Driving in Australia
Idiotic Overtaking
OK, I might have to stick my neck out a bit and explore the gender differences in driving here a bit. But what is it with guys and overtaking? Or, to be slightly more specific, why on earth do the driving men in my life (husband, son, father and brothers) feel compelled to overtake anything that’s in front of them if they’re out on the open road? The only male I know who doesn’t is my elderly grandfather… who (a) is quite content to perform complicated mathematical operations involving the numbers on the licence plate of the car in front of him and (b) doesn’t do much open road driving. They always say I’m far too patient when overtaking, but I say that safety is more important, and if I can’t get a nice open stretch of road with plenty of visibility and clear road to pass safely, then I’ll resign myself to being stuck behind that freight truck for as long as necessary. Truckies are usually pretty considerate and if they can see you in the mirrors and a twisty hill’s coming up, they tend to find a shoulder to pull onto while you whip past.
However, I am happy to say, the men in my life are reasonably safe drivers when overtaking (with the exception of one leadfooted brother but that’s another story). I wish I could say the same for other drivers on the road. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there are some real idiots out there. The most moderate of these idiots are the ones who overtake you when you’re doing the speed limit or possibly a shade over… but they still sweep past you and disappear into the wide blue yonder. You shake your head and wonder what they’ll do if a cop on speed patrol is waiting just around the corner.
This happens around town, too, although the likelihood that the overtaker will get picked up by a cop is much higher. Around town, there seems to be two main motives for pointless overtaking. Pointless overtaking around town involves whizzing past another vehicle and then stopping in front of the lights – a slightly risky manoeuvre just to gain a place in the queue at the lights, which will save that driver all of two seconds, if that. Motive number one for pointless overtaking seems to be the “I’m in a hurry” mentality. A hurried driver cannot bear to be held up for the merest fraction of a second. Any driver doing less than the posted speed limit will be overtaken, even if said person is only slowing down to turn into a driveway. However, it’s pretty easy to sympathise with these drivers. We’ve all been late at times and know what it’s like to be slowed by others when every second counts because you’re already late picking up the kids or getting to that appointment.
It’s a bit harder to sympathise with motive number two. Motive number two seems to be pride and badge loyalty. It is best demonstrated by what happened one night back when we had our Ford Falcon. We were quietly minding our own business and cruising along when a car roared past us. We got a glimpse of a Holden badge. The lights turned red in front and we and the Holden driver stopped side by side at the front of the queue. My husband was driving and couldn’t resist switching drive mode to sport and putting the foot down (the traffic was only light, I must add). We got away first but the Holden charged past at the next possible opportunity. The pattern was repeated at the next three lights, a skirmish in the ongoing battle between red circle and blue oval. Eventually, when we got to the motorway, the Holden driver had had enough and absolutely floored it. We laughed and let him go. I dare say similar battles could take place with other makes and models, depending on how passionately you are for or against a particular brand. As long as this overtaking is done safely and legally, it’s harmless fun. It’s a game that one of the Top Gear team dubbed “BMW Leapfrog” – i.e. find a posh, powerful car and overtake it. Wait and see how long it takes for driver of said posh car to overtake you.
However, there is nothing at all safe or harmless about the last sort of overtaking idiot – the sort that doesn’t allow him or herself enough room to pass properly. There is no sort of excuse for this behaviour. To quote the road rules , “Before overtaking another vehicle, you must:
- be sure it is safe to do so
- on a single-lane road, be sure that the road ahead is clear for a sufficient distance
- be sure you have sufficient distance to return to the same lane or line of traffic without endangering the vehicle being overtaken or any vehicle coming from the opposite direction”
Why do people not follow these simple rules? Why do they put other road users at risk? (Yes, I’m thinking about the driver of that grey Toyota last week that decided to overtake a scant 100 metres before a bend in the road… and I was coming in the other direction around said bend and had to slam on the brakes to avoid a nasty head-on. I don’t know who you were but if I did, your name would be MUD! I hope you saw me glaring at you. And why can I never find the horn at moments like this?).
I wish I could say that my near miss with that silver grey Toyota was an isolated incident. Unfortunately, it isn’t. There are jerks who try to overtake two B-trains at once. There are those who start a passing manoeuvre, decide against it at the last minute and slam back into the left side of the road narrowly missing the person they were about to pass. There are those who try to overtake not just the slow vehicle with the caravan but the whole conga line of patient drivers behind the caravan. You see these sorts of things and you just have to wonder: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? WERE THEY THINKING AT ALL?
Safe and happy driving, even to you, driver of the grey Toyota,
Megan
Totally Pointless Driving Habits
Low bridge coming! Duck your head and shrink down in your seat behind the wheel, as this really helps your car fit underneath!
We do some pretty funny things in our cars at times. I’m not just talking about crazy overtaking, attempting to do fifty things while steering or cutting other people off. Nor am I talking about the things we do at traffic lights when we forget that our car is not our own little bubble that makes us invisible. I’m talking about the peculiar habits we have while driving (or being driven) that are completely pointless.
You know the sort of thing I mean. We’ve all done them. Things like turning the radio down when we’re looking at the road signs because if it’s quiet, we can see better. Or if you’re the passenger being driven by someone who likes to put their foot to the floor just a bit too much, you try to stamp on invisible brakes. Why do we do these things? Do we even stop to think about them at all?
Here is a small sample of some more pointless in-car behaviour:
- Ducking your head (whether you’re in the driver’s seat or in the passenger seat) as you approach a tunnel or anything with a clearance warning sign. Because ducking your head will really make the car fit underneath that low bridge, won’t it?
- Talking to your car to encourage it to get going on a cold morning. “Come on, old girl, come one, come on! Get going!” Or when you’re trying to tow a heavy load up a steep hill and are nearly at the top and don’t really want to change down all the way to second gear. “You can do it, come on, nearly there, come on, old girl…” It’s a machine, not a dog or a horse. Even if the car has voice activated this and that, the engine can’t hear you.
- Shifting your centre of gravity depending on what you are trying to do, as if the car was a bicycle. This includes leaning back when going down a hill, leaning forward when trying to go faster, tilting your body from side to side to help it go around a corner, leaning right back when you want the driver to slow down… We do this in spite of how we’ve spent oodles of cash on wheel alignments and ensuring that the suspension is just right, to say nothing of picking a vehicle with stability control. This may be a hangover from when we rode bicycles but still…
- Closing our eyes during a near miss or when we think a crash is inevitable. OK, part of this is instinct kicking in to make sure that our vulnerable eyes are safe. Part of it is an ostrich-like feeling of “I don’t want to look at what’s about to happen,” but it’s utterly insane.
- Sucking our breath in as we negotiate a tight parking space or a manoeuvre in a tight turn. This works fine if we’re on foot and trying to squeeze past the shopping trolley in the checkout aisle so we can finish putting the groceries on the conveyor belt and go to pay. It doesn’t work quite so well when trying to park your big old Land Rover in a narrow gap between two very new Audis .
Of course, some pointless behaviour is encouraged by car manufacturers. Why else do they provide “chicken handles” for the passengers? (I think they’re called “overhead grips” officially, but I’ve never heard this term being used outside an official blurb or description from the makers.) You should be wearing your seatbelt, and your seatbelt is a lot sturdier than those little screws holding the chicken handle to the interior of the car. It doesn’t take much to pull one of those off. In a collision, rollover or similar disaster, hanging onto the chicken handle is not going to do much to protect you. The G-forces involved are going to rip the handle off or dislocate your shoulder before they stop you flying if they’re all you’re relying on. So why are they provided in cars? What is the point of a chicken handle? (Apart from providing a good place to hang up your best suit so it doesn’t get crumpled, that is.)
So, it’s confession time. What pointless things do you do? I’ll admit to stomping on invisible brakes as a passenger, ducking under low bridges and talking to my car (I also talk to other machinery, so I may be slightly insane). What about you?
Safe and happy driving,
Megan
Not Just Winter Driving Tips
I was filling in some time at my local car insurance offices recently (honestly, how long does it take for them to press the button that says I want to pay quarterly rather than annually?) and thumbed through a pamphlet on winter driving tips (on display even though it’s summer right now). Now, it’s always good to be prepared for adverse driving conditions, but it struck me as I read this pamphlet that although a lot of the suggestions were specific to winter (e.g. scraping frost off the windscreen before you start driving – a pretty obvious suggestion, I thought), a good chunk of them were pretty good advice for any time of year and any climate, as follows:
- Check your tyre tread depth. Never mind the fact that this is often a condition for getting roadworthiness certification, it’s also plain old safety. Sure, in winter, you’re more likely to hit wet patches on the road that bad tyre tread could skid over, but we’ve had some pretty wet periods over summer, haven’t we? Water-skiing, as far as I am concerned, is best done behind a boat on a quiet lake or harbour, not on the road. ABS and all the other driver assistance thingummies they put in car brakes these days can only do so much.
- Check your tyre pressure. Tyres that aren’t inflated hard enough will skid more easily on dry roads (they also take longer to stop on wet ones). Too much pressure in your tyres also increases the chances of a skid and reduces grip (as well as making the ride bouncier and the tyres more likely to blow at bad moments). Too many of us, myself included, don’t check our tyre pressures often enough, even though we need to get it right – and it will need to vary depending on whether you’re towing a trailer or not. Excuse me a moment while I nip away from the computer to check the tyre pressure in my Volvo
… - Have an emergency kit in your car in case you’re stuck for ages. Their suggestion was to carry snacks, water and something warm to put on. All those who have to Mum’s (or Dad’s) Taxi probably know about this one already, especially if you have children under the age of 10 and/or a diabetic child (who needs to carry emergency food supplies), or who live in a changeable climate that can produce sudden downpours. Just remember to change the water periodically so it doesn’t give you dysentery. I would also add some form of entertainment, preferably of the printed kind that can be read aloud if necessary. If stuck for ages, you can only read the car manual so many times and manuals are useless for entertaining small children unless you rip the pages out and fold them into darts.
- Check the level of your windscreen wiper fluid. Again, excellent advice, especially if you’ve ever been splattered by effluent from a cattle truck, which can happen at any time of year on a rural road. The pamphlet also suggested carrying extra water to top up the wiper fluid just in case. Don’t forget that plain water can be used as drinking water and to top up the radiator as well as the wiper fluid.
- Carry a cloth for wiping condensation off the windows. This can strike at night or on a cold day in summer if people are sitting in the car with the windows up for ages. The pamphlet recommended a microfibre cloth that cleans the inside of the windscreen at the same time as it removes the condensation, but anything soft and absorbent will do – even your sleeves.
Safe and happy driving, no matter what time of year it is,
Megan
Light It Up For Safety.
I’ve been in and around motorsport for close to fifteen years now; a massive, huge, ginormous part of motorsport is the safety aspect, with engineered in crash absorption, roll cages, harnesses and more. In a retail environment, car salespeople will talk about ABS, energy adsorption, traction control, airbags and the like however true road safety is STILL up to the driver. Only the person behind the wheel presses the accelerator, steers the wheel, presses the brake, uses the indicator and, when it’s dark, turns on the headlights.
Or do they?
Modern cars come with a headlight switch with Off/Auto/Low Beam/High Beam, with the Auto linked to a sensor that reads light levels; so, for example, when going into a tunnel, they should come on by themselves and go off when back in daylight. It does seem that too many drivers leave that switch in the Off position, so, when it’s dark or foggy or raining or all three, they have a car that is unseen to other drivers on the road. Early mid January saw a deluge start in South Australia (going a LONG way to helping the brave fire brigade members) and move east towards and over Sydney. Starting mid afternoon Saturday 10 January and continuing well into Sunday, Sydney and a good proportion of New South Wales were under grey skies, with solid light rain and mist greeting drivers. Disturbingly, a disproportionate number of drivers chose to ignore safety by not using their headlights. Here’s a video from overseas showing just how much easier it is to see vehicles with headlights on during a rain spell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndD0Jtlg0YU
http://www.wikihow.com/Drive-Safely-in-the-Rain offers up some simple, common sense, tips when it comes to driving in the rain, covering not just using headlights but driving to the conditions, having good tyres etc.
Quite simply, a good driver is one that understands that safety is more than simply adhering to a speed limit; common sense, courtesy, an understanding of the ability of yourself AND the vehicle you’re driving, driving appropriately for the conditions and utilising CORRECTLY the equipment your vehicle is fitted with go a long, long way to being a safe driver. Because a speed limit sign says 110 kilometres per hour doesn’t mean you SHOULD drive at that speed if the weather is composed of howling rain, three metres of visibility and an inch of water on the road. A safe driver would drive at a velocity lower than that. They’d also ensure that headlights are lit, windscreen wipers are engaged and the interior demisting system is working.
See here how the silver car blends nicely into the background, whilst the darker coloured car, illuminated, stands out much more clearly.
Using headlights, is it REALLY that hard to do?
Level 2, 9 Help Street