It is a privilege to drive on public roads, not a right.
Public roads are for safe, cheap transport of people and goods, not racing.
People of widely varying abilities who exceed minimum standards are permitted to use public roads and you are required to share the road with them, showing them every courtesy.
Don’t Tailgate
Leave a 3 second gap between the car in front of you, and another 3 second gap to allow for the 5 cars tailgating you. You can then slow down ‘slowly’ avoiding the 5 cars ramming you from behind, forcing your car into the one in front, ruining everyone’s holiday.
Overtaking lanes
When entering an overtaking lane and you do not intend to overtake the car in front of you, move into the left hand lane and slow down 5-10kph below the speed limit, to allow other cars behind you to safely overtake.
Don’t tailgate the car in front of you, leave a gap for overtaking cars to slot in safely and allow even faster cars to overtake.
Encouraging overtaking cars to exceed the speed limit and cross double yellow lines, is a danger to yourself and visitors to Canberra travelling in the opposite direction.
Dual lane expressways
‘Go with the flow’ and leave a larger gap than usual, even if it is a little slower or faster than the speed limit, set your cruise control accordingly and don’t use it in heavy traffic and hilly terrain.
When overtaking, don’t cut in too quickly causing that person to brake, leave at least 4 car lengths, NEVER slow down to less than that person was travelling before you overtook, it is particularly annoying.
When travelling on cruise control and about to overtake another car, time your manoeuvre so that you do not ‘pinch them off’ forcing them to brake for the slower car in front of them. You may have to actually slow down.
Descending steep hills
Do not ride your brakes constantly when travelling downhill, select a lower gear if your automatic transmission doesn’t do that automatically. This will prevent your brakes failing on the next bend, crashing head on to cars travelling up the hill, and ruining everyone’s holiday.
Ascending steep hills
Take it slowly so you do not overheat your car and block other holiday traffic. Falcons and drivers who do not service their cars, should consider leaving it for the relative cool of the evening.
Indicators
These are to indicate your intention, not confirm your manouver.
Red lights
It is common practice outside Canberra to stop for red lights and to accelerate away quickly on green lights, adjust your driving accordingly.
I hope these simple tips are found useful and help avoid unpleasant news reports about mangled bodies and ruined holidays during the Christmas period. Merry Christmas!
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