island and nearly into the oncoming traffic.

$$ Why place a lamppost right on the outside of a bend or junction? Anyone getting it wrong, even slightly, is bound to hit it and have a big crash, instead of just a minor one. Road designers in Europe were writing about this issue and safer road design over fifteen years ago! So how come Roads WA is not aware of this?

$$ What is wrong with Subiaco Council? Are they trying to stop cars driving through there at all? Hay Street and Roberts Road are major commuter routes, yet Fortress Subiaco is doing its bets to impede through flow of traffic! Why? The same is happening in Wembley on Cambridge Street! What are these councils up to???

Sorry about the rant and the length of this, but there you go. I would be interested in anyone else's examples or views.

Cheers?

[JH32]

Haha well written ... and totally agree

[ossie_21]

Motorsports pride themselves on safety in the event of a crash, they keeper barriers to a minimum & don't have light poles less than a metre from the side of the track like most streets in Perth.

The islands you are talking about are actually put in to lower speeds on residential streets, however too many of them are wwwwaaaaayyyyy too small. I wasn't in my Skyline but I was driving down a street near leederville one day, there were every 25m apart (you really don't need that many), and I hit 2 of them, they were that small. I'm never going down there again, I tell you that.

Agree with all of what you said.

[J_R32]

nicely said..amen to all of the above...

[AlphA]

I feel your pain.

[GTS-t VSPEC]

I'm glad you wrote it, it reflect what alot of us feel

[bnr#@]

Everything said there is spot on. How freakin hard can it be to negotiate a roundabaut. (If you ever want to see how not to do it come to the roundabout before murdoch chase and watch for a while)

[mitchy_]

##  Roundabouts are your friend - they help traffic flow and avoid more traffic lights (and the problems above).  So why not learn how to use them?  Four cars stop at a roundabout in West Perth, one on each entrance to the roundabout.  Nobody moves - except me behind one of the idiots and I am leaping about in my car, tearing my hair out and yelling "It is not that difficult!".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

or you have the ones where 4 people enter at once, or people think you dont have to stop, or atleast slow down, at a round-a-bout regardless of traffic at other entrances..

[StuiE]

## You're the fifth car from the lights and the lights change - it takes 30 seconds before the guy in front of you is rolling!!!  (In London, if you are more than a nanosecond taking off, even ten cars back, you get horns from the guy behind.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Damn straight, when the light goes green, go!

##  The more advanced Perth driver who has learnt how to enter roundabouts and is good enough to actually use their indicators, but get it wrong and indicate right when they are going straight ahead!!  When going straight ahead, you are supposed to enter the roundabout with no indication, then indicate left as you pass the exit before the one you are going to take.  You only indicate right when, unbelievable as it seems, you are actually turning right!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My mum does this, she hasn't got a clue. I've told her tons of times that if going straight you only indicate left when going out. even when I was on my L's she would tell me that I'm meant to indicate when coming into a roundabout when going straight, grrrr, it pisses me off!

and she's just one of the tousands of cluless drivers on WA's roads...

agree with everything else you say too

speed limits need to be raised on a lot of roads too IMO..though they are probably so low in the first place because we have such shithouse drivers...

[PHATR32]

f#ck man!!! you wrote about everything i go though everyday!!!!

i thought i was the only one who even though about this stuff while driving!!

f#ck perth drivers and f#ck the people who design those roads!!!!!

yes, ive had a bad drive day!

steve

Edited August 22, 2005 by PHATR32

[R33_Cam]

im surprised no one has mentioned this one!!!!!!!

when your at a set of lights that doesnt have a seperate lane for turning right and no turning arrow, and upon pulling up behind a person sitting there in the right lane to go straight, then when the lights go green they stick their indicator on to turn right, aaarrrrgggghhhh, this really sh*ts me, your supposed to indicate BEFORE, not when the lights go green so the person behind you has no choice but to sit there and wait for you to turn, usually resulting in having to wait for the next light sequence........

[thrtytwo]

I only got my Ps today so i guess a lot of people would automatically say im inexperienced and shit. well thats true, partially. I may be inexperienced but i like to at least think i can flow in traffic like any other driver. I do not however think i am a race car driver and go round round-abouts at 80kmph. And from my POV there are soo many poor drivers in perth.

-people who cant make up theyre minds what speed they want to go so are one minute speeding and the next slamming on theyre breaks

- ppl who go 10 below the given limit

-people who are soo nice they decide that they will let other people onto the roundabout before them even if they have right of way

- idiots who wont let you change lanes when your coming up to being stuck behind a bus. Instead of letting you in they fu$%ng speed up, assh*(es..

The list go's on. And as for the roads, theyre bad enough as they are but at least theyre doing something about it. Id say about 50% of perth is under road construction right now. which is curently a hassle but will be a positive in the end. basically i agree with you

[ANIM8R]

I hate when people cant keep a consistant speed, when the road dips and raises, you need to adjust the amount of pedal to maintain a constant speed. Apparently this is too hard for many Perth drivers, and we have to go 40 up hills in a 60 zone, then go 70 downhills.

Since owning a Skyline, I've noticed many drivers try to pace you, they match your speed no matter what it is, and block you from changing lanes.. maybe this isnt accosiated with skylines, I'm not sure, so damn annoying. I've learned to just indicated and start moving acorss, usually followed by the pacer braking violently and a fist out the window. Supposed to give room if you are behind and someone is chaning lanes *groans*

oh one more. Not so common but probably one of the worse things to go through, is when the car infront is not actualy close enough to the induction plates in the road, to trigger the light change, and the moron is sitting there for 10 minutes, before you have to get out, and tell them to move up to trigger the lights. urg!! happend only once, the driver was a senior citizen driving a excel :S

[tigeryas]

also have another one (including agreeing with all of the above)

- idiots who wait behind the line while turning right at a traffic light where the green arrow has gone off (give way, kinda thing), instead of going forward in front of the line and waiting there instead. so when it goes yellow he just sits there and waits for the next green arrow. >8(

- those that brake real sudden when approaching an intersection making those on the intersecting road (often me) look like they're gonna speed across.

tigeryas.endrant();

[caminperth]

Completely agreed.

Attitude is the main cause in most of the driving frustrations we see around. Unfortunately in my experience the bad attitudes come from those who should be setting the example - the older drivers.

[Steve]

I agree completely, I have learned to get around the frustration of delays by just allowing extra time whenever I want to go somewhere - and I expect the worst from other drivers.

As you say, anticipation, I anticipate poor drivers , plus I know I can fark up on the roads occasionally, not paying 100% attention, being distracted by 'scenery', nagging kids/wife, thinking about what I need to do when I get somewhere, etc. I try not to do it, but it does happen (hey, I'm human )

Its funny though, my wife is a really bad 'back seat road rager' she just goes off at everyone when I am driving, pretty funny if I didnt have to listen to it. Even funnier, I reckon she is a worse driver than most of the people she goes off at

[MLCrisis]

when your at a set of lights that doesnt have a seperate lane for turning right and no turning arrow, and upon pulling up behind a person sitting there in the right lane to go straight, then when the lights go green they stick their indicator on to turn right, aaarrrrgggghhhh, this really sh*ts me, your supposed to indicate BEFORE, not when the lights go green so the person behind you has no choice but to sit there and wait for you to turn, usually resulting in having to wait for the next light sequence........

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah haha! I had forgotten about that one. That REALLY gets me! At least in the Summer, I will have my window open and so will they (YES!). So a few well chosen words about indicating before the lights change a) help to inform the idiot who would otherwise be blissfully unaware of their incompetence, B) perform a public service by informing said idiot of their area of their aforementioned incompetence, c) attract other road users and passers-by to their demonstration of incompetence thereby creating an impromptu public education session and d) make me feel much, much better!

Always polite though - people are always disarmed by politeness and don't know how to respond. Loud, yes! But always polite!

Good comments, guys. And the filtering on the freeway (or lack thereof), the tosser who matches speed and boxes you in - all good examples. At times, I wish I was driving a big, old Landcruiser with a massive rusty bullbar and big side steps. Then a little encouragement to the drivers around me would not hurt at all!!

(But that is just fantasy - don't try this at home!!!)

Oh oh - and another one! The people who, in traffic in the city, drive into a junction when their exit is blocked. Then the lights change and they sit there blocking the traffic on the other street - St. George's Terrace and Milligan Street is a classis for this one! I am just amazed at the way they stare straight ahead and refuse to look sideways. If they just acknowledged their mistake and waved "Sorry", it would at least redeem them to some extent. It is even better when they are there when the pedestrians get their go and they all stream all around the car, making all sorts of loud comments. Great stuff!

Cheers.

[MLCrisis]

As you say, anticipation, I anticipate poor drivers , plus I know I can fark up on the roads occasionally, not paying 100% attention, being distracted by 'scenery', nagging kids/wife, thinking about what I need to do when I get somewhere, etc.  I try not to do it, but it does happen (hey, I'm human )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, agreed. I, too, am a mere mortal and make stuff ups on occasions. They are mercifully few and far between and have never been of any consequence. But I do try and acknowledge them and give a "Sorry" to those I have affected. (Like the cyclist who burst out of the shadows this morning and nearly became my new bonnet decoration! Oops! First one for a long time, but I was clearly inviting it with this thread!!!!)

Mind you, I quite often see this girl cycling in the morning who clearly believes in lycra. Hard not to be distracted!!

Cheers.

[Hill Billy]

Perth drivers can't merge.

It's kind of like the roundabouts. They end up slowing down the traffic flow cos they cant figure out if they should go in front of or behind the car in the other lane.

[Josh]

I feel Joondalup is quite crap too..