Why why why….why why…. Why? Oh why? 10 words… Why?
Why Do Slow Drivers Drive in The Right Lane?
bingsta on 23/01/2022 - 12:52
Poll Options
- 326Old fogers on the road with no insight
- 105Vigilantes trying to prevent speeding
- 20Americans have taken over Australia
- 19Australians who can't go to the US due to covid pretending they are in the US
Comments
‘ And don't bother lecturing me by saying I'm putting other lives at risk.’
Sayings it’s not risky doesn’t make it less risky.
Just FYI
This takes ozbargainer entitlement to a whole new level.
Claiming that it is within your rights to speed, increasing your stopping distance, thereby putting everyone on or near the roads, including yourself, at greater risk because you have poor time management is appalling. This sounds like anti-vax rhetoric: "my right to a facebook medical degree is greater than your grandma's right to live".
- Never claimed it's within my right to speed. I claimed it's my choice. Big difference
- 120kph in a 110kph zone is only going to increase my stopping distance marginally if I had to do an emergency brake stop
- I don't have poor time management skills. But I always welcome more time
- There are nobody "near" the roads on a motorway/freeway except for other cars on the road
- Unless you're living under a rock or choose to be ignorant, 50% of drivers travelling on motorways are going faster than the posted 110kph. Not excessively, but enough to warrant overtaking someone else sitting at 110. Its not ozbargainer entitlement. Its reality
50%! amazing stats. would love to see a source on your stats. in return, ill provide you with some stats:
https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/news/2022/01/21/twelve-lives-los…
"Twelve lives have been lost on our roads since January 1, an increase of three on the same period last year.
In more than half of these crashes, it is the driver who did not return to their families."“We don’t know how many more times we can say it – please don’t speed, don’t be distracted, don’t drive tired or have been drinking, and please wear a seatbelt. We don’t just want fewer deaths on our roads – we want the road toll to be zero.”
@belongsinforums: Do you have stats to show how many of those deaths are from motorists travelling 120kph instead of 110kph on a freeway/motorway?
I am against hooning and speeding excessively in busy built up areas, but we are discussing a very specific type of road/speeds in the context of this thread.
@bobolo: Hopefully when someone you know is affected negatively by speeding, you show no animosity towards the speeding driver. Or when someone is breaking another law that affects you negatively, you just shrug it off as their right.
@belongsinforums: Thanks for hoping someone I know is going to be affected negatively by speeding. That makes you infinitely a better human than those being "entitled" to travel 10kph above a speed limit that's clearly too slow for the type of road it was designed for
On major roads, people stay in the right lane (of three lane roads) because the right lane is the new middle lane.
Hear me out.
Heavy vehicles tend to stay in the left lane. And they tend to travel slower than most traffic. On a 110kph road, this is in part because the trucks are "limited" to 100kph, but add in even a small amount of hills and gravity will add to the mix, seeing trucks sometimes travelling at half the posted speed limit.
So alot of people will not even think of travelling in the left lane, because doing so means they either need to travel at the same speed as the heavy vehicles, or they will constantly be changing lanes to overtake the slower trucks.
Instead, people stick in the middle lane. It means they aren't constantly having to change lanes to get around the trucks, so they'll happily potter along in that lane at whatever speed they like.
Now that the middle lane has, for light vehicles, basically become the left lane, we have those people who are either trying to overtake without exceeding the speed limit, or who are only just exceeding the speed limit. They want to pass the people in the middle lane, so they get into the right lane. But it takes them forever to overtake, and/or the middle lane is now so congested because nobody is using the left lane (other than heavy vehicles) so rather than try and squeeze into the middle lane, making the merge which offers the driver the least visibility of all (as your rear left is the furthest corner from the driver), they just stick in the right lane and, basically can't be arsed.
So, our problem here is that, with so many heavy vehicles travelling on our less-than-flat roads, any carriageway with 3 lanes only practically has 2 lanes (and maybe not even that if there are plenty of hills and trucks with different speeds/loads/power). Plus, of course, people are lazy.
Open up the major roadways to four lanes, flatten hills as much as possible, and you'd have a much better driving experience and traffic flow.
You lost me at ‘ Heavy vehicles tend to stay in the left lane.’
In Sydney trucks stick to the middle lane and speed as much as possible.
Explore outside of Sydney, maybe?
Maybe once they flatten the hills… lol
Personally, I have no issues with any one driving on the right lane when they are travelling at the speed limit and there are no "keep left unless overtaking" signage. It's only when people driving on the right lane way under the speed limit that I have a problem with.
We went to the Blue Mountains yesterday and I got caught behind a Sports SUV on the right lane travelling at 70kmph with a 80kmph limit. I couldn't change lane to the left to overtake as the cars on it were travelling at the same slow speed. I waited a while before honking but it wasn't speeding up so I honked again. The guy must have been annoyed by my honking so he slowed down to 65kmph for a minute until the left lane because clear and I overtook it along with another car behind me. As soon as we overtook it, it sped up to 80kmph for the next 5 minutes tailing behind us before slowing down to 70kmph again.
Unfortunately you having "no issues" goes against the road rules IF travelling more than 80km/h. In that case the rules are crystal clear. Keep left unless you are overtaking.
But your example is about 80km/h so I'm hoping on 90+km/h roads, you do, indeed only use the right lane to overtake.
In your case (<=80km/h), sadly, staying left is only a courtesy left over from decades ago. I do it naturally as that's when I was taught to drive, but as there is now no legal requirement to do so, and Australia is not known for having courteous drivers, it rarely happens. Shame as I believe at the lower speeds it would also aid in traffic flow and certainly cause less frustration.
All the best.
My suspicion is that people are simply oblivious to their surroundings and just motor on like they're the only ones out and about or there are people who simply dont care and along as they aren't breaking a road rule (speed limit) they can be as discourteous as they like.
One of the great joys in motorcycling is being able to easily get around all this behaviour
"My suspicion is that people are simply oblivious to their surroundings and just motor on like they're the only ones out and about"
Exactly why my wife would divorce me if I got a motorcycle. She's not worried about anything I'd do but too many drivers are oblivous to their surroundings as you say and would easily perform a lane change without checking their blind spot for a Ducati.
I do question my reasons for riding sometimes but I am overly cautious rider but still doesnt stop people trying to kill you.
Just last week I nearly got hit by a red light runner because I blindly went through on the green light. I caught up with him at the next lights and asked him if he saw me. Not only he didn't see me, he didn't even see the red light. I just shook my head and left, what do you do…
A lot of Australian drivers on the whole are too inexperienced/inattentive/stupid to trust them if you're a Motorcyclist. Every time I entertain the notion of buying myself a Ducati- my dream bike, I just need to jump in my car and go for a drive to be put off again.
Agreed I used to ride 10 years ago and back then it was getting bad. Now it’s even worse!!!
Half the problem is the instructors don’t teach them how to behave on the road and the instructors probably don’t know themselves.
The other elephant in the room is immigration- and I know it sounds like a terrible thing to say but when you have varying standards of driving and different roads (i.e. no roundabouts), we're asking for trouble.
If our governments aren't acting like a catchment and forcing people to undergo a test or lessons here, then what chance do they have of adapting?
You know we're in trouble when people stop on a merge point entering a freeway because they don't know what to do.
@Buckshot: Training and licensing requirements should be tighter up for everyone. However, you've got to manage the expense of getting the license. Even a motorcycle licence is crazy expensive these days.
@Brick Tamland: Licensing isn't expensive enough in my opinion. It's more expensive in places like Germany and they're onto something IMO. It's a privilege to drive, not a right.
When I was 16 going for my P's Plates, I failed four times. The tester made sure I knew the rules back the front. So- either the training standards have dropped and they're not being policed strongly enough or there's a bunch of people slipping through the cracks. We probably also need mandatory driver knowledge refresh tests every couple of years or something.
These days, the stuff I would have been failed on seems to be the norm on the roads. No indication when using a roundabout or changing lanes. Not keeping left, Headlights not on in poor conditions, changing lanes in the middle of an intersection across continuous lines. Simple stuff.
Thats the trick to riding. Dont trust anyone. I ride like I expect to be cut off, when it happens I am not sutprised but ready for it.
Maybe I’m planning to turn right soon.
Maybe it’s a 40 Kph zone for roadworks or emergency vehicle flashing lights and I don’t wanna jeopardise the safety of people whose workplace is “the road”.And I find if I pull over to the left lane to let an impatient driver pass me, other drivers in the right hand lane won’t let me back in to traffic flow if I come up to an obstruction ie bus or parked car.
Very agiest poll.
Can we start one with various nationalities also?
You drive in sydney? so will you go all to horn you car hardest because of this?
Top 3 demographic of slow drivers from my observations (10 years of driving in Inner West/West/Northern Sydney):
- Asian women (women in general as well) usually in something like a Honda Jazz
- Indian drivers that drive 20+ year old Camrys/Corollas/Lancers.
- Oldies aged 65+ both men and women.
Honourable mention: Soccer mums in SUVs especially Porsche Cayennes.
Top 3 demographic of fast drivers:
- Ford Ranger drivers (white/middle eastern men)
- Merc AMG/Audi RS/BMW M (driven by middle eastern men with drug money)
- Toyota Hilux drivers (white/middle eastern men)
Honourable mention: white men up to age 65 in general
Conclusion: people are built different due to things like physical factors like gender/age or cultural related factors like race/background.
Bet I rustled some jimmies, it is what it is.
Don’t you love it when you speak the truth and gutless people neg you but they have nothing to contradict your comment?
I'm not refuting what this guy is saying but its generally considered rude here or anywhere to point out behaviours of certain groups for just about any reason but in this case, its obviously meant to be derogatory.
I personally do not see people of any colour driving prestige vehicles that fast except for maybe the occasional squirt out of corners… ie. people are used to AMG A45s with their 7 spd dsgs banging thru the gears out of corners like as if its the DTM races.
Its just people enjoying their cars.
Yeah good point the first half of the post was accurate but the demographic of fast drivers was off. I was only referring to the slow drivers part as that is what this post is about.
Perhaps.
Or, what you observe is clouded by your preconceptions.
What I observe is what I observe lol.
I'm asian so there's no inherent reason why I would have prejudice against my own race. Asian culture is generally conservative compared to Western culture and it's reflected in driving habits.
Asian people in general would do anything to avoid getting into an accident or get caught speeding.
Women drive slower than men because:
1. they have lower testosterone
2. they have inferior spatial processing ability (i.e. judging distance of objects)Oldies drive slower because:
1. they have lower testosterone
2. they have inferior spatial processing ability (i.e. judging distance of objects)
I think one of the reason could be differences in reporting speed accuracy by different car manufactures. I can imagine it gets even worse when you add mix of old vs new cars and are driving on motorways at high speeds. I ain't no expert in this field but if you google about speed accuracy, there's an interesting article about this on autoexpert.com.au
well this all depends on who's driving hahahaha
I sometimes feel unsafe driving in the left lane because of random cars parked in that lane. It blows my mind how is that even allowed, it is definitely not safe.
True but if you were a good driver you’d see them easily and just change lanes. Half of the issues on the road are drivers aren’t even confident to change lanes.
lol i do when i see them, there are such situations just after a turn and it only takes one of such rare cases for an accident
I think many drivers are simply inattentive to their driving.
They move to the right lane to overtake and lack the attention to move back.
(Inattentive drivers are everywhere; just look at the entry to north connex going south from Newcastle on the M1. The number of late lane changes despite more than adequate sign posting and lane markings is ridiculous).
Yes that is exactly it, we’ll put.
I rode motorcycles when I was younger so I’m always looking everywhere but no one does that unfortunately.
Do Impatient drivers in right lane slow to allow everyone “blocked” by bus or parked cars in left lane to re- enter traffic flow?
Haha impatient drivers 🤦🏽♂️ I let them in if they know how to drive and indicate then move over whenever there is a gap. The ones that don’t are too nervous to change lanes so they shouldn’t be on the road if that’s the case. Keep learning until you’re confident to drive on the busy roads across Australia in metro areas of course.
Posted speed sign is a “limit” not an optimal cruise speed.
In heavy fog with reduced visibility and torrential rain flowing across the road I see many cars exceed posted speed limits.for people saying they are 'scared' or feel unsafe with cars parked in the left lane in a two lane road i wonder what the hell this is??
i would have never guessed people would have this phobia
i mean this is a normal thing in syd.
it shoulnt be anything, not even a minor annoyance
everywhere you go in syd its like this, sometimes its clear during a clearway… if its next to a sports field then it fills up during the weekends
its basically nothing, so i dont get how standards are so low that people think this is a huge imposition on their day
this generation i guess, what this generation is
Agreed they shouldn’t be driving if they’re scared or nervous etc. I get traffic on the road across Australia has increased since COVID but that’s no excuse for staying in the fast lane.
I don’t think it’s the current generation it is the older generation and people that didn’t grow up driving here that don’t understand. I’m one of those drivers that look in as I passed them on the left and shake my head when I see who it is 😂
So a two lane road with parked cars or bus stops each hundred or so meters, you want “slower” drivers to move to this 100 m or so of “free” left lane, then prop behind parked car or bus so a “fast” driver can slow to allow blocked driver to re enter traffic flow.
Because I find faster drivers speed up and tail gate each other in a conga line - not even possible to safely diverge from left lane back into moving traffic in “faster” right hand lane
@[Deactivated]: I have driven many KMs on autobahns and they are no different from the upgraded dual carriage of the major interstate roads of Australia. What is very different in Germany is the way people keep to the outside lane when not overtaking and trucks always basically stay in the outer lanes.
It's better training and etiquette not roads