HWY/Freeway etiquette.

[vanman_75]

Originally Posted by Copie

If your travelling at 100kmh, and have a distance of around 100-150m (what most people should give space wise for safety etc) that gives you 4-6 seconds of reaction time, now most peoples reaction times from seeing the obstacle (say the roo) to doing something about it is generally 0.5-1.0 seconds, leaves you at least 3 seconds to swerve, brake etc out of the way.

good spotties ,brakes and a good bar are your friends ...i will tell you now and try to make it stick ,.......do not swerve to miss any animal ... you can thank me when it saves ya .

forget reaction times most including myself do not have any reaction time for a roo sticking its head up and launching at you ,and following other vehicles is just stupid as any blocker ,for the same startling reason .

so though this reply is off the main topic a little, it does show how people can get things so wrong on the highway .

but then even though i have never had an accident when i get in the city it amazes me why all the rush and dangerous maneuvers i see ,i give myself distance between cars - people fill em .i speed everywhere where i live but not in congestion ,flow and courtesy are the key and patience ...you may just live if you can change your attitude . be safe and just think about what the other guy on the road may be doing .... norm is right but then again it isnt hard to start a topic on ...people prove that every day with the deaths on our roads ..

they are not accidents you made them happen .

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by GTpilot

MERGING.
Well here are the facts (well for Vic anyway), however as with everything, there is also and element of commonsense mixed with some common courtesy that should also be applied.

FROM: http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/...eways.htm#rule + A few other things.

Entering a freeway
When entering a freeway, you are effectively changing lanes (across the dotted white line) and you must give way to vehicles already travelling on the freeway.

There are traffic lights at some freeway entrances to control the flow of vehicles onto the freeway when the traffic is heavy. When operating, the lights will change quickly, so that when the light is green only one vehicle in each lane will be able to enter the freeway.


Keeping left
When driving on any multi-lane road with a speed limit over 80km/h, you must keep out of the right lane unless you are overtaking, turning right, or if all lanes are congested. If there is a transit lane, this rule also applies to lane immediately to the left of the transit lane.

Stopping
You must not stop on a freeway except in an emergency and only in the emergency lane. Buses and taxis can sometimes use the emergency stopping lane when signs allow it.

Transit lanes
During times specified on the signs, transit lanes are for buses, taxis, motorcycles, trams and vehicles carrying two or more people (T2 sign), or three or more people (T3 sign). You may drive in a transit lane for up to 100 metres if it is necessary to make a turn.

Rule references
Road Safety Road Rules 2009


130 Keeping to the left on a multi-lane road
148 Giving way when moving from one marked lane or line of traffic to another marked lane or line of traffic
177 Stopping on a freeway
178 Stopping in an emergency stopping lane

Thanx GTpilot, I was going to quote the rules too, as it seems to me that there a few people on this forum that need to learn what the current rules are (not stating that I am any expert by any stretch of the imagination). I would, however, add one more excerpt from the rules to clarify things:

149 Giving way when lines of traffic merge into a
single line of traffic
A driver in a line of traffic that is merging with one or more
lines of traffic travelling in the same direction as the driver
must give way to a vehicle in another line of traffic if any
part of the vehicle is ahead of the driver’s vehicle.
Offence provision.
Note 1 Driver’s vehicle is defined in the dictionary.
Note 2 For this rule, give way means the driver must slow down and, if
necessary, stop to avoid a collision — see the definition in the
dictionary.

But most of the entrance lanes I've seen on freeways have the marked lines, so this rule wouldn't apply in that circumstance.

However, IMHO, this difference in ruling just creates doubt as to whom shoudl give way or not, purely dependant upon whether the lending lane is marked or not.

As for people not keeping left, this is my absolute pet hate when driving on the freeways in Melbourne. No one seems to take any notice of it, even when the occasional 'Keep Left Unless Overtaking' sign appears. This mentality then follows out onto the country freeways. Last Easter I was returning from Bendigo along the Calder freeway (so road was busy) and came across a car travelling in the right hand lane around Woodend area. Given he (looked like) he was passing the car in the left, I pulled into the right hand lane behind him and disengaged the cruise control (from the approx 113km/h indicated speed) to give him the time to get the pass done. Well blow me down, he wasn't actually passing the car. I ended up sitting behind this walburger for at least 2km while he sat next to the car in the left hand lane before I slowly started to creep up on him (to try and suggest to him that he would like to either speed up and move into the left hand lane, or slow down and pull in behind the car he was next to). By this stage I had at least another 5 cars queued up behind me!!! But he took no notice of me getting closer to him, so then I started waving at him to move across. This didn't work either, so I felt I had no other option than to flash my lights at him to get his attention. In no way was I overly aggressive in this, I was simply trying to get his attention so that he would move over (as he was legally required to do) and let those going faster than him to pass. Anyway, he eventually got the message, pulled ahead of the car in the left lane and then, when clear, pulled into the left lane. Well, you should have seen what this walburger did; he started waving his fist at me with a frown on his face, as if I was the one in the wrong...!!!! I estimate I eventually sat behind this guy for at least 5km...!!!

All I could put it down to was that he hadn't driven in the country too much and that the style of driving on the city freeway was what he had become accustom too. either that or he just wasn't thinking. Either way, he shouldn't be allowed to drive on those roads if he drives like that.

Oh, and I think there should be a lot more ‘Keep Left Unless Overtaking’ signs on the freeways to remind people of their responsibilities.

Craig H

[Bushbasher]

Originally Posted by Copie

If your travelling at 100kmh, and have a distance of around 100-150m (what most people should give space wise for safety etc) that gives you 4-6 seconds of reaction time, now most peoples reaction times from seeing the obstacle (say the roo) to doing something about it is generally 0.5-1.0 seconds, leaves you at least 3 seconds to swerve, brake etc out of the way.

Obviously you don't do alot of night driving on country roads. Weather you're at 100 or 150m or even 200m, you're still only as safe as far as you can see with your low beam cos you're following someone. Most low beams, if adjusted properly, will only illuminate to about 75-90m at best and many much less so that's you're starting point.(if they're not, they're dazzling the guy in front and he'll either drive away from you or slow down till you go by) At 90m you've got just over 3 secs, less your perfect reaction time is now 2 secs. Now the 2 second rule comes into play so what are you going to do?, stand on the brakes and probably hit the roo?; stand on the brakes and swerve and hope you don't wind up in the trees,ditch, bank or safety rail? Or how about into the path of an oncoming vehicle cos you are going into a blind bend and can't see the headlights coming cos of the car in front or the said trees, banks, safety rails. All this assuming you are alert and on the ball and haven't been driving for an hour or two and are just getting a bit fuzzy round the edges at which point you can double or triple your reaction time by which time it's too late to do anything, say hello to skippy. This is for a car of coarse. If you want to sit behind a truck, well, that's different but then you run the risk of suddenly having a mangled roo appearing out from under the truck cos he's not even flinching and just runs right through/over them. Easier to dodge I imagine but potentially as, if not more dangerous to you if you're not on the ball. If you hit a big one it might just tip you over or go under your car and destroy your drive train or part there of, not to mention the mess and smell, lol.

No, you need to be out on your own in front or far enough back that you can use your high beam (and spotties if you're a regular night driver). If someone goes by me at night I'll ease up till they are far enough away that I can get back up to speed and use my lights. But that's just me and my opinion.

Bushbasher

[braddyxe51]

When ya got someone that has never driven on country road and you tell them not to swerve for roos make sure ya say not the died one you can swerve around them if safe.
My mum is bad for tailing I tell her too. I say there is another lane there go around them or get in other lane. She never did it before getting new new car.
I know when I go down SW West Aust I go a bit slower than what the local would like, but I dont know the roads as well and the condition of roads down there are not the best and I dont want to part of a HUGE karri tree like so many one people down there. hitting a tree at 110 that is wider than the car dosent leave much chance of surviving.

Good point about car speeding up on overtaking lane. The driver is not confident to drive full speed on a small tight windy road but once they see big open space they do, they should also let the car behind pass before speeding up.

Following behind to aviod wildlife dosent work. Mum tried it an emu came running into the side of our car.
Roo can move fast too. was in work truck and in corner of my eye seen roo out passenger window jumping along side us then hit the brakes it hit straight on in front of us. left a perfect dust mark shape of qantas roo of plane tail.

[scoupedy]

you can always tell someone that doesn't use the cruise control- they slow down when going up hill and speed up when going downhill that and the broadrim hat on the parcel shelf

[388cube_edxr8]

I tend to find that the speed of the cars around me is directly proportional to their position relative to me. i.e. if I am doing the speed limit, the cars behind me do the limit plus 10km/h, and the cars in front do the limit minus 10km/h.

Overtaking someone then puts them behind me, so they speed up to go faster than me, and being overtaken causes the overtaking car to slow to less than my speed after they get in front.

Its really starting to give me the sihts.

[Copie]

Originally Posted by Bushbasher

Obviously you don't do alot of night driving on country roads. Weather you're at 100 or 150m or even 200m, you're still only as safe as far as you can see with your low beam cos you're following someone. Most low beams, if adjusted properly, will only illuminate to about 75-90m at best and many much less so that's you're starting point.(if they're not, they're dazzling the guy in front and he'll either drive away from you or slow down till you go by) At 90m you've got just over 3 secs, less your perfect reaction time is now 2 secs. Now the 2 second rule comes into play so what are you going to do?, stand on the brakes and probably hit the roo?; stand on the brakes and swerve and hope you don't wind up in the trees,ditch, bank or safety rail? Or how about into the path of an oncoming vehicle cos you are going into a blind bend and can't see the headlights coming cos of the car in front or the said trees, banks, safety rails. All this assuming you are alert and on the ball and haven't been driving for an hour or two and are just getting a bit fuzzy round the edges at which point you can double or triple your reaction time by which time it's too late to do anything, say hello to skippy. This is for a car of coarse. If you want to sit behind a truck, well, that's different but then you run the risk of suddenly having a mangled roo appearing out from under the truck cos he's not even flinching and just runs right through/over them. Easier to dodge I imagine but potentially as, if not more dangerous to you if you're not on the ball. If you hit a big one it might just tip you over or go under your car and destroy your drive train or part there of, not to mention the mess and smell, lol.

No, you need to be out on your own in front or far enough back that you can use your high beam (and spotties if you're a regular night driver). If someone goes by me at night I'll ease up till they are far enough away that I can get back up to speed and use my lights. But that's just me and my opinion.

Bushbasher

I cover about 2500-4000k's a week on average, with maybe 70% of it travelling at night, i also used to live out west and did many night trips (lived 40km from the nearest town) i used to regularly sit a reasonable distance from the person ahead and we've never ever hit a roo or anything rather from following a car/truck/bus/UFO. Ive hit plenty of them in the truck when noone is in front of me (bar up bullbar ftw) and they just bounce off leaving a nice red streak across the chrome.

Watching the car infront gives you an indication if there is something up ahead, if the car ahead's brake lights come on, you know that something is up.

Besides that you dont tend to see them between 8pm (10pm for summertime) and 3am anyways, they tend to be more active at dusk/dawn.

[burnz]

ppl should know that speed kills.

[XDV800]

Originally Posted by scoupedy

you can always tell someone that doesn't use the cruise control- they slow down when going up hill and speed up when going downhill that and the broadrim hat on the parcel shelf

You can always tell someone that doesn't fully know what exactly is happening on the road around them. Scary.

Perhaps that is cruise control in action?
Some cruise systems are really quite hopeless, especially aftermarket jobbies that aren't calibrated properly.
Also cruise control systems are not able to sense the landscape around the vehicle, they merely monitor the speedo sensor and make adjustments to maintain the set speed, which means that there can be a time of speed fluctuation. Especially when ascending/descending hills.
I have a Petrol Landcruiser at the moment with cruise, and this thing will run out of puff on some decent climbs from 100km/h, the cruise can't provide extra power to overcome this, the pedal is to the metal.
Then the other side of the hill is where the cruise will shoot the vehicle back to the set speed, then set speed is overtaken. Cruise control does not utilise the brakes you know.
Yes there are some european cars now that have sophisticated systems that are better than this but i'd guess 99% of vehicles on the road don't have such features.

[05MkIIFutura]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

Cruise control.

Unlike the other two, people having a variance in their speed isnt really a safety issue. Annoying, yes, but as long as they keep left then its as easy as indicating and passing.

[outback_ute]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

Having spent some time recently commuting distances at 100 and 110kph i can honestly say there are alot of morons on our roads.

Cruise control.. USE IT

Posted limits.... PAY ATENTION

Merging traffic... SYNCHRONISE

To this I would add -

Tailgating....

Look further than the tail lights in front of you....

[left]

Originally Posted by burnz

i tend to drive in the left lane, "it's faster".

Agreed and hence my nick "left" - cos that's where you'll find me 99% of the time while everyone else is in the right doing 10kmh under the limit :

[XR8GRL]

Originally Posted by left

Agreed and hence my nick "left" - cos that's where you'll find me 99% of the time while everyone else is in the right doing 10kmh under the limit :

Because speed kills!

10kmh? I've been dealing with most slowing down to as much as 20kmh under the limit. Left, right and middle lanes.

[elvisidal]

what about people who get "mighty steamed Wally!" at you in carparks because you have to creep over speed bumps at an angle you're so low and stylish ....

[braddyxe51]

Then there is the knob jockeys that drive all over the place to get over a hump and there car is 1/2meter of the ground.

If People are worried that it scrapes everywhere dont lower it. Or at least dont drive where it gonna get stuck.

I think I forgoten what this was about.LOL

[RSgerry]

these are the reasons why speed limits on freeways wont be increased. the roads are excellent and new cars are extremely safe, it is just that most people have no idea and no respect for speed. drive in europe and see what real road manners are.