Ducati Monster Forum

I'm getting really sick of right-lane hoggers on freeways.

No make the beast with two backsing consideration; have no awareness of what's going around them (or behind them), and they just stay in the right lane even when the inner lanes are clear.

Only satisfaction I can get is when I'm on the bike and I *ahem* ride around their oblivious arses. Worse when I'm stuck behind em in the car.

Are cops supposed to nab drivers for this behaviour?

If the cops arnt selectively and politically choosing the laws out of the Road Safety Act to enforce,

YES THEY PHUGGIN' SHOULD!!!!!! >:(

The other week while heading south up from the Hawkesbury (nice little twisty bits) there was a car in the 'overtaking' lane with no-one to overtake. I patiently waited for him to move over (my ride buddy was not so patient [roll]), but .... nothing. It was not until I held my hand up and pointed to the left that he moved over. The whole time he was sitting at least 10km/h below the posted speed limit.

http://www.1098-forum.com/forums/images/smilies/horse.gif

Symptomatic of our " don't give a make the beast with two backs about anyone else" society. Up here though (Bris) it does seem to be trucks #1 closely followed by drivers of no certain ethnicity,age or gender.   I really don't think our friends in blue  [leo] seem to be interested in doing anything on our roads apart from catching those "dangerous" speeders.
Want polite driving try pom land, and the frogs and Italians might be psycho but they do know what the difference is between the fast and the faster lane.

In the early 90's when I worked at Vic Roads and got sick of getting all the calls from irate motorists regarding their fines they just recieved in the mail!! (Cops arnt stupid, they DONT put their contact details on the fines/correspondence. Its just you've been nicked pay up!! or You wanna go to court...pay up!!)
Aaaanyway, we used to get to look at peoples infringement records and it appeared that after around '89 - '90 or there abouts, the incidence of "Failing to keep left", "Failing to signal", "Failing to give way", "Failing to maintain a safe following distance" and the like fines were becoming as rare as the proverbial rocking horse shit. [roll]
It was becoming very apparent that the vast majority of fines being issued were for speeding with very, very little of the other types getting a guernsey. Easy pinches, lotsa revenue for relatively litlle outlay?? You betcha. :(
 And the resulting degradation of driver attitude and good manners and the resulting lots of poor road user behaviour!!  :o

And they Guvmint and Plods still try to tell us that it aint for revenue!!! Yeah right!! >:(

Dont piss down my back and tell me its raining ???

I think you're being a little hard on the plods... I know plenty of them, and not ONE of them disagrees with anything you've said here: they agree that speed cameras are for revenue raising, pure & simple. And they'd prefer to be doing something else - but they take their orders from above.  >:(

I also have quite a few Cop friends and aquaintances, some still tow the company line (Their description not mine) at least in public!!

And some were in favour of the cameras initially, but have now a different attitude because of what they percieve as "Political Policing" over recent years. And they feel that they are being inhibited in doing what they took an oath to do. [leo]

And quite a few good cops have left the force because of this. :(

i think the easiest, most cost effective to reduce the road toll, and no bullshit here! is to make it law that any truck/bus etc with a rgvm over 4.0T is restricted to the LEFT LANE. this would free up the centre and right lanes no end and would reduce significantly the instance of stupid undertaking caused by a build up of frustration. i could see it being easy to enforce as well, there's already safeTcameras on most arterial roads, that record truck activity, just mail em a ticket if that rego number comes up as over the weight limit and they're snapped out of the left lane.
the coppers should enforce it heavily and at the same time make undertaking illegal.
this system works very well throughout europe where people drive faster on more congested roads and per capita have much lower accident statistics than we do!


paul.

See now, I was just going to just read this and say yep, I agree with what you are saying, until I read loony's post.




You dont drive a truck do you Paul?

If you have a look at some of the arterial roads around Sydney, and I'm not talking about multi laned freeways, you will notice that there is quite a bit of street furniture about, you know, telegraph poles, large street signs etc...
Well what happens is, when a large truck, say a taughtliner for example, gets caught in the left lane in one of the narrow multi laned roads, the top of the truck is further to the left than the bottom, ie; its wheels, so the street furniture that I mentioned actually hits the top of the truck and either damages the truck or damages the signs or both.
I dont disagree entirely with what you are saying, but I thought that bit about the trucks was a bit silly.







                                                Mmick

Yeah, I've seen what happens when a truck tries to negotiate a tight left hander...down goes traffic light. [laugh]

But, it does piss me off when you have two trucks besdie each other on a freeway, one doing about 5 km/h more than the other trying to overtake.  [roll] [roll] [roll]

actually i do mick, i have a HR rigid and drive a 15 tonne redmond gary elevated work platform around. it's an isuzu, and bloody slow, so i'm fully aware of the laziness involved in truckies who don't want to lose momentum. i'll also add here that if you are unaware of the dimension of the vehicle you're driving and can't keep it within your lane and not smash mirrors on overhanging trees or roadside signage, you shouldn't have a truck license!
obviously where overhanging structures will foul a load or trailer on congested inner suburban roads, like parramatta rd for example, exemptions would apply, they're usually 50 or 60 zones anyway. what i'm talking about mainly is dual carriageways, expressways and freeways.


paul.

Being a regular user of Melbourne's ring road I'm all for trying to keep trucks out of the right lane.  The worst bit of that road that I use is the stretch from the Hume to the Tulla freeway with most of the accidents occuring around the Moonee Ponds creek crossing (locally known as Death Valley).
IMHO most of these accidents could be avoided if the trucks stayed out of the right lane and used a bit of patience instead of the 'don't slow down at any cost' attitude that seems so prevalent.  If this could be achieved it would lessen the sudden speed changes that occur when a truck doing 65kph pulls out into the R/H lane to overtake a truck doing 60. 
It's not just trucks though.  Any vehicle not doing the speed limit on a freeway needs to get into the left lane.  There's nothing worse than everyone on a 3 lane freeway queueing up in the 2 right lanes at 20kph under the limit while the left lane is empty. [bang]

Rant over. :)

OK, I stand corrected.

Well thats the trucks all sorted......


What should we do with the Volvo drivers







                                               Mmick

drive over them with the trucks!! ;D


paul.

No, they've turned into Camry drivers.  >:(

then we have:

p platers, young male idiots in beaten up pieces of crap (Coomodore VL or Jap crap) with extra tachos on the dash for their 'drag' night (and not the good kind with fish nets and high heels)

mums willing to risk everyone else's children whilst speeding to get 'little junior' to school on time - in the 4wd monster truck (they need it for the space!)

and...

the just plain 'spaced' out folk who think that it all happens automatically - you just sit there in the drivers seat and have a good hard think about it - 'it' being the last time they cut their toe nails or used the juice squeezer.

I like this thread! [thumbsup]

Yes I don't agree with those damn coal trucks racing up one of those huge hills heading to Sydney from Wollongong side by side one doing 60 and the other doing 62 in a 100 zone. The truck doing 62 in the right lane runs out of puff then stays side by side with the other truck all the way up the hill. They get to the top and the right lane truck decides he can't pass, backs off then pulls back in behind the other truck. Meanwhile 50 cars have backed up behind them and all the drivers going mad. No gain? >:(

As for inconsiderate drivers, I just don't understand when there is no one on the road except this one driver sits in the right lane. I come alond and sit on their arse for a k or so, I give them a flash with the high beams, they wake up, pull over to the left lane, I go past, they yell abuse for flashing them then they move back over to the right lane again????

Can some one help me out there? Can some one tell me what motorvates these morons to hog the right lane? ???


Rob

  +1 Rob. You are living my life! Mount Ousley out of Wollongong is the best - since they widened parts to three lanes, its really good. The left lane is for the $h!tbox truck that breaks down half way up to block for hours, the centre lane is for truck 1 to do 50km/h and the right lane is for truck 2 to do 50.000001km/h all the way up. Aarrgghhh

I am always amazed at how angry people get when they are caught out doing something they know is not right. If you flash your lights at someone who is dozing in the right lane, then you can expect abuse nine times out of ten. In Europe, the headlight flash is seen as polite. I can remember driving in Germany, and overtaking someone in the left lane (opposite side of the road) at about 160km/h or so, and seeing a flash of lights behind me. I got over again quickly, to see an AMG merc blast past at about 210km/h. All perfectly safe and polite, I thought.

Manners people, it really does not hurt to be polite. ducsport

Thanks for the support Ty.

When I get on the Harley I do a fly by and sometimes think it would be great to hit their side mirror on the way through to give them a bigger scare! [bacon]

Up for Charley on Tuesday???


Rob [moto]

Having been with a German girl for a few years and am currently working for Siemans Australia its interesting to hear how other countries prioritise their road safety. ???
To get your licence in Germany its expensive ($1500 US plus) Skidpan, advanced courses, mechanical practical as well as theory. City, highway and in all road condition. Dont want to do it?? Stiff then, you dont get a licence. You have to earn it, NOT like here. [roll]

And therefore once you have a licence you are regarded as a trained road user and bad performance and attitude is banged hard. Yes they whack speeders but the priority seems to be on bad attitude. Like Tailgating cameras!! Flip the Bone at some one and you get a $200US fine, go cursing at someone and bingo another big fine, same as excessive use of your horn in an agressive manner. Run red lights and you cop a $400US and some time off the road.  :o

The attitude appears to be that you have got your licence and have been trained accordingly, you now have a responsibilty to use your vehicle with a good atttitude, if not?? Well then there are no beg pardons. Some of the Boche that I work with cant understand the fixation that our Authorities have with speed and the shitty, crappy aggressive attitude that our road users have. [roll]

Interesting to see how others do the job!! ;)

That sounds great Dragon, I'm heading over there next year and can't wait - very interested to see and hear how they operate!

ive been saying for years to bring a couse for cage drivers motor bikes have to do a stay upright couse  but cage driver dont  [bang]

Remember, our politicians have paid drivers, so they are quite out of touch with what really causes accidents. I would suspect most "speed" related accidents are a result of frustration caused by someone else going very slow/driving poorly. I know most of my "speeding moments" are as a result of trying to get away from some knob who is just being a really  poor driver. Not indicating, driving way too slow, taking too long to react at lights - not just wants, but repeatedly, swerving form lane to lane, being generally clueless... Or a combination of, or all of the above.

I also REALLY hate people who are CLEARLY lost, driving REALLY slow, trying to figure out where they are. Is it really that hard to just pull over, let everyone else pass, and then get back on with trying to get yourself un-lost?

But anyway, speeding is the cause of all road accidents, so lets fcus on that... [bang] [bang] [bang]

Z..

"Speeding being the cause of all accidents"  is what the Authorities would like you to believe.  :o After all you have to be moving to crash into somethin dont you?? [roll]

Excessive speed is a more accurate term because it basically means that the speed was excessive  for the situation/road conditions at the time and was NOT necessarily breaking the speed limit. They can be 2 entirely different things. But the old "speeding" term gets used without clarification to support more and more camera usage and Police/Government policy. >:(

 And has a proven limited value for the road toll, and a proven excellent value for raising funds. [roll]

Recently I had to give the throttle a spanking to get my arse out of the way of a fool that wasnt paying attention when doing a snap lane change without signalling or looking and it just happened that there were 2 coppers on the freeway at the time in Q cars. One pulled me over and the other took off after the dipshit in the car. My Cop accepted my reason for what I did and was happy that I was safe.  [leo] [thumbsup]

Unfortunately if it had been a "Safety Camera" I would have been pinged and the dickhead would have kept doing stupid shit and maybe caused carnage further down the road.!! >:(

There is no substitute for a bum on a seat patrolling the roads, but of course $ for $ the camera will outperform the human everytime in raking in the Pesos. [bang] And THAT just aint policing!! Its money raising!!

Yes, I'm afraid I've heard this all before................................

Not to diminish what all of you have said, this goes to show that you are being observent, and you are able to get out of a serious situation, unfortunately we have to put up with what we have got for now, and to be honest, I am guilty of most of the things that have been mentioned, but I do try my best, I just wish my fellow road user would do the same.







                                                           Mmick

I'm seeing a new type now - city 4 wheel drivers that have obviously bought the biggest & baddest vehicle they can and then try and drive it like it's a bloom'n Vespa scooter....parking it in bicycle lanes, lane splitting, sitting up someone's @rse thinking they'll be able to move around the turning vehicle in front of them...you bought a light truck - deal with it!

Hah!! The knobs are even attempting these sort of stunts in Ravs and the like!! [roll] Bloody glorified pretend 4WD's. Wankers and dangerous at that!! :(